The book cannot be described as a fast-paced page-turner by any means, but what it is is a tremendously deep and vivid exploration of an interesting (but underrated) period of history. The other two are more restrained with lots of scene-setting and historical information. The second plot is action-packed with battles, fights and political intrigue. Quicksilver is the first in a monumental trilogy and is in itself a dense, multi-layered work featuring hundreds of characters divided into three plot strands, roughly summarised as 1) the friendship of (fictional) Daniel Waterhouse and Isaac Newton, also incorporating the Restoration and the Great Fire of London 2) the adventures of the Shaftoe brothers and various others in Vienna, Paris, Versailles and the Dutch Republic and 3) the Glorious Revolution and the continuing adventures of Waterhouse and co. Taking place from 1655 to 1713, Quicksilver is the story of individuals scattered across Europe and the Thirteen Colonies, all being hurled by science, progress and history into the brave new world is dawning, the information age.

In Europe the scientific war is being fought between the two inventors of calculus, Newton and Leibniz, a battle which will end with one being hailed the father of modern physics, the other reduced to a historical footnote. Science is revolutionising the world every bit as dramatically as war. The old order is beginning its slow, two-hundred-year-long death. A new nation is being born across the Atlantic. The monarchies of Europe are being overthrown, starting in England.

Neal stephenson confusion