Rating: 
Summary: Remarkable, Clever Work of Historical Fiction
Review: People tend to either love Neal Stephenson or hate him; at his best, he is brilliantly clever, laugh-out-loud funny, and displays a remarkable grasp not only of history, but of the history of ideas. At his worst, he is smug, pedantic, self-indulgent, "too clever by half", and somewhat coarse. But Stephenson's virtues and flaws are both great -- he does nothing small in his literary efforts. Stephenson is a writer of books -- books for books' sake, not books meant to be turned into movies. They are grand adventures on a vast, thousand page scale, not meant to be digested in a weekend, but meant to be taken in over several months. Quicksilver contains all of these virtues and flaws, and in reading it, I have at times found myself alternately admiring the book and groaning over it -- but I have spent far more time admiring it than groaning. The story, in short: those familiar with Cryptonomicon will recognize that Quicksilver is, in a sense, a prequel, told three centuries before -- the intertwining fate of the Shaftoe and Waterhouse families again occurs; this time with Daniel Waterhouse -- college roommate of Sir Isaac Newton -- providing the technical, "geek" tour of the 17th century, and "Half-cocked" Jack Shaftoe providing the swashbuckling, Rabelaisan, adventure story. Cryptography, precious metals, alchemy, and high level mathematics again provide a tapestry in which the plots and conspiracies interact. The tour is a grand one -- the slums of London and Paris, the markets of Amsterdam, the siege of Vienna, a Walpurgisnacht on a German mountainside, and escaping Blackbeard on ship in Cape Cod Bay are part of the grand vista. This is a great book for a lover of European history -- Stephenson makes the tour enjoyable, and he really is very funny. But be prepared -- the journey is a long one, with many twists and turns along the way.
Rating: 
Summary: In a word...tedious
Review: I have been a big fan of Mr Stephenson's writing. Snow Crash and Cryptonomicom are two of my favorite books. I really liked the historical fiction content in Cryptonomicom and was very much looking forward to this book coming out. Mr Stephenson's previous success must have given him power over the editors because this book is way too long and way too fat with tedious detail. While the level of research he did is incredible and impressive, I wish he had some restraint in what he put in the book. He also leaned way too hard on techniques like chapter after chapter of journal entries or letters back and forth between the characters. Ok once in a while, but to me, it gets incredibly boring and kills the flow of the story. The book starts to get interesting in the second "book" - unfortunately 340 pages in. It picks up for a while but gets off track the last couple of hundred pages. Since it is the first of three books in a series, you don't get anything close to a satisfying conclusion. Naturally, the key plot elements are left in the air. After 900+ pages, this was a real let down. All in all, I recommend just avoiding this whole series. It is a shame that such an entertaining author is now out of circulation until we are done with this three book series. I understand that the second book is out in the spring. I wish they would do some major editing and get it down to an entertaining 500 page book instead of a hideously boring 800-900 page mess. Otherwise, I am going to cut my losses and skip it.
Rating: 
Summary: great book
Review: You get to feel intimate with liebniz, Hooke, Newton and Wren
and have an enjoyable work of historical fiction. What is totally beyond me is how anyone could love cryptonomicon and not also
love this book. They are very, very similar, just in different time periods. I don't know about these mythical rogue novels
and speaking 'in one voice' denigrations, all I know is I really, really loved this book. Good job neal!!
Rating:
Summary: Notice: Speculative Historical Science Fiction
Review: First off, I liked Quicksilver. But this is nothing compared to the adoration I feel for Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon and Diamond Age. Many are going to go into this book and feel let down by comparing Quicksilver to previous works. They will especially dislike it if they were into Stephenson's early works mostly due to computer geek identification. I am going to assume the reader is familiar with Stephenson's prose style and get to the meat of the coconut: should you read this book? I have a degree in history and a degree in chemistry, so this one was right up my alley - a fictionalized look at some titans of scientific reason, among them Newton, Hooke, Huygens and Leibniz. Just about every king, author and person of import from the 17th century has been thrown into this pot and let's hope a meaty stew will emerge from the next two books, because as of finishing it, I cannot imagine what's next. However, I will certainly pick up The Confusion when it comes out. The scope of Quicksilver is far greater than most SF (comparable to Richard Hamilton's Night's Dawn series). And yes, this is SF "speculative fiction" and considering that it is fictionalized history of science, it is "science fiction" in the most literal sense. But many traditional SF fans are going to feel out of their comfort zone with Quicksilver. So if you read SF for cyberpunk settings and other technological future imaginings by all means stay away. But the genre boundaries of SF are being stretched here and I like both the attempt and the product. If you want something truly unique, something that transports you back to an amazing techological age instead of forward, give Quicksilver a chance. I like thinking about human interaction with technology, and although positing future technologies is great, you can get the same effect from going back in time. In the mid 1600s, accurate time measurement was an incredible new technology people were confronting. Is the amazement of those scientists really so different from analogous future scientists grappling with FTL space travel and its societal implications? Just go into Quicksilver with your eyes open that this is volume one of a huge trilogy and that it is speculative historical science fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: For Fans Only
Review: I couldn't imagine recommending this book to anyone other than a die-hard Stephenson fan. The text is excrutiatingly oblique. I read many paragraphs over and over trying to discern the plot points, to no avail. The story has no real beginning, middle, or end and just meanders between clever moments. That's the real key to understanding this book -- the word "clever." Stephenson is certainly clever, and that represents the only redeeming quality of QuickSilver. While burning through 900 pages of pointless little episodes I often smiled at the phrasing, geek-insider jokes, etymological asides, and other little nuggets to keep me going. But to the non-fan these will be too few and far inbetween to make up for the lack of plot or charachters.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow start, an anticlimatic but still a good book
Review: Despite a slow start, and a lack of any sort of closure whatsoever at the end of 916 pages, it was still a good book. The fact that I want closure says at least something about the book and is probably what Neal Stephenson was attempting considering that this is only Volume 1 of the Baroque Cycle. This book will eventually earn its true reputation once the series is complete and we know what role it plays. So my recommendation is to wait for paperback, or wait until the series is complete to determine if Quicksilver is worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: I guess every author has a dud
Review: After having read and loved the Cryptonomicon, Diamond Age, Snow Crash and Interface, I bought Quicksilver in preparation for an airplane trip around the world. It was only after I started reading the book and suffering through it that I noticed that all the glowing reviews on its jacket were actually "Praise for Cryptonomicon". I guess the editors couldn't find anyone to praise the book itself. I ended up ditching the book in a trash-can in the Brisbane airport. I had finished it, but didn't feel it was worth carrying all the way home and didn't feel cruel enough to try to pawn the book off on anyone else. There seemed to be no build to the novel -- no climax and unravelling. Every good author has the right to a failure or two...
