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greaydean's review against another edition
3.0
Neal can write and write. I enjoyed this book on audio, but I don't think I would have made it reading it in the standard fashion.
It is a very cohesive story. He does an incredible job tying up all the ends. He sets things up books in advance. He is definitely very skilled.
My personal preference is a little less description and faster moving, but then again I am spoiled by my age.
It is a very cohesive story. He does an incredible job tying up all the ends. He sets things up books in advance. He is definitely very skilled.
My personal preference is a little less description and faster moving, but then again I am spoiled by my age.
bret's review against another edition
4.0
Thank you for wrapping up your epic in a satisfying way that my months of reading the trilogy (along side simple fiction from other authors to let my brain rest) will not be counted in vain.
Well done.
Well done.
jurgenappelo's review against another edition
4.0
Great series. Fantastic writer. Though it was a bit too longwinded for me.
ericrazz's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
jason_ell's review against another edition
3.5
Stephenson at his sloggiest. This trilogy is full of interesting ideas and storytelling but it's also just so full of diversions and long-winded chapters of so little.
elctrc's review against another edition
3.0
I finally finished the Baroque Cycle (after what felt like several decades). Throughout my struggle to finish the 2000+ page trilogy I found myself continually wondering why I was still plowing through. Yes, there were great characters, and yes, Stephenson has an amazing way with dialogue (IMHO one of the best), and he has really captured a time period -- when natural philosophers and pirates were kings. But his long-winded passages often made me begin to skim (not something I am proud of). The vast list of characters (barons, kings, etc.) were impossible to follow.
The only way I could possibly recommend this vast tome is if the reader is comfortable reading through parts that make no sense, assuming that they will eventually. While most of the time things did come together in my mind, often balls were left in the air with no final understanding. In fact, several characters vanished altogether from the story, once they had served their purpose.
I did get a bit teary at one character's demise, which is a good sign.
But in the ending lies no payoff. In fact, there are so many characters that the climax takes 400 pages to wind down just to attempt to tie everyone up. And it is too damn neat. A love story intertwined throughout the book never comes to its proper conclusion (whether positive or negative), but just sort of arrives at a certain point (as if you were watching two ships at impossible ends of the Earth in one moment, and the next they are running in parallel).
(sigh)
Hundreds of hours of my life have been invested and I am unsure if it was worth it. But it is done and I am glad I have put it behind me and it can sit on my shelf, as it were, until someone is bold enough to borrow...
The only way I could possibly recommend this vast tome is if the reader is comfortable reading through parts that make no sense, assuming that they will eventually. While most of the time things did come together in my mind, often balls were left in the air with no final understanding. In fact, several characters vanished altogether from the story, once they had served their purpose.
I did get a bit teary at one character's demise, which is a good sign.
But in the ending lies no payoff. In fact, there are so many characters that the climax takes 400 pages to wind down just to attempt to tie everyone up. And it is too damn neat. A love story intertwined throughout the book never comes to its proper conclusion (whether positive or negative), but just sort of arrives at a certain point (as if you were watching two ships at impossible ends of the Earth in one moment, and the next they are running in parallel).
(sigh)
Hundreds of hours of my life have been invested and I am unsure if it was worth it. But it is done and I am glad I have put it behind me and it can sit on my shelf, as it were, until someone is bold enough to borrow...
peerio's review against another edition
4.0
That was a long read. Going to miss Jack, Eliza and Daniel!
nearside's review against another edition
5.0
A very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. "The System of the World" adds some intriguing context to the backstory for both the Cycle and Cryptonomicon, and provides a very tense nail-biter of a climax that left me exhausted, but in a good way.