This is amazing. For someone who enjoys history this is a pure gem, all the references, dates, impressive figures and sheer research that must've been poured in this book is astounding and something to cheer.
I must be honest: I am, taking into considertaion what could be percieved as flaws like the long paragraphs, exhaustive description of science terminology, endless minutiae of dates and persons and plots and concepts, a fervent follower of Stephenson's work. I admire the depth (maybe not present in all his fictional characters) that his stories have because for the themes to work they must be accompanied by a profound love for knowledge.
Anyway, I love this book and series. Paperback fictionalized history of europe (actually netherlands england france and germania) during the 1680s. follows the exchange in amsterdam, the court of the sun king, the short lived reign of james ii, and continuing transformation of the scientific world. newton and leibniz struggle to explain gravity and thus the solar system. should science simply try to describe the universe (newton) or try to explain it (leibniz)? what place is left for god (and hence the catholic church) if science can explain the mechanics of the world, and even predict the future? in the 1600s, being able to predict where a planet would be in the future was viewed satanic sorcery among the religious, and an assault on free will among the rest. also the characters are very fun. Paperback This is the final book in Volume 1 of The Baroque Cycle and I am very pleased to say that Stephenson wraps things up very nicely while still leaving me wondering what happens further on.
This book contains both the evolving stories of Daniel Waterhouse and Eliza during the tumultuous 1680's. Charles II has died and there is a new king of England, however, of course, things are not that simple. A new word is born, Revolution, or at least, given new meaning. Not only a revolving around but now a Revolution as we commonly know the word today, as an uprising. And Daniel and Eliza, although both in completely different parts of Europe, are quite in the middle of everything.
Neal Stephenson writes so clearly about these sophisticated political situations and, also, the ideas of Natural Philosophy at the time, that I have no problem understanding and following along. One thing I would like to mention that this first Volume has taught me, and that is that humanity in the late 17th century could be just as polite, nice, charming, vicious and vile as it is today.
There is so much quality to match the quantity of this massive Volume, so if the sheer size of the books of The Baroque Cycle scare you, I can assure you it is more than worth your time. Paperback Well, the history is good, but it's not much of a novel or narrative really, is it? There are short passages where the author becomes a bit more excited though in general its quantity over quality.
I will read the remainng 5 books ... over the hopefully 40 remaining years of my life; I think I'm done with The Baroque Cycle for this decade, anyway. Paperback Finished this 3rd book in the series, I enjoyed the book that features things like espionage and science, cryptography, and political intrigue. The question I have, did people really care on this much sexually or is the sex gratuitous. But sex was more free and outrageous than classical, so perhaps the author was trying to depict this difference historically. So while I could have done with a bit less sexual detail, it does fit the time period. Interesting book. The book is rich in science details, features the Royal Society member in the English scientific community. Such characters as Isaac Newton and Liebniz. Its an interesting way to brush up on history. Paperback
Why do I keep reading these?
If I could just have a few hundred pages of Neal Stephenson talking about the history of science and currency without these characters I would be thrilled. Likewise if he could tell me a story about these characters in which I actually believe they have some agency, rather than just being pulled along by historical events that already happened. Paperback This is the third book in the eight-book Baroque Cycle, and also the third part of the first volume. So it involves a fair amount of tying together separate characters and story arcs introduced in the first two books, Quicksilver and King of the Vagabonds, which is mostly accomplished by having Eliza meet up with Daniel Waterhouse in England. (Jack Shaftoe does not appear at all in this book, though he is alluded to a few times by other characters. His brother, Bob, does make an appearance near the end, introducing a story arc of his own that intersects with those of Eliza and Daniel.)
Structurally, this book follows the latter part of King of the Vagabonds in switching back and forth between two geographically distant characters' points of view. Where in the second book it was Eliza and Jack, here it is Eliza and Daniel, who are much more similar in temperament and habit --- both are smart, cautious characters who observe, plan, and then act, rather than heedlessly throwing themselves into the thick of things. This makes for more suspense, and more sense that each narrative is building toward something, as opposed to just listing along from one episode to the next. But it also makes for fewer entertaining incidents, so if you really liked Jack's part of the last book, you might find yourself bored by this one.
Eliza by now is ensconced in King Louis IV's court at Versailles, where she has a sponsor of sort, the comte d'Avaux, whom she met in the previous book and who has gotten her a position as governess to the children of some noblewoman. That's only a pretext for her to be at Versailles, though, where she has several more important roles she keeps shrouded in varying degrees of secrecy. Nearest to the surface, she acts as personal finance manager to practically the entire court, most of whose members are nearing bankruptcy trying to maintain their households and wardrobes at a suitable level of opulence. Known to fewer people, she corresponds with d'Avaux, keeping him updated on what goes on at court; she also corresponds with the Natural Philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who has published his calculus. She uses a couple of different codes to write her letters; the letters she writes to d'Avaux are written in a simpler code that she anticipates will be broken by Dutch spies, who are her real audience for those missives. (D'Avaux, it was revealed in the last book, is working to undermine King Louis, but is not pro-Dutch either. I'm not 100% sure how much his agenda and Eliza's overlap, though I don't THINK he knows the Dutch are reading his correspondence ...) Anyway, at the highest level of secrecy, she's spying for William, the Prince of Orange, who intends to seize power in England.
