King of the Vagabonds: The Baroque Cycle #2

Should the publisher have printed King of the Vagabonds separately? Sure, why not? Where they missed was in not clearly labelling it for those of us who bought Quicksilver, in which this book is contained as the second part. Readers felt ripped-off when they purchased a book they'd already read, and that's understandable. But the blame goes to the marketing department of the publisher, not to Neal Stephenson, who wrote an incredibly fascinating and diverse portrait of the world at the time when knowledge was first beinging to replace belief; when science emerged out of religion; when the world as we know it now was first being born. And it is an amazing accomplishment--for a second, just say out loud that someone could make a best-seller out of an eight volume series about the acrimony between Newton and Leibnitz over the discovery of the calculus, about the necessity of a stable currency, about the birth of 'natural philosophy', about the beginnings of cryptography; and that they'd be able to put in a grand showdown between alchemists and pirates--it sounds absurd, doesn't it? But Stephenson carrys it off magnificently. This particular volume (yes, it IS the second book of the large volume Quicksilver--if your Quicksilver is divided into three books, you've read it; if your Quicksliver ends with Watterson escaping from pirates, you haven't and it's safe to buy) is a complete and shocking contrast to the first book in the series. That book was about the birth of science, it was very intellectual with little action and focussed mainly on the characters of Daniel Waterhouse and Issac Newton. King of the Vagabonds could not be more different--none of the characters in the first book appear (and I kept waiting for them to do so), none of the action overlaps, and the themes are completely different. Where Quicksilver (the book, not the volume) was about ideas, King of the Vagabonds is about action. It's pirates and gypsies and fighting and cavorting mostly through continental Europe. Not until the next volume (Odalesque) will any of the characters from the first two books meet, and then only incidentally. The big confrontations come much later, so don't expect it now. I throughly loved The Baroque Cycle, as did my 20 year old son. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you are interested in ideas, if you enjoy the detailed portrayal of times and places other than our own, you might love it as much as we did. I was only sorry it was only 8 volumes.

First off, this book and all the books in Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, however packaged and numbered, make for excellent reading. My stars are based on the excellence of the books themselves. As for the reviewers who feel that repackaging is evil or greedy, well, okay. But if I were the author, I would be delighted that the publisher is investing the money and effort to repackage the books in a way that will bring them to a wider audience. The new titles on the cover are racier and more true to the content; "King of the Vagabonds" and "Odalisque" will pull more readers to pick up a copy than "The Confusion" ever could. "Quicksilver", however, holds its own as a title in this company, so keep it. Breaking up the enormous page counts into more tractable sizes will pull in many of my friends, who simply refuse to pick up fat books. They don't have the time, they're afraid the book will be hard reading -- whatever. So the publisher is accommodating that potential readership, and at the same time returning to the days of skinny book classics. (Ever read The Great Gatsby? That's a novella or novellette, not a novel! Ditto most of Hemingway's stuff. Ditto C.S. Forester -- novels, sure, but SKINNY novels.) The fact of the matter is, it's cheaper to print one fat book than three skinny ones. In choosing to repackage the Baroque Series books in a more extended manner, the publisher is taking a calculated risk; they're boosting their costs, but also expanding their potential market to more first-time readers, who will then buy the complete inventory of Stephenson books once they get hooked. So, good for Harper. And go, Neal Stephenson!

Since the "Baroque Cycle" novels are so large, it looks like the paperback versions will be split in twain. It make sense, although it looks a little greedy. Anyway, if you've already read QUICKSILVER, skip this book. If you haven't, dig in! Stephenson's epic historical fiction is a delight. His mix of history and politics (Louis XIV vs. William of Orange), math and science (Newton vs. Liebnitz), and rollicking adventure (the eponymous "Half-Cocked" Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds) makes for a rich reading experience. Stephenson gets a lot of flack for his tendency to "infodump" (go off on long factual tangents), but if you have an interest in the subject matter they just fly by.