Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780099410690
ISBN number: 0099410699
Label: Arrow Books Ltd
Manufacturer: Arrow Books Ltd
Page Count: 926
Printing Date: April 07, 2005
Publishing house: Arrow Books Ltd
Sale Popularity Level: 2679807
Studio: Arrow Books Ltd
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Product Description:
Neal Stephenson continues his extraordinary Baroque Cycle in this sequel to his bestselling 'Quicksilver', bringing to life a cast of unforgettable characters in a time of breathtaking genius and discovery. It is the late 1600s on the high seas. A group of Barbary galley slaves plot as they ply the oars of a pirate ship, hatching a daring scheme to find an enormous cache of Spanish gold. Amazingly, they succeed - leaving some very unhappy men behind who vow to hunt down the vagabonds and bring them to justice, no matter the cost. Meanwhile, back in France, the beautiful Eliza - toast of Versailles and spy extraordinaire - attempts to return to London with her baby, a child whose paternity is shrouded in mystery. Making her way home, her ship is stopped by a French privateer and she is returned to the Sun King's court. Thrown back into a web of international intrigue, Eliza must contend with all manner of characters, including buccaneers, poisoners, Jesuits, financial manipulators, and even a stray cryptographer or two...
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Rated by buyers 
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Excellent. This continuation of the Baroque Cycle Saga is even more enthralling than Quicksilver. Stephenson maintains his storytelling style of exquisite detail, interspersed with quirky, ribald humour and intellectual subtleties. Expanding the domain of action beyond Europe to North Africa and the meso-American colonies, The Confusion surely sets the stage for a resounding conclusion in System of the World. A masterpiece of intertwined storylines, unexpected developments, and personal struggles. This vast voyage also provides the reader with the context from which our current systems of economy, philosophy, and science emerged. If you have the hours to devote to these tomes, grab all three volumes and immerse yourself in the saga.
Rated by buyers 
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Maybe I'm quibbling, but I feel like I should warn prospective buyers that the binding on the hardcover version of this book is totally insufficient for its size and length. I'm only 200 pages in (so my rating isn't wholly meaningful, but it's required in order to post a review), and the binding is cracking and the book feels as if it's ready to fall apart. The content is great so far, but the prospective buyer should be forewarned.
Rated by buyers -
Even Amazon is confused about the numbering in the series. Timeline-wise, Confusion isn't volume 2; it's volume 4. Its characters' lives pick up right after the end of Odalisque, which followed King of the Vagabonds, which followed Quicksilver.
Having said that, the very first three books were a good read, as was Cryptonomicon. I look forward to Confusion.
Confused yet?
Rated by buyers -
So you've read the first, and you can't help noticing that many people quit on the Baroque trilogy at that point. Should you keep going?
I guess it depends. This is a trilogy that is after enormous ideas. Where a straight history would focus on finance or economics or science or math or transportation or politics or power or even the human heart as the driving force behind history, only a novelist could demonstrate dramatically how all of these forces are related and combined and intertwined.
Or, as Stephenson puts it in this second volume, "Because it made a good story, Bob supposed, and people could only make sense of complicated matters through stories."
Of the three volumes, this is the most narratively straightforward, and it covers virtually the entire planet, focusing mainly on Jack Shaftoe and Eliza. It has everything that makes Stephenson engaging-- some great action sequences, some hilarious bursts of comic scene and dialogue, and large and complex ideas worked out in many ways.
Stephenson remains a master of pacing, and nobody can come up with so many different ways to set scenes of conversation.
And if this trilogy is Lord of the Rings, Cryptonomicon is the Hobbit-- you owe it to yourself to dig out Crypto again for all the many many many ways in which it is linked to this trilogy. Much of what connects them is easily forgotten (I had, for instance, forgotten that the mountain named after Eliza in this trilogy is in fact the site of the data haven in Crypto).
This trilogy is genius writing, and if Stephenson has lapsed in any way, it's in requiring a bit more thinking while providing a bit less mindless spectacle. If Quicksilver didn't quite hook you, I still encourage you to keep reading!
Rated by buyers 
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Not as consistent as Quicksilver as I recall the latter. When it was good (as it often was) it was very good, otherwise it was just so so.
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