In the past month I read both the second and third volumes in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle: The Confusion and The System of the World. I'd read the first volume Quicksilver almost two years ago after it came out, but had avoided reading the next two during the school year since they're both so long. I enjoyed both, but also was ready to be done with them by the time I got halfway through The System of the World. As is typical for Stephenson there are many diversions and tangents along the way; in these books the tangents are mainly about natural philosophy (science), banking, and alchemy. While I liked them, I'll probably find it hard to recommend them to most people purely for the length. If you're curious but haven't read much Stephenson first, I'd say try Cyrptonomicon before you tackle these as it'll give you some idea of his writing style though is set in a different era of history.
posted by Kristin Buxton at 12:25 PM