Rating: 
Summary: Like being force fed an 18th century 'Where's Waldo?'
Review: This book is not interesting. It is a novel with no plot, no character development, just disorganized narrative about 18th century science and philosophy. If Neal Stephenson can't be bothered to structure his novel so that it has interesting plot and character development, I can't be bothered to finish reading it. If the development of Locke and Newton's ideas are of interest to you, read some philosophy of science.
Rating: 
Summary: This Fan is Extremely Disappointed!
Review: I've read "Cryptonomicon," "Snow Crash," and "The Diamond Age" by Stephenson. All were fun, stimulating reads, with healthy doses of action and ideas, as well as vivid, fascinating portrayals of the present and near-future.Be warned-- NOT SO HERE! I got to page 200 of this verbose tome before giving up. The main reason for this is that the ideas, which are usually the cornerstone in Stephenson's works, are sparse, not fleshed out, and anachronistic. Rather than revelling in cutting-edge near-future ideas like virtual reality, cryptography, and memes, Stephenson is rewinding to hundreds of years ago, when most people's understanding of science was next to nil. That would be okay, but the beginning of the book is primarily concerned with the Royal Society and Isaac Newton's first scientific experiments. In hindsight, the experiments seem deeply retarded, cruel, and almost evil (see the parts where they dismember dogs and try to get a severed head to speak). And there's no insight or analysis of just how horrific these experiments are. Stephenson is the master of "geek chic" and when he lets his imagination free, it roars. Here, we just have the geeks stuck in the ancient times of yore, conducting deeply stupid experiments. Not stupid for their time, of course, and yet I really don't love science enough to spark the slightest flicker of interest in their blind gropings. If you want a gripping, historical read, check out Clavell's Shogun. This book tries to do the same thing, and fails... miserably.
Rating:
Summary: Needs an editor - disappointed
Review: I approached QUICKSILVER with great anticipation - I have enjoyed all of Stephenson's other works and I am a particular fan of historical fiction. What a great mix! Unfortunately I had a very tough time even finishing the book. It cries out for an editor - the book is as bloated as the latest Harry Potter, the characters are poorly drawn and the plot is so complex that it becomes meaningless and impossible to follow. Characters come and go and the dialog is particularly bad. My conclusion is that if you want historical fiction go to an author who specializes in that genera (Patrick O'Brian for example) and go to Stephenson for a visionary masterpiece like DIAMOND AGE.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Emulation of a Bad Style
Review: Stephenson has written a wonderful emulation of the 17th Century "Rogue's Novel", along the lines of Simplicissimus or other early examples of the novels which spawned the later Romanesque. Unfortunately, these novels are plotless, devoid of conflict, and the characters in them have the unfortunate tendency to be ill-developed and passive, simple observers to the events around them rather than active participants in them. As such, Stephenson has written a wonderful Rogue's Novel - unfortunately, these novels died 300 years ago for good reason. They suck. His characters, from the well-educated to the illiterate, the aged male to the child female, the king to the rat-catcher, all speak with the same voice. Many of Stephenson's metaphors are so cludgy they hearken back to The Diamond Age. The characters in the book drift through the events he details without really having an effect upon them - despite the fact that he tries to make them into key players. There is no conflict. The characters drift through such an amazing set of events with a kind of passivity that would make Tom Pynchon blush and Albert Camus worship. I am hopeful the next books in the series will actually have something to bite into, for if this book was no simply "setting the stage", as it were, then Stephenson has taken a mighty plunge since Crypto.
Rating: 
Summary: Was hoping for more.
Review: I'm a European history major and a Neal Stephenson fan, so I was expecting greatness when I bought this, but I have to agree with other reviewers in that this book is somewhat of a dissapointment. It tries to approximate the same narrative flow as Criptonomicon, but is too disjointed and relies too much on informing the reader of what happens after the fact. The irreverent, hilarious qualities that drew me to Mr. Stephenson in the first place do come out in parts of the book, especially after the book changes narrators, and I do enjoy the very detailed depiction of the era (as usual, Neal has done his research), but the book is slightly dissapointing. That said, I would definitely keep reading the next two books. I have enough faith in Mr. Stephenson's abilities, and enjoyed the book enough, to chalk this up as a shaky start to what will end up being an excellent series.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book, but Still Disappointing
Review: I did not come to "Quicksilver" expecting Cryptonomicon II. I did not come to "Quicksilver" expecting Snow Crash II. Or The Next Diamond Age. Or really anything directly related to any of Stephenson's other novels. If Stephenson has shown anything, it's that he really doesn't repeat himself. And that's great; I was ready for that. Indeed, I prefer it over all these other Science Fiction authors--Robert Jordan is a prime example of this--who set out to write trilogies, or who write a series of novels for no other reason (or so it seems to me) except to capitalize on the success of the first book in the series. I know that many folks really enjoy those series, and I have no problems with that; I just find it tiresome. But the deal is, I found this book immensely disappointing. This is not, as others have noted, a novel; it's a history book. It's a very good history book, with sparkling detail, Stephenson's wonderful language, interesting settings, and all the rest that we've come to expect from this gifted author. What it doesn't have, so far as I can tell, is a plot. There was no narrative drive, no forward motion. Perhaps, as one reviewer has noted, all that will kick in with the next two books in the series. But even so, I like my books to stand on their own (there's plenty of drive in "The Fellowship of the Ring," for example), and this one really doesn't. (I also miss Stephenson's trademarked hilarious "riffs," such as the amazing "Deliverator" opening sequence in "Snow Crash," or the bizarre-yet-endearing-and-also-hysterical dissertation on the correct way to eat Cap'n Crunch in "Cryptonomicon;" they are almost entirely absent here or, much sadder, present but leaked of their absurdist color.) I have said before that I would be perfectly willing to admit it if Stephenson put out a stinker. Well, this isn't a stinker, but this is certainly no great work of literature. Perhaps I'm old-fashioned, but I like my novels to have plot. Still, this is a book that is better than so many other books out there, and Stephenson is such a superior writer, that I will no doubt buy his next book as well, hoping it will be better. But for you Stephenson neophytes, I would recommend his other works, especially "Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon."