And, reading that paragraph, you will start to see why I don't like the title of this installment in the Baroque Cycle. An odalisque is a woman whose defining feature is her idleness; she's kept by others to be idle, and beautiful, for them. Eliza, who has to be the one the title refers to, is dizzyingly active ALL THE TIME, simultaneously doing two or three incredibly difficult things, and making sure no one sees her doing them, at any given time. Stephenson might well have chosen the title ironically; that's the only way I can see it making any sense.
I mentioned that Daniel Waterhouse comes back into play in this book; he does, and when we meet him he has come into his own as a political power player. He's still a Fellow of the Royal Society, but he doesn't conduct any research of his own. Instead, he hangs around King James II's dwindling court, watching his doctors try to treat his advanced syphilis and talking with other people about what's going to happen next. He intercedes on behalf of his fellow Puritans, getting them released from jail whenever they get rounded up on suspicion of fomenting another rebellion (remember that in the first book, Daniel's father Drake was instrumental in bringing Oliver Cromwell to power, and was rewarded for this by having his head cut off once Charles II was restored to the throne). While he's watching and waiting, the Glorious Revolution happens around him. He knows he has played some role in bringing it about, but he mostly just wanders around dazed once it actually starts unfolding. Mostly, he tries to keep an eye on his friend Isaac Newton, who is going off the deep end, abandoning physics for some sort of esoteric metaphysics. His parts of the book, especially compared to Eliza's and especially toward the end, are anticlimactic. Paperback Even a well-made clock drifts, and must be re-set from time to time.
- Neal Stephenson, Odalisque
An odalisque was a chambermaid or a female attendant in a Turkish haram (seraglio), particularly the ladies in haram of the Ottoman sultan.
So, the book title references Eliza, who in book 2: King of the Vagabonds is rescued by Half-Cock Jack (King of the Vagabonds). Eliza in this book enters the world of European economics and spycraft. She rises from broker of the French nobility, eventually earning the title of Countess of Zeur. She also aids William of Orange as he prepares to invade England, gaining the added title of Duchess of Qqghlm. The book also brings us back to Daniel Waterhouse.
I personally missed Jack Shaftoe, but that was partially assisted because we were introduced to his brother Bob Shaftoe.
I've enjoyed Volume one. I'm a big fan of the Age of Enlightenment and was thrilled to experience of fictionalized Pepys, Newton, Leibniz, William of Orange, etc. Paperback Still going strong. We have all the characters from the first two books plus a few entries that only deepen the sense of the world of Europe. In the previous two, we got to see a lot of England and then a massive amount of the Dutch world in the second, but this one focused mainly on the French.
Our favorite tease/spy lives her life as a fake noble (but not so fake that no one fails to realize it), but that's all right. It's the life of intrigue in Louis the Fourteenth's court. Truly fascinating.
We also return in full force to Daniel, and while everyone is older, the political intrigue is nevertheless as dangerous as ever with the new English king.
The immensity of detail is such that I'm thrown deep into the late sixteen hundreds without pause or breath and I feel like I'm getting one hell of an immersion. It's also so full of interesting plots and twists, going back fully into the anti-slavery angle even while whole parts of Christiandom want to enslave whole other parts of Christendom just because of their beliefs, it feels like an insane move to go any further or wider in scope when there's such dissension everywhere you look.
And then there's the science and the economics and the way that the perennially tapped nobles play the markets in order to regain their wealth. The science bits are always the most fascinating for me, but I have to be honest. The economics bits are pretty damn close to the top as a favorite.
Let me be clear: I read and loved Cryptonomicon which is like an Epic Economics treatise as well as a cryptography primer, so getting the early explorations of these same topics but within the frame of Europe during this time is a real treat. So much to learn!
I'm really impressed by these, and I've still got five more to go! What will happen next to my poor MCs? *cry* Paperback Até pode ser muito interessante pelos acontecimentos descritos mas não cheguei bem a perceber qual era o objectivo desta história.
É certo que não li os volumes anteriores e talvez esteja aí o meu problema. Talvez este livro seja melhor apreciado tendo lido os outros. Paperback
The trials of Dr. Daniel Waterhouse and the Natural Philosophers increase one hundredfold in an England plagued by the impending war and royal insecurities -- as the beautiful and ambitious Eliza plays a most dangerous game as double agent and confidante of enemy kings. Odalisque (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1, Book 3)