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Quicksilver: Volume One of the Baroque Cycle: 1 (P.S.)Quelle: AmazonISBN: 0060593083 11,60 EUR
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In Quicksilver, the first volume of the "Baroque Cycle," Neal Stephenson launches his most ambitious work to date. The novel, divided into three books, opens in 1713 with the ageless Enoch Root seeking Daniel Waterhouse on the campus of what passes for MIT in eighteenth-century Massachusetts. Daniel, Enoch's message conveys, is key to resolving an explosive scientific battle of preeminence between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz over the development of calculus. As Daniel returns to London aboard the Minerva, readers are catapulted back half a century to recall his years at Cambridge with young Isaac. Daniel is a perfect historical witness. Privy to Robert Hooke's early drawings of microscope images and with associates among the English nobility, religious radicals, and the Royal Society, he also befriends Samuel Pepys, risks a cup of coffee, and enjoys a lecture on Belgian waffles and cleavage-—all before the year 1700.In the second book, Stephenson introduces Jack Shaftoe and Eliza. "Half-Cocked" Jack (also know as the "King of the Vagabonds") recovers the English Eliza from a Turkish harem. Fleeing the siege of Vienna, the two journey across Europe driven by Eliza's lust for fame, fortune, and nobility. Gradually, their circle intertwines with that of Daniel in the third book of the novel.
The book courses with Stephenson's scholarship but is rarely bogged down in its historical detail. Stephenson is especially impressive in his ability to represent dialogue over the evolving worldview of seventeenth-century scientists and enliven the most abstruse explanation of theory. Though replete with science, the novel is as much about the complex struggles for political ascendancy and the workings of financial markets. Further, the novel's literary ambitions match its physical size. Stephenson narrates through epistolary chapters, fragments of plays and poems, journal entries, maps, drawings, genealogic tables, and copious contemporary epigrams. But, caught in this richness, the prose is occasionally neglected and wants editing. Further, anticipating a cycle, the book does not provide a satisfying conclusion to its 900 pages. These are minor quibbles, though. Stephenson has matched ambition to execution, and his faithful, durable readers will be both entertained and richly rewarded with a practicum in Baroque science, cypher, culture, and politics. --Patrick O'Kelley
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Kunden Meinungen
Swashbuckling it is
Datum:29.10.2009 - Rating: 5/5There were hints at the plot in the other reviews, so I won't repeat those. The book (or rather, the "cycle") has three main characters: Daniel Waterhouse, the best natural philiosopher of his time if it weren't for Hooke, Newton and Leibniz; Jack Shaftoe, vagabond and follower of the imp of the perverse; and Eliza, an ex-slave, Odalisque and financial genius. Apart from these, there are great historical personalities like Newton, Leibniz, Louis XIV, William of Orange and a host of less prominent people of the time. A bit like the deus ex machina, Enoch Root from the Cryptonomicon appears at important crossroads in the story.
There are two main themes in the whole cycle: The history of science, and money in general and in particular - in a sense, reminiscent of the Cryptonomicon, yet totally different because of the time difference. These themes are presented in a language that is itself baroque and certainly difficult to read for a non-native speaker, but absolutely fabulous at the same time. The books made me smile, laugh out loud, almost cry, nervous from tension, as a good entertaining novel should. It is not a book (or three books) to read for ten minutes every day; to really get into it you need time and endurance but I enjoyed every page of it/them. The best read I had in some time.
For a very different, namely more cultural, view of the same era I can recommend the books by Monaldi & Sorti about the life of Atto Melani, a historical person come spy in these novels. Compare in particular the descriptions of Louis' court in the Baroque Cycle and Secretum.
Das Buch ist nicht langweilig!
Datum:08.12.2005 - Rating: 5/5Vorab sollte ich vielleicht zugeben, ein riesiger Fan von Stephenson und seinen Büchern zu sein - meine Meinung ist auf ger keinen Fall objektiv!
Ich finde Quicksilver - ebenso wie die beiden Nachfolgebände - spannend, lehrreich und vor allem extrem lustig. Man sollte sie auf jeden Fall auf Englisch lesen, damit der gesamte Wortwitz nicht durch die Übersetzung verloren geht.
Und ja, der Baroque Cycle IST verdammt lang! Wenn man nicht aufpasst, im Englischen nicht so sicher ist oder auch einfach mal für ein paar Tage nicht weiter liest, kann man schnell den roten Faden verlieren.
Aber meiner Meinung nach sind diese Bücher die Anstrengung alle mal wert! Die Charaktere - in meinem Fall hauptsächlich Jacks Bruder Bob - wachsen einem beim Lesen - was ja doch eine gewisse Zeit in Anspruch nimt;)- wirklich ans Herz.
Allen, die von der puren Seitenzahl nicht abgeschreckt werden, ist der Cycle nur zu empfehlen!
sosolala
Datum:11.03.2005 - Rating: 2/5Quicksilver ist nie wirklich langweilig aber auch nie wirklich spannend. Die Idee ist gut, der Roman besteht aber primär aus Ausschmückung und wenig plot. Wer über England zu dieser Zeit mehr wissen will, empfehle ich die kürzlich erschienene Flottengeschichte von N.A.M. Rodger. Ist auch ein Wälzer :O)
Wirklich gelungen, wenn die Länge nicht abschreckt
Datum:21.10.2004 - Rating: 5/5Man mag es zwar fuer eine eine kleine Albernheit halten, die Hauptcharaktere des Cryptomicons -Shaftoe, Waterhouse und Enoch Root (der hier Enoch der Rote heisst) ins ausklingende 17. Jahrhundert zu verlegen - aber diese Verlegung ist Rundum gelungen!
Der Zeitpunkt und die Nebenfiguren (u.a Issac Newton, Lous der XIV und Leibnitz) sind wunderbar gewaehlt und alles ist toll recherchiert. Man lernt eine Menge ueber die Zeit und die Charakteristiken der Person und was noch wichtiger - man wird blendend unterhalten. Stephenson spielt dabei nicht nur mit dem Setting sondern zeigt sein ganzes koennen, wenn es um Stilfragen geht - so sind enige Kapitel als Schelmenroman geschrieben, einige in Briefform und einige "normal" - hervorragend!
Zwei Anmerkungen aber: Quicksilver ist lang - aehnlich wie das Cryptonomicon weiss man nicht worauf alles hinauflaufen soll. Das mag nicht jedermans Sache sein. Und: Quicksilver endet zwar, aber es bleibt bei vielen losen Enden. Man muss also auf den naexhsten Band (gerade in Amerika raus) warten. Mit dieser Einschraenkung - Rundum gelungen!
Excellent despite some patchiness
Datum:16.09.2004 - Rating: 5/5Having read Cryptonomicon, I had high hopes for this one, and I was not disappointed. An excellent read, lots of action and proto-science, intrepid characters and derring-do.
All the same, there were some patches where I had to flick through the descriptions of yet another warfield in Europe to get back to the plot. The crude alchemy was a bit overdone. The real star is Enoch Root and more of him would have been good, as long as he does not gain supernatural powers, which would spoil the enchantment of intelligence vanquishing ignorance.
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