Rating:
Summary: For anyone who likes historical and/or scientific novels
Review: Let's get the size issue out of the way. Yes it's big but I don't think it rambles too much. There is a lot to this story and a lengthy telling only enhances it. The writing is uniformly excellent and so the pages go by fast. And so down to business. Quicksilver focusses on two main characters. The first Daniel Waterhouse is an educated son of a radical, friend of Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke, Samuel Pepys, King Charles II and many more historical figures. We meet Daniel in America in the early 18th century and get his life story in flashback through the first book. The other major character is Eliza, an ex-slave from a Turkish Harem who manages to become a formidable business woman and a fake countess. The second story focusses on her rescue by the "King of the Vagabonds" Jack Shaftoe and their travels through Europe. During these first two books, the storylines are independent although some characters crop up in both tales. Book 3 brings these threads together and weaves a more elaborate tale of deception and intrigue. The story is long and sprawling and only a read of the book will do it justice. Suffice to say that the tales combine historical fact skillfully woven with a set of, sometimes romantic, tales. I think anyone who has an interest in history will get a kick out of this book. Additionally, science plays a key role here. Daniel is a member of the Royal Society, we get snippets of the development of calculus by Newton and Leibniz and other major scientific developments. Again, anyone interested in this will get a lot out of this book. If I have one criticism of this book it's that the first two tales would have been better told in parallel like the third. Without this there was little suspense though, as I said before, the book moves forward quickly. The acid test is whether I would read the second two "chapters" in the cycle. The answer is definitely!
Rating:
Summary: the system of the world.
Review: 'quicksilver' is a sprawling, gigantic, epic attempt at being a groundbreaking piece of american literature. on some accounts, it succeeds wildly, and on others simply falls flat. lots of reviews of the 916 page volume harp on the fact that 'its too long.' or 'there is no plot.' neal stephenson is simply gifted when it comes to scribing words to paper, and while stephenson is a bit long-winded in some spots, -- especially book 2 -- the extra prose is very enjoyable. the contention that there is no plot doens't make much sense to me, because the true 'plot' of this book is not the covert operations of eliza in france, or the 'bloodless revolution' of 1688 in england which daniel orchestrates from both sides. the 'thesis' of the novel lies in the foundations of the concepts it lays out, -- the creation of calculus, the end of the puritans in england, the emergence of science from alchemy, the standardization of minting, etc. -- NOT the actions or characters that illustrate the time and space between these. this book is about the evolution of thought, the evolution of science, the evolution of economics, the evolution of religion,and even the evolution of emotions. anyone reading 'quicksilver' and hoping for 'cryptonomicon'-esque action from cover to cover is going to be vastly disappointed. 'quicksilver' is only the beginning of the baroque cycle, a set of three books that promises to raise as many questions as it answers. it may yet be groundbreaking literature. we will have to wait until october to find out.
Rating:
Summary: Just my sort of thing...
Review: A great book - I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sometimes when I read fiction I have to tear through a book as fast as I can, but this one I took TWO MONTHS to read. For some reason taking in a chapter or two here and there(while at the same time reading several non-fiction books) gave for great reading. It's almost like each chapter was a story in itself, so although it all fits together in the larger work, I felt satisfied at the end of most chapter breaks. And I wanted it to keep going, so I just took my time(couldn't stretch it to April). Of course History, Science and History of Science are my three favorite non-fiction subjects, so this book is a natural for my tastes. And it doesn't really get too mixed up in the technical end of things, it's just interesting to see all of the important changes that were occurring at that time and get a flavor for the main characters involved. I do think that this is the sort of book most people will either love or hate depending on whether the feel the point of a story is the journey or the destination. Certainly both are important, but the journey here is very long(and we have two more books to the destination), so for those who are heavily destination oriented, it might not be for you. For those who really enjoy the journey - even if it takes a long inefficient detour from time to time - you'll like it. The most similar thing I've read(more in style than content) is Gene Wolfe(although Quicksilver is completely out of place in the sci-fi section) - I have no idea what actually happened in "The Book of the New Sun" most of the time, but it was an amazingly fun and well told journey.
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