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The System Of The World |
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The final installment in Stephenson's massive Baroque Cycle trilogy begins in the year 1714.
William Morrow & Company, 912 pages
10/01/2004
$27.95
ISBN: 0060523875
Fiction
Historical Fiction
Science Fiction & Fantasy
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
The average user rating for this book is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Matthew P gave it a10:
Having just finished Neal Stephensons's Baroque Cycle, my initial impression is one of regret - regret that the story had come to an end. Along with the Lord of the Rings and possibly a couple of other books and series, this is one of the few that I will be re-reading, likely more than once. In fact, after reading the novels Quicksilver, King of the Vagabonds and Odalesque, I found that I needed to read them again before diving into The Confusion and The System of the World. Now that I've finished I am inclined to explore the entire work again right away. Of course, there were parts that I liked better than others, but Neal's way with words keeps me interested even during the slow parts and he is one of only a handful of writers who can repeatedly make me laugh out loud while reading his prose. On another level, his usually understated description of the deep and intense emotional experiences suffered by his characters, particularly Jack, Eliza and Daniel, reveal his deep understanding of the human condition as it is influenced by place, culture and events while also illustrating the natural resilience that people posess to rise above the common level when necessary no matter what their gifts or handicaps may be. This echoes his characters in Cryptonomicron. The obvious relational ties really make this a part of the same opus. If you enjoy immersion in a real (though imagined) world of real (though fictional) people with a generous dash of deep thought, interesting history and wry social comment thrown in, not to mention frequent humor, then I highly recommend the Baroque Cycle. Personally, I agree with J.R.R. Tolkien's remarks on the Lord of the Rings, that it should have been longer, and this is also true to Mr. Stephenson's tale. Perhaps he is not finished yet....
Pat M gave it a10:
This series is on my top ten best books ever list. Challanging, entertaining: requires a brain to read. Excellent!
brian w gave it a10:
incredibly smart and fun
Mark S gave it an8:
Good, but slow. Plot works out but he doesn't ever get up to the same level of enthusiam as in the previous 2 books. Usually, by page 400, things are in riotous full gear for the rest of the book.
Stone J gave it a9:
Early on in The System of the World, Daniel Waterhouse laments that his panoramic life has had "[t]oo many threads, and too much information for his stiff old brain to cope with." One suspects this is also Neal Stephenson's sly jab at the reader, who has an equally confounding task at hand. One year, two volumes, and some three thousand pages later (reportedly all written in longhand), the American author wraps up The Baroque Cycle, his epic opus to the complete overhaul of modern thinking. True to form, he completes it in all its dumbfounding, anachronistic, mercurial glory. It is a Lord of the Rings for history buffs, complete with towers, battles, and a mysterious ring. Following directly after Quicksilver and The Confusion, The System of the World plunges headlong into 1714 England. The country is in disarray; "Parliament had its knobby fingers around the Monarch's throat . . . Whigs and Tories were joined in an eternal shin-kicking contest to determine which faction should have the honor of throttling her Majesty, and how hard." Similarly, Stephenson's characters are tangled in a monkey's fist of plotlines. Scientific auteur Isaac Newton obsesses over Solomonic Gold, purported to have properties essential to Alchemy. Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon-Qwghlm, schemes to ensure Princess Caroline attains the Throne of England. Daniel Waterhouse, aging Natural Philosopher, is constantly at risk of premature death by Infernal Devices, as hidden time bombs go off around him with surprising regularity. Finally, there's the picaresque Jack Shaftoe, a man "so surpassingly and transcendently bad that it was necessary for him to be put to death by the most gruesome and, hence, entertaining means that the English mind could conceive of." Now a counterfeiter, Jack plans an attack that could cripple England's monetary structure while still in its infancy. Stephenson's world, while baffling, is never dull, and rarely less than fascinating. As Western society evolves from its established doctrine of Monarchy to the understanding that money makes the world go round, Stephenson marshals his talents, summarizing a period where, like today, logic goes head-to-head with ritual and fear, and the winner is always in doubt. As usual, there is never a theme Stephenson doesn't pursue. The System of the World is chock full of philosophical discourse, scientific reasoning, and mad chases through London's seamy underbelly. Stephenson, a genius at plotting, performs some sort of literary miracle by keeping everything organized. It is testament to his mad skills that a discussion as to who first invented calculus, Newton or von Leibniz, is as exciting as Jack's duel in an opera house, swords clanging and blood spurting as Georg Friedrich Handel frantically attempts to continue his conducting duties. By its touching finale, it is clear that The Baroque Cycle is in a category all its own, a tribute to anyone who fights ignorance, or pursues insane theories with joyful abandon. It has become that rarest of creatures, a three thousand-word tome that you don't want to end. The System of the World, like both its predecessors and Stephenson himself, is complicated, maddening, bizarrely funny, and spectacular.
David O gave it a8:
Keep in mind that The System of the World isn't really the third volume of a trilogy. As Stephenson himself has pointed out a number of times, the Baroque Cycle is really a unified work published in three volumes as a result of the exigencies of publishing and book-making. What we're really looking at, then, is a novel that runs 2600 pages, give or take. Clearly, this sort of thing isn't for everyone, but for those who enjoy nothing more than to immerse themselves in a fully imagined world created by an arguably brilliant writer, there are ample rewards here. Stephenson's gift has always been to blend great storytelling with ample servings of factual and intellectual content, and that tradition continues in the Baroque Cycle.
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