Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful reading
Review: I admit that I a prejudiced. I have enjoyed everything Stephenson has written (even In The Beginning was the Command Line) and this work is no exception. It is absorbing, entertaining, enlightening and fun. The philosophical debates are fascinating and I am looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. Perhaps those seeking sci-fi fantasy such as Snow Crash my be disappointed with this historical fiction. I was not.
Rating:
Summary: WHAT ? Did you guys read the same book ?
Review: You SURE ? First before I rant. I thought this was a WONDERFUL book and I enjoyed it a LOT. All the more becaue I know 2 more just like it are on the way. NO PLOT ? Well OK if you say so I thought it had SEVERAL plots. I am A Gynormous NS fan and I have loved everything he has written and while this is no Snow Crash it's pretty darn good. I think that once a Author gets IMPORTANT he is above EDITORS and this is NOT allways a good thing. Maybe that's why his earlyer books are skinnyer ? I think that with Neil the more words the better now. Write ON dude.
Rating:
Summary: It stays on my mind like no other
Review: I read Quicksilver several months ago, not long after finishing Cryptonomicon. As my wife can attest, it was not an easy read -- I complained repeatedly about how very long it took to finish.That said, I never contemplated putting it aside. The characters are too compelling, the history too interesting and the unrolling of the vast plot (or series of plots) too absorbing. Since then, I find myself thinking about it frequently and wishing the next volume was out. And I keep encountering things in the popular/science press that remind me of it -- a piece about slavery in the 16th and 17th centuries, involving barbary corsairs capturing people off of the beaches of europe, a piece about Newton's fascination with the book of Timothy, a newspaper piece about Hooke's contributions . . . all things I already knew about because of this book. As Stephenson has said, brevity is an overvalued thing. I like short stories, I like short novels, I like brief and factual magazine articles. But sometimes the satisfaction of a full and complete treatment is just the ticket -- a Stephenson novel, perhaps, or one of those never-ending Atlantic pieces. If you've a short attention span, or have a frequent need to abandon solitary pursuits for the real world, don't try this book unless you want to practice focusing. For the rest of us, go out and get it now.
Rating: 
Summary: A Vista Of An Interesting Time
Review: This book is like a Frederick Church painted vista. It is a quality overview of life in the late 1600s, mostly focused in Europe, but with a touch of American (Cape Cod) storyline. Though a long work of historically informed fiction, it has enough content to easily avoid seeming padded. For those wishing to read a good story, and along the journey encounter poignant explanations for how we got to where we are, I recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring and Pointless
Review: This book is an exercise in excess. The book rambles endlessly, never really going anywhere. Those fans who expected the Neal Stephenson of Diamond Age or Snow Crash will be severely dissapointed. I have a theory: the real Neal Stephenson was abducted by aliens and is held in some distant galaxy. Meanwhile, they left an alien standin impersonating our author, but this alien doesnt really understand the dynamics of fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Quicksilver is heavy, but fluid, and ultimately shining
Review: Read slowly and patiently, gentle reader. Experience the Glorius Revolution in parallel, on one side as the patient of chirurgeons relieving us of kidney stones of feudalism, while on the other side through immersion in the amniotic fluids of the womb for the modern age. This alchemical book needs to have the density of mercury to float the gold of history.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-Researched Mess
Review: Stephenson loves his subject and there are flashes of the old Stephenson genuis, but this one just didn't have enough humor, plot, or excitement. I plodded through hundreds of dull narrative. Other historical novelists have done so much better jobs. This novel almost seems like the work of an immature novelist trying to get his sea legs. It's too bad because I really loved Crytinomican and Snow Crash. Try Moorcock's The War Hound and the World's Pain as well as Wolfe's New Urth series. They have more fantastical elements, but I think they have more action and believability. Par Lagerkvist's The Dwarf comes to mind, too. Also, just reading non-fiction history on the 17th century is more stimulating, for instance; Tomlinson's biography of Samuel Pepys.
Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile (but steep) investment...
Review: Against the vividly imagined historical backdrop of Europe in the 1600's, Stephenson unfolds a compelling story of politics and brings to life the birth of the scientific revolution. But this is no dry treatise on days past; no tedious textbook to drain all the interest from the dramatic events of history. Using multiple interwoven storylines, Stephenson creates a rich tapestry of the lives of historical figures such as Newton and Hooke, while adding his own perspective via characters Daniel Waterhouse, Jack Shaftoe and Eliza. The latter, as one of the few powerful women in the story, was particularly of interest to me, as I followed her evolution from rescued Turkish slave to devious spy and confidante of nobility. The pace stumbles a handful of times in the latter half of the book. But, even so, there are few words wasted -- impressive in a book that weighs in at 916 pages. References to Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (which I enjoyed very much in the summer of 2002) appear throughout the book, giving it an added depth in terms of scope and the sense that it was only the first course in the ambitiously prepared feast of the works as a whole. With two more volumes to come, this is certainly not a story for those who aren't prepared to invest heavily in the pursuit of an exceptional reading experience. But I would certainly recommend it without reservation to those who are not easily intimidated. Waiting with anticipation for "The Confusion" in April 2004 and "The System of the World" in October 2004...
Rating:
Summary: A long ways from Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash
Review: Slogging through the first 600 pages of this book, I kept wondering where the creativity apparent in his earlier work had gone. Occasional flashes of classic Stephenson (science mixed with history mixed with humor) do show up from time to time, but it's not until you've invested several reading sessions that the book starts to pick up the pace. Only the most dedicated fans will make it to Book Two "The Confusion" due out later this year. However, having had a chance to read an ARC of said book, I will say that if you put your time into the lackluster book one, the second one is more rewarding. If you don't have time to read doorstoppers like this, and are looking for one book rather than three, pick up Iain Pears' "An Instance of the Fingerpost." Quicksilver just doesn't hold up to work such as this (or "In the Name of the Rose" for that matter.)
Rating:
Summary: I phant'sy I'm Hooked beyond Patrick O'Brian
Review: Disclaimer: this reviewer is a historickal addict. My mourning of the abrupt loss of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin cycle was partly relieved by a fortuitous encounter with David McCullouch's commendable John Adams biography. Getting wind of Quicksilver, and scanning it in a bookstore, I was tantalized by the tie-ins to Cryptonomicon, from Waterhouse to Root, to Shaftoe and Qwghlm. Thus impelled to a Christmas indulgence, my evenings were enriched for more than a month, with "partum" arriving too soon. What other reviews have neglected to mention is the wonderful precision and wide-ranging richness of language and linguistic allusion Stephenson has given his readers, not to mention the devil-may-care interspersion of his own humourous, 21st century asides (easily accomodated). April 2004, the projected date of issue for Volume Two of the Baroque Cycle, "The Confusion", cannot come too soon. Will Daniel Waterhouse get his stone in a poke? What Persons of Quality will he encounter in Massachusetts? Will Jack resurface? (Some remarkable Deus ex machina for the pox will need be involved.) Will Eliza and her issue land safely in Qwghlm? And what more of "The Red"? All worth the wait, and damn all the quibblers for their stingy and specious elitism!
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