Allreaders.com
Author Neal Stephenson booklist (click here)

Book Review By David Loftus
The System of the World by Neal Stephenson

The final volume, 891 pages, of Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy centers almost entirely on the year 1714, when the many threads from "Quicksilver" and "The Confusion" come together. Middling scientist Daniel Waterhouse returns to England from his "Technologickal College" project in Boston to try to patch up the vicious feud between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz about who invented calculus. But a bomb nearly kills Dan upon his arrival. Greater powers are in play, because Queen Anne is near death, and royal relations of the Hanoverian line (in Germany) are poised to take over the English throne.

What ties Waterhouse and Newton (head of the Mint) to Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds, is the Solomonic Gold, which is heavier than normal, perhaps because it is a peculiar alloy, and perhaps (as Newton believes) because it has magical qualities. Retrieved from Pacific Islands in "The Confusion" and brought back across North America and the Atlantic to England aboard the good ship "Minerva," it is now being slipped into the coin circulation by "Jack Coiner" (one of Shaftoe's many guises) to screw up England's economy, and sought by Newton for its potential alchemical properties. Jack ends up a prisoner in the Tower of London, destined for hanging, drawing, and quartering. Of course, Jack's great love Eliza, a former slave of the Turks now ennobled as a duchess (and told Jack some 20 years before that he would only see her again on the day he died), works behind the scenes.

As with the preceding two volumes, there are many famous historic walk-ons, from Peter the Great of Russia to Christopher Wren, and plenty of action: betrayals, knifings, swordplay, a miraculous resurrection from death, even a duel with Hobbits (or Haubitzes -- very crude cannons) within the Tower of London prison complex. The sharp-eyed reader may spot references to everything from Macbeth to Monty Python.


Plot & Themes
Tone of book? - thoughtful
Time/era of story - 1600-1899 -
Life of a profession:
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Job/Profession/Status story Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 60's-90's
Ethnicity/Nationality

Main Adversary
Identity: - an organization
How sensitive is this character?

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 4 ()
Europe Yes
European country: - England/UK
City? Yes
City: - London
Misc setting

Writing Style
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - actual description of hetero sex
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Back To Main Menu