The Baroque Cycle

It is 02:10, and I've just finished the final book of The Baroque Cycle, Neal Stephenson's Political-Science-Commerce-History-Fiction Adventure 'trilogy'. While certainly not provoking the paroxisms of "I will have this man's babies" ecstacy induced by some of his other novels, I feel like a better person for having taken part in the imaginary (and not-so-imaginary) lives of its characters.

The first volume, Quicksilver, took me months to read; I was battered by its giant slabs of seemingly inconsequential descriptive text, and only picked up its sequel (The Confusion), on the strength of my love for the author's earlier work. This new book sat there until months later (three weeks ago), I finally started upon it and became so entrenched that the final volume, The System of The World, was purchased and devoured in a few red-eyed nights of marvellous sleeplessness.

It is, however, a hard series to recommend as it takes so long to get wound up in the world - I estimate that it is around the 1000th page, somewhere in the beginning of The Confusion, that the story starts to kick in. For this reason, anyone I recommend it to may end up beating me up if they make such a magnificent investment of time without the deliciousness taking hold. One should probably go and read Cryptonomicon as an entree to the series - it is to The Baroque Cycle as The Hobbit is to Lord of The Rings.

P.S. Go do that.