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Loading... The System Of The World: Volume Three of the Baroque Cycle (original 2004; edition 2005)by Neal Stephenson
Work detailsThe System of the World by Neal Stephenson (2004)
None. An excellent finale to the Baroque Cycle. This was (in my opinion) the most dynamic book of the series. I was tricked into reading this, but I'm glad because why else would I have started in on this 2700 page trilogy? Years ago Neal Stephenson intrigued and thrilled me with his cyber-punk classic "Snowcrash" so that I could see where he was going with "Diamond Age" a neo-victorian culture in an incredibly futuristic world. By the time I read "Cryptonomicon" I had enough trust in him as an author to take me through a lot of reading involving multiple characters and time periods and to know it was going to come together satisfactorily. He goes through a lot of history and technical details in these books but the main story and the excitement is sustained all the way. I can't put it any better than the inside jacket blurb from Entertainment Weekly "...he might just have created the definitive historical-sci-fi-epic-comedy-punk love story. No easy feat that." More than four years after reading the second volume in Neal Stephenson's massive Baroque Cycle, I finally got around to picking up the third, The System of the World. Much like the first two, but while I enjoyed the first book and tolerated the second one, this one got annoying very quickly. I wanted it to be over by about the two hundredth page, and at that point there were still seven hundred to go. I'm glad I read it, and glad I finished the trilogy, but I'm very, very glad there's not another volume left to read. After reading “The Confusion” last week I moved right on to the last book in the “The Baroque” cycle, “The System of The World”. This is the book where it all comes together, the long and winding stories of Daniel Waterhouse, Isaac Newton, Jack Shaftoe and Eliza. The main character in this book is Daniel, who has been called back to England from America by Sophia Charlotte of Hanover. Jack is a coiner making false coins out of special gold, Newton is Master of the Mint but also an Alchemist. Queen Anne wants her successor to be Catholic, the Whigs want it to be George of the House of Hanover, a protestant. The book is, as those before it, very detailed, very dense, with many characters, story-lines and politics. There is really no way to write a summary of suck a complex story. Another reason for no summary is that anything said about this book would spoil the other two books. I loved this book, as I loved the rest of the series. If you liked the other two (which you need to read to get this book), you’ll like this one. If not, you won’t. For me this is five out of five stars.
Neal Stephenson spent nearly 2,000 pages setting his convergent plots into motion in The System of the World, and they all collide brilliantly in the third and final installment of his Baroque Cycle.
References to this work on external resources.
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It was probably my least favorite of this trilogy--too much Waterhouse and not enough Shaftoe.
It sure took a long time to get going, but when things finally started to happen it was good times. Who would have thought--Daniel Waterhouse, action hero?
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