"Rich , lush and rivetting historical"
Princess Caroline commands Enoch Root to go to Boston to
persuade computational systems developer Daniel Waterhouse
to come to Europe. The royal wants Daniel to mediate a
geometrically growing mathematical squabble. Isaac Newton
and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz claim the invention of
calculus. The two geniuses are locked in a feud that
could destroy the enlightened foundations of empirical
data as the basis to support scientific claims. Daniel, a
friend of both scientists, sails to Europe as he muses
over the scientific revolution that took root in the
previous century. Urchin Jack Shaftoe treks across Europe doing odd jobs
like pretending to be a Musketeer until he meets Eliza in
Austria. She is an English woman who escaped a Turkish
harem that was her home as a teen. She wants vengeance on
the merchant that sold her into slavery and feels Jack can
help her achieve her objective. Ultimately she works her
way up from the former muddy street rascal to English and
French royalty. QUICKSILVER is a delightful, complex telling of the birth
and impact of the scientific revolution. The story line
recreates some of the greats like Newton, Leibniz, and
Hooke as they interact with key fictional figures. The
novel contains three "books" that focus on the Age of
Reason so that the audience feels they are traveling with
Daniel, Jack, and Eliza. Neal Stephenson makes the late
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries seem vividly
alive
at a critical junction in history when reason and
technology
changed the world as few eras did before or since. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted September 26, 2003
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