Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson
Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson
List: $46.99 | Sale: $32.90
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Quicksilver
Volume One of The Baroque Cycle

Author: Neal Stephenson

Narrator: Simon Preble, Stina Nielsen

Abridged: 22 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 11/02/2004

Synopsis

Quicksilver is the story of Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and conflicted Puritan, pursuing knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe, in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.It is a chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of ""Half-Cocked Jack"" Shaftoe -- London street urchin turned swashbuckling adventurer and legendary King of the Vagabonds -- risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox.And it is the tale of Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent Europe through the newborn power of finance.A gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive novel that brings a remarkable age and its momentous events to vivid life, Quicksilver is an extraordinary achievement from one of the most original and important literary talents of our time.And it's just the beginning ...Performed by Simon Prebble and Stina Nielsen

About Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Termination Shock, Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (with Nicole Galland), Seveneves, Reamde, Anathem, The System of the World, The Confusion, Quicksilver, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, Zodiac, and the groundbreaking nonfiction work In the Beginning . . .Was the Command Line. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

Reviews

Goodreads review by WK on January 23, 2009

4.0/4.0 It's the Moby-Dick question. The plot's about an angry guy chasing a whale. There's not a lot of variation on this theme: he catches it, or he doesn't. Maybe he catches it and wishes that he didn't, maybe he doesn't and regrets that he failed. But this basic plot, a straightforward quest for r......more

Goodreads review by Kemper on July 30, 2011

(The following is an excerpt from the journal of Neal Stephenson.) After the success of Cryptonomicon, I’m having some problems narrowing down my next project. The issue is that I have far too many ideas, and I can’t decide which plot to use for my next book. I know that I want do something set durin......more

Goodreads review by Manny on March 06, 2011

I received an unexpected visit yesterday evening from a Mr. Nosnehpets, who told me he was a time-traveller and writer from the early 25th century. He had just published a historical novel, and wondered if I would do him the service of reviewing it. "Why me?" I asked, bemused. "Well," replied my visit......more

Goodreads review by Mark on August 05, 2016

Well. Where to start with this... Ok. Let us first pretend that there are only two criteria to use when analysing works of fiction, (1) number of characters and (2) richness of plot. Now let us say we are drawing a chart, with quality 1 on the horizontal axis, and quality 2 on the vertical axis. Now......more

Goodreads review by Markus on February 20, 2017

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson is in some ways the strangest book I’ve read this year. The most surprising aspect of the book is the fact that there is no plot. I’ve read books that have started really slowly, and even books where the author largely ignores plot to focus on building the setting. This......more

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