Series: Book 3 in the Baroque Cycle (3 Volume) series
Rating: *****
Tags: Fiction, General, Historical, Lang:en
Summary
'Tis done. The world is a most confused and unsteady place --
especially London, center of finance, innovation, and
conspiracy -- in the year 1714, when Daniel Waterhouse makes
his less-than-triumphant return to England's shores. Aging
Puritan and Natural Philosopher, confidant of the high and
mighty and contemporary of the most brilliant minds of the
age, he has braved the merciless sea and an assault by the
infamous pirate Blackbeard to help mend the rift between two
adversarial geniuses at a princess's behest. But while much
has changed outwardly, the duplicity and danger that once
drove Daniel to the American Colonies is still coin of the
British realm. No sooner has Daniel set foot on his homeland when he is
embroiled in a dark conflict that has been raging in the
shadows for decades. It is a secret war between the
brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist
Isaac Newton and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter
Jack the Coiner, a.k.a. Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds.
Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile
level, as Half-Cocked Jack plots a daring assault on the
Tower itself, aiming for nothing less than the total
corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system. Unbeknownst to all, it is love that set the Coiner on his
traitorous course; the desperate need to protect the woman of
his heart -- the remarkable Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon-Qwghlm
-- from those who would destroy her should he fail.
Meanwhile, Daniel Waterhouse and his Clubb of unlikely
cronies comb city and country for clues to the identity of
the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural
Philosophers with Infernal Devices -- as political factions
jockey for position while awaiting the impending death of the
ailing queen; as the "holy grail" of alchemy, the key to life
eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton, yet
is closer than he ever imagined; as the greatest
technological innovation in history slowly takes shape in
Waterhouse's manufactory. Everything that was will be changed forever ...
The System of the World is the concluding volume
in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, begun with
Quicksilver and continued in
The Confusion. **