Stephenson recycles cryptic 'Quicksilver'

[R. A. Hettinga]

<http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&expire=&urlID=7729492&fb=Y&partnerID=1663>

USA Today


 

Stephenson recycles cryptic 'Quicksilver' 
By Elizabeth Wiese, USA TODAY 
Quicksilver is the first book in author Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle trilogy and a tangential prequel to his best-selling cult classic Cryptonomicon .

The 927-page novel contains three separate books, numerous plays, a thorough education in the science and history of 17th-century Europe, a short course in cryptography (Stephenson's literary calling card) and more interesting footnotes than found in many academic papers. 

Cyberpunk Stephenson is a man not afraid to follow his interests, wherever they may take him. He began his career writing an action novel, moved into science fiction, then created his own genre with Cryptonomicon in 1999.( Related item: Read an excerpt from Quicksilver )

Cryptonomicon included a fast-paced story of the machinations of Silicon Valley at the height of the boom, a most enjoyable World War II adventure, a treasure hunt and an excellent primer on the science of cryptography, the designing of codes used to scramble messages. 

More about the book 

Quicksilver 
By Neal Stephenson 
William Morrow, 927 pp., $27.95 

Quicksilver picks up the story, if going back 400 years in time can be called following. 

Book One examines the literal beginnings of scientific inquiry in England through the eyes of one Daniel Waterhouse, a fictional contemporary of the historical leading lights of that era. Book Two begins with Jack Shaftoe, a fictional relative of the equally fictional, if more folkloric, Bobby Shaftoe. Book Three covers the exploits of a young woman named Eliza from the curiously nonexistent European island kingdom of Qwghlm, whose adroitness with financial markets brings her to the French court and numerous transnational intrigues. Each character is, if surnames are a clue, a direct ancestor to the main characters in Cryptonomicon .

Along the way, the reader is either enthralled or bored silly by the numerous discursive digressions Stephenson gives to provide background that most readers (in fact, all readers who don't happen to be university professors of the history of science) might require. 

If the story requires a three-page digression to explain how Isaac Newton first began thinking about gravity, then three pages it is. And if two pages on mid-17th-century mining techniques or a description of the beginnings of money markets in Amsterdam is required, so be it, and damn the torpedoes - which I believe were discussed at length in Cryptonomicon .

Stephenson dotes on intricate word puzzles and re-creations of historically accurate literary contrivances. Quicksilver abounds with plays, genealogies and an entertaining series of letters - a popular literary form of the era - that both describes court life at Versailles and provides interested readers with a series of encrypted messages that will no doubt keep them happily busy for hours reverse-engineering them to discover the algorithms used. 

What Quicksilver lacks, sadly, is the momentum of Cryptonomicon . Though the novel is intriguing, there's precious little plot. It's more like real history in that lots of things happen; sometimes they're connected and sometimes they're not, and it's only a century or so later that we emphasize the connections and forget all the miscellaneous stuff in between. 

I doubt Quicksilver will captivate the audience that its predecessor did, but it's still an enjoyable read. And Stephenson, who clearly loves to pass along the fruits of his studies, isn't anywhere near stopping. 

Quicksilver was originally part of Cryptonomicon but it was chopped off when the first book got too long. Now, Quicksilver is volume one of a trilogy called The Baroque Cycle . Volume Two, The Confusion , is scheduled to appear in August 2004 and Volume Three, The System of the World , in October 2004. Don't get in line at your bookstore yet. In 1999, Stephenson said Quicksilver would be out in 2000. 


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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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