Quicksilver
Thursday, February 17, 2005
"What are you reading at the moment, Graham?" I hear you say. Well, thanks for asking. I've talked before about Neal Stephenson and his novel Cryptonomicon. Over the past few years he's written a trilogy called the Baroque Cycle. I'm about 100 pages into the first of these - Quicksilver.
Although set some 300 years before Cryptonomicon, there are links between the books. I won't tell you more because I want you to read them if you haven't. Quicksilver is basically a historical novel (900 pages of historical novel!) given a very modernistic slant. All the requisite ingredients are there: details of events and places from the 17th century; genuine characters of the period; sights, sounds, and smells that make you at times an unwelcome tourist. Over and above this are finely rendered accounts of the religious, philosophical, and scientific ideas of the time. This is all done with Stephenson's usual flair for making the complicated easy to apprehend and with humour and a great deal of suitable bawdy.
You could say I'm enjoying it. One sentence of Stephenson is worth a library of Dan Brown. The Da Vinci Code, my arse!
Although set some 300 years before Cryptonomicon, there are links between the books. I won't tell you more because I want you to read them if you haven't. Quicksilver is basically a historical novel (900 pages of historical novel!) given a very modernistic slant. All the requisite ingredients are there: details of events and places from the 17th century; genuine characters of the period; sights, sounds, and smells that make you at times an unwelcome tourist. Over and above this are finely rendered accounts of the religious, philosophical, and scientific ideas of the time. This is all done with Stephenson's usual flair for making the complicated easy to apprehend and with humour and a great deal of suitable bawdy.
You could say I'm enjoying it. One sentence of Stephenson is worth a library of Dan Brown. The Da Vinci Code, my arse!
