Azogue (Vol. I del Ciclo Barroco - Libro 1) (Quicksilver)

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It's a hit!

I read this book inadvertently. Let me explain. I was looking for something to read and found it on my husband’s nightstand. It was a hardcover ... (show more)

I read this book inadvertently. Let me explain. I was looking for something to read and found it on my husband’s nightstand. It was a hardcover missing its jacket, so I didn’t have any blurb to read to see what it was about. So I just started with the first chapter and began reading. “Wow,” I thought, “a book about Isaac Newton and philosophical endeavors in the time of Charles II. That sounds interesting.” So I began to read in earnest. I enjoyed learning of protagonist Daniel Waterhouse, his puritanical father, and the eccentric Isaac Newton. There was a lot of science and math and it was all interesting. I know—shocking! Then all of a sudden the book changed on me. Now I was reading about Jack Shaftoe, king of the vagabonds, and the lovely Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem. There were still some philosophers (and alchemists), but mostly it was bawdiness and French politics. Still entertaining, but nothing like the first part at all. Not having been prepared for this change of focus by a jacket blurb or perusal of Amazon reviews, I was somewhat confused. I looked at the title page more closely and discovered that I had just begun a “cycle” of books—ugh! This was supposed to be some light summer reading, and now I was hip-deep in a multivolume read.

At any rate, I enjoyed the book, schizophrenic and encyclopedic as it is, and I ordered myself the second volume, which I intend to read on vacation down the shore. This book will not appeal to everyone, but I find both the more intellectual philosopher sections and the raunchier vagabond sections quite entertaining and can’t wait to see how the narratives will cross paths. Hopefully one does not have to wait until book 3 to find out! (show less)

 

 

by Facebook-användare

No, it's a flop!

Ugh, what a pedantic read. I loved Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon, but Quicksilver was not as good of a read. Not sure why the story keeps jumping... (show more)

Ugh, what a pedantic read. I loved Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon, but Quicksilver was not as good of a read. Not sure why the story keeps jumping back and forth in the past ; e.g., 1650 then 1718 then 1655 then 1719, etc. etc. At least with Cryptonomicon we were jumping between WWII and the contemporary present which helped to make the story more interesting. With Quicksilver, the time jumping only seemed to needlessly complicate the story. The story kept vacillating between interesting and boring. I did not appreciate the overlay of modern ideals onto the past; e.g., one character off handedly comments about "Canal Rage" in Venice due to the growing population in the city. Seriously? I'm to believe that people in the late 1600s coined the phrase "Canal Rage" when "Road Rage" hit the news media only in the 1990s? This happens a few times throughout the book and doesn't detract from it, but is annoying nonetheless. Seriously doubt I'll read the next two in the series. (show less)

 

 

by Robert P Massat

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  Quicksilver is a tough book to get into. If you can get through the first 250 pages you will be rewarded with a pretty pleasurable ride for the remainder of the book. But that first 250? Killer. All in all, it took me about 4 months to get thorough this book (and I am a pretty fast reader given a good adventure). About 3 months of that was the first 250 pages. What I finally figured out is that it was not really important to understand what was going on or why. Stephenson seems to be c... (show more)

  Quicksilver is a tough book to get into. If you can get through the first 250 pages you will be rewarded with a pretty pleasurable ride for the remainder of the book. But that first 250? Killer. All in all, it took me about 4 months to get thorough this book (and I am a pretty fast reader given a good adventure). About 3 months of that was the first 250 pages. What I finally figured out is that it was not really important to understand what was going on or why. Stephenson seems to be challenging us, his audience, to agree to play the long game. If you stick with the whole series, the information and introductions he gives you in the first 250 will become relevant and insightful later. Like 1000 pages later. But it helps to realize that he is not only talking about the history of the whole world but also give you a glimpse of these characters as they will change over a 40 year period and how their relationships are defined by the choices that they make along the way.

