The System of the World: Volume Three of the Baroque Cycle (P.S.) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Stephenson, enjoying cult status for his 1999 novel Cryptonomicon as well as the first two installments in a trilogy he calls the Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver [BKL S 1 03] and The Confusion [BKL F 15 04]), brings the long-winded but compulsively readable series to its conclusion. All three volumes have been lengthy but also effective as the author delves deeply into European history in the late-seventeenth and early-nineteenth centuries, eras of great intellectual and political ferment. Daniel Waterhouse, who was introduced in the first volume, has come back to England from the American colonies to mediate a dispute between two scientists, Isaac Newton and Gottfried von Leibniz. Around this continuing struggle, which has a side story encompassing Newton's desire to find a time-bomb-armed criminal gang, led by his archenemy, a counterfeiter called the king of the vagabonds, swirls a larger arena of contention: the probably sooner rather than later death of Queen Anne and whether the Whigs or the Tories will dominate the court in the reign that follows. Obviously--given the book's length--details are profuse, but each detail speedily draws readers into the narrative rather than impeding it. The language, to correlate with the times in which the novel is set, is done in a stately but not overwrought style. Expect considerable demand. Brad Hooper
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England, 1714. London has long been home to a secret war between the brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist, Isaac Newton, and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the Coiner. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level as Half-Cocked Jack hatches a daring plan, aiming for the total corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system.

Enter Daniel Waterhouse: Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, Daniel has been on a long and harrowing quest to help mend the rift between adversarial geniuses. As Daniel combs city and country for clues to the identity of the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers, political factions jockey for position while awaiting the impending death of the ailing queen, and the "holy grail" of alchemy, the key to life eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton.

As Newton, Waterhouse, and Shaftoe each circle closer to the object of Daniel's quest, everything that was will be changed forever ...

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Neal Stephenson is the author of Reamde, Anathem; the three-volume historical epic the Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World); Cryptonomicon; The Diamond Age; Snow Crash, which was named one of Time magazine's top one hundred all-time best English-language novels; and Zodiac. He lives in Seattle, Washington.