Quicksilver

[A] massive tour-de-force- Dense, witty, erudite, packed with fascinating characters, and gripping despite a distended length, Quicksilver is both a worthy prequel to Cryptonomicon, and an indication that Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is shaping up to be a far more impressive literary endeavour than most so-called serious fiction - No scholarly, and intellectually provocative, historical novel has been this much fun since The Name of the Rose. -- Charles Shaar Murray Independent Staggering diversity and detail ... An astonishing achievement. Sunday Telegraph A great, heaving countryside of a book...consistently funny...fluent and elusive, while retaining just the right hint of poison Telegraph Stephenson mixes a library's worth of ideas with compulsive derring-do ... its scope and inventiveness become addictive. Time Out A breathless ride...the writing gives an immersive sense of time and place Face