  That being said, I challenge the author that it is a needlessly complex way to start the series. Now that I have finished the series, I can see why he starts the whole thing out as a flashback but ... well ... it certainly doesn't do the reader any favors. I don't know. The whole thing is such an amazing undertaking that I now almost feel stupid criticizing the first 250 pages which, I might add, are well written. They are just extremely dense in ways that don't become relevant for hundreds if not thousands of pages later.

  Mostly I think that to enjoy this epic story you really have to take a leap of faith and trust that Stephenson will take care of you in the end. Ultimately, now that I have finished the series, it is his most astounding work far out shining Snowcrash or the Cryptonomicon, both of which I liked but didn't love. With the Baroque Cycle, he has surpassed himself and created something so complex that complete that I can only stand it awe. I don't know if I can say yet that I loved it. I may have to read it again to know for sure. But I can say without reservation that it is an amazing piece of work and something that will stay on my bookshelf for decades to come. (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook-användare on Sep 03, 2008 at 05:10AM

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  Okay, reading this book is like viewing an amazing painting while on the moon; you've never really done anything like it and it feels amazing and a little dangerous. It starts out fairly boring, with Enoch the Red approaching the home of Daniel Waterhouse, working his way through a frontier settlement in Massachusetts, back when Massachusetts WAS the frontier. Fairly standard, occasional flashes of that brilliance we've come to expect from Neal Stephenson, but nothing ostentatious or even ter... (show more)

  Okay, reading this book is like viewing an amazing painting while on the moon; you've never really done anything like it and it feels amazing and a little dangerous. It starts out fairly boring, with Enoch the Red approaching the home of Daniel Waterhouse, working his way through a frontier settlement in Massachusetts, back when Massachusetts WAS the frontier. Fairly standard, occasional flashes of that brilliance we've come to expect from Neal Stephenson, but nothing ostentatious or even terribly memorable. Except for a good scene on a barge. But then, EVERY scene in a Neal Stephenson book, no matter how seemingly unimportant or otherwise pointless, has at least one moment of transcendent wonderfulness.

  But so the book starts out sorta simply. Then some stuff happens, and some more stuff, and soon the main character is avoiding pirates and his former self is helping take part in the invention of Science, and suddenly there’s someone called the King of the Vagabonds, and if you’ve read Cryptonomicon you recognize the name Shaftoe and get a bit of a thrill, and he’s rescuing a wonderfully tart-tongued-without-being-trite woman who becomes his business partner and lover even though half of his penis was burned off in a painful incident (don’t worry, you’ll find out), and suddenly he’s taking part in a…no. I won’t spoil it. Suffice to say that by the time things get REALLY weird in this book, I wasn’t really surprised.

  Stephenson does SUCH a good job setting us up, easing us into the world, that his flights of fancy (always based on what it must have been like to live in that world) never seem that outlandish in the moment, but when you look back, you realize what a crazy, unique world you’ve been inhabiting. It’s about the birth of Science and modern Economics, which entails some pretty big events, and features some pretty memorable people, including Gottfried Leibniz, Isaac Newton (of Newtonian Laws of Motion fame), and a bunch of totally insane real scientists that you love, even though they occasionally dissect a living dog.

  It’s remarkably well-written, with turns of phrase that made me giggle, scenes that are heartbreaking but feel NECESSARY, and some of the most engaging characters I’ve ever enjoyed on a page. They’re totally real-seeming, because they’re each so unique and flawed. Everyone fails, and often, and I just kept rooting for them and hoping for the best, but knowing it probably wasn’t going to work out perfectly but also feeling like that was okay, that I was in good hands.

  I can’t WAIT to read this book (and its two sequels) again in several years. This one in particular is quick moving and totally engaging, and if you’ve liked any of Stephenson’s other stuff I can’t recommend this enough. (show less)

   

   

  by Mick on Aug 22, 2008 at 01:54AM

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