Rating: 
Summary: history & philosophy of science, embedded in lively fiction
Review: Once again, Stephenson shows his incredible ability to weave the "back story" that's essential for understanding the life and times of his target scientists (Newton, Leibniz, Hooke, Huygens, and their contemporaries) into the action of a lively novel, full of believable characters and plausible intrigue. AND--the alert reader with a reasonable knowledge of both science and history is rewarded at every turn with surprising little "grace notes" of telling detail that add greatly to the tale's narrative richness. He sketches these bon mots deftly: easy for the prepared reader to find and enjoy, yet easy for others to skip over without losing the main thread of the action.
Rating:
Summary: Slogged through it, but can't recommend it.
Review: The absence of a plot makes this otherwise exquisitely crafted novel quite boring, frankly. I expected better, having read all of Stephenson's other works.
Rating:
Summary: A rattling good history book.
Review: This is scarcely a novel, more a history book, but a history book one cannot put down even when late for work and with an urgent deadline looming. A history of the birth of science, the birth of capitalism, the Glorous Revolution, the birth of human rights and freedom. It is primarily a history of science, economics, and politics. It is also a really great read. The viewpoint characters wander around the seventeenth century, always by some improbable coincidence winding up with a front row view of key events and battles, and present while key figures of science and politics hold long conversations, in which they lecture each other on the events of the time. Thus for example a viewpoint character finds himself with a bunch of the great and famous inside a house surrounded by a hostile mob. It rapidly becomes apparent that the guards of the great and famous have fled, and the mob intends to burn down the house with the occupants inside. As the smoke thickens the great and famous then have a witty, intelligent, and lengthy conversation explaining who the mob is, and why they are angry, and the economics and politics that led to this situation. The book is largely a collection of interesting lectures, delivered in the course of an exciting story. Starts off a bit slow, but keep at it, one soon gets sucked into the seventeenth century, with its rat excrement, fleas, sharp daggers, and primitive contraceptives.
Rating:
Summary: A stunning and witty historical novel
Review: This book is not for everyone. It is an historical novel. Not an historical mystery, not an historical romance, not time-travel or aliens in ancient days. Just straight history, up-close and personal, if well-written. If knowing how people lived in other times is uninteresting to you, buy another book. Don't buy it just becasue you liked one of Stephenson's other books -- it's rather different than everythings he's done. If you want SF, go buy The Diamond Age. On the other hand Quicksilver isn't the names-and-dates history of Mrs. Blather's 9th-grade history class either. It is a total-immersion trip through the late 17th century, when the modern was born out of the decay of the medieval, as seen through the eyes of several ficticious characters placed at strategic places the swirl of things. Daniel Waterhouse is a Puritan, son of Cromwell's ideologue. He's seen one King executed, sees another die of over-doctoring, and serves a third in order to protect his people against him. Along the way he befriends Newton, Hooke, Liebnitz and Huygens and becomes a central, if passive, figure in the emergence of Science out of Alchemy. Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe is the King of Vagabonds who travels through King Louis XIV's Europe, main in the company of the stunning and brilliant Eliza, an escaped slave. Eliza herself befriends (or be-enemies) nearly every important person in Europe, in her climb from slave to Duchess. On her way she betrays the most powerful man in Europe and helps crown his enemy King of England, among other things. All of which is well and good, but the real protagonist of the book is the Times. By the time you are done, you will understand the politics that caused Charles I to be beheaded, why Loius XIV was the enemy of the future, why Charles II was a good King, and why his son James II lost his throne to upstarts named WIlliam & Mary. You will experience what life was like in the 17th Century (an excess of rats, nobles, churchmen, excrement and war) and why many like Waterhouse wanted things so desperately to change. And why they did. Quicksilver seems to me an appreciation by Stephenson to those that founded a world based on freedom of thought and the rights of the individual, when Kings ruled abolute and that wasn't the way to bet.
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