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nearside's review
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.
ianl1963's review
4.0
As much for the series. Simon Prebble helps as most excellent.
Think author addicted to some synonym algorithm as using altitude inappropriately seems strange predilection.
Best of authors works for me.
Think author addicted to some synonym algorithm as using altitude inappropriately seems strange predilection.
Best of authors works for me.
msladyreads's review against another edition
4.0
I cheated. I didn't read the first two volumes in the trilogy. But in the long run, I don't think it matters. The System of the World is, ahem, enough of a world and story in of itself, that there was no back story necessary to understand the plot, or the characters. Enjoyed this even through all the dense scientific bits.
mikehex's review
5.0
Well, I finished it! After a bunch of false starts over the years, I made a goal to finish all three of these this summer. It's been a warm October, so I guess this counts as still summer.
It's definitely worth it, especially if you like Stephenson. I found that recognizing when you were at the start of 1,2,3, or more page digression about the layout of London streets and buildings and then skipping it was helpful in getting through it.
The cleverness sometimes had me stopping to appreciate it. The attachment to the characters waxed and waned over the course of the books, but that's not Stephenson's strength anyway. It's all about learning new things while riding a plot that may or may not move forward.
An amazing accomplishment.
It's definitely worth it, especially if you like Stephenson. I found that recognizing when you were at the start of 1,2,3, or more page digression about the layout of London streets and buildings and then skipping it was helpful in getting through it.
The cleverness sometimes had me stopping to appreciate it. The attachment to the characters waxed and waned over the course of the books, but that's not Stephenson's strength anyway. It's all about learning new things while riding a plot that may or may not move forward.
An amazing accomplishment.
elsie_n's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
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? No
4.0
just_justin's review
adventurous
challenging
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
ajmaybe's review against another edition
5.0
As with the other books in the Baroque Cycle, I find it nearly impossible to review the single book outside of the context of the rest of the cycle. With Quicksilver and The Confusion, I attempted some meager separate evaluation. Here, however, this rating and review should be interpreted as really applying to the Baroque Cycle in full, rather than to The System of the World alone.
Bottom line: the three-book Baroque Cycle is definitely worth reading and, if you can get through it, *will* permanently alter your brain and enrich your perceptions and experiences of the world (that's my primary criterion for a five-star rating).
More particulars: This is great historical fiction, and a treasury of rich ideas, as well as wit, characters, and story details that manage to surprise. Unusually for me, many of the historical characters are ones about whom I know something. Not so much the kings, adventurers, and aristocrats; I suspect folks with a better head for historic detail will find more that is familiar there. These stories are also chock full of philosophers/mathematicians/scientists, at a time when these ways of knowing were not yet so separated. In many cases, these are people whose work I know reasonably well.
Stephenson manages something I value highly, though: without contradicting the known writing, he imaginatively embeds these thinkers in the very real, very messy, very disordered times and places in which they lived. He weaves their thoughts and lives together with a range of wholey fictional characters we quickly grow to know and love, making the times palpable in a way that renders the fugue of war, class, personal lives, everyday dangers, natural philosophy, and everything else feel entirely natural. And one result is that the familiar thinkers are suddenly new, removed from the received understandings and open to knew ones. In particular, they are turned around and glanced from different angles that encourage thinking about the relationships between them, their projects, their times, and the world we live in now.
Bonus for the applied ontologists, semantic technologists, information scientists, computists, etc., among us: if you have not read this cycle, you must. It is historical *fiction*, yes, but it is our history most directly -- the long, varied, differently understood history of philosophy, logic, mathematics, and engineering all coming together to try to make something with and about knowledge, with some idea that it might matter to the way the world functions, whether the rest of the world knows it or not.
Bottom line: the three-book Baroque Cycle is definitely worth reading and, if you can get through it, *will* permanently alter your brain and enrich your perceptions and experiences of the world (that's my primary criterion for a five-star rating).
More particulars: This is great historical fiction, and a treasury of rich ideas, as well as wit, characters, and story details that manage to surprise. Unusually for me, many of the historical characters are ones about whom I know something. Not so much the kings, adventurers, and aristocrats; I suspect folks with a better head for historic detail will find more that is familiar there. These stories are also chock full of philosophers/mathematicians/scientists, at a time when these ways of knowing were not yet so separated. In many cases, these are people whose work I know reasonably well.
Stephenson manages something I value highly, though: without contradicting the known writing, he imaginatively embeds these thinkers in the very real, very messy, very disordered times and places in which they lived. He weaves their thoughts and lives together with a range of wholey fictional characters we quickly grow to know and love, making the times palpable in a way that renders the fugue of war, class, personal lives, everyday dangers, natural philosophy, and everything else feel entirely natural. And one result is that the familiar thinkers are suddenly new, removed from the received understandings and open to knew ones. In particular, they are turned around and glanced from different angles that encourage thinking about the relationships between them, their projects, their times, and the world we live in now.
Bonus for the applied ontologists, semantic technologists, information scientists, computists, etc., among us: if you have not read this cycle, you must. It is historical *fiction*, yes, but it is our history most directly -- the long, varied, differently understood history of philosophy, logic, mathematics, and engineering all coming together to try to make something with and about knowledge, with some idea that it might matter to the way the world functions, whether the rest of the world knows it or not.
jammasterjamie's review
4.0
A solid ending to an extremely long and occasionally overly meandering (I'm looking at you, Volume Two) narrative, wherein it all comes together quite nicely and with a good deal of poetic justice. I don't know that I'll be racing to re-read The Baroque Cycle any time soon, but I'm glad I got to ensconce myself in that world for a while. Stephenson is a mighty talent.
catbooking's review
5.0
I would have to write a book to cover all the things I want to talk about. There are so many emotions and concepts and themes, I don't think I can ever coherently organize them. What is even worse, just thinking about aspects of the books, makes me feel mournful that I will never read about the characters again. There will be other books I will love, and other characters whose stories will sway my emotions, but these specific characters will always be in the past.
I wish I could forget this series, so I can read it all over again. I wish I could forget Daniel and Eliza and Jack, and discover their stories from the very beginning.
This series will be the exception to my rule about re-reading books I have already read. I will re-read it even before I had a chance to forget it, if only in hopes of capturing those emotions it made me feel the first time around.
This is such an incredible series. Thank you Neal Stephenson for taking me on this incredible journey!
I wish I could forget this series, so I can read it all over again. I wish I could forget Daniel and Eliza and Jack, and discover their stories from the very beginning.
This series will be the exception to my rule about re-reading books I have already read. I will re-read it even before I had a chance to forget it, if only in hopes of capturing those emotions it made me feel the first time around.
This is such an incredible series. Thank you Neal Stephenson for taking me on this incredible journey!