Solomon's Gold (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 3, Book 1)
Neal Stephenson
In the year 1714, the world is a most confused and unsteady place - especially London, center of finance, innovation, and conspiracy - when Daniel Waterhouse makes his less-than-triumphant return to England's shores. Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, confidant of the high and mighty, and contemporary of the most brilliant minds of the age, he has braved the merciless sea and an assault by the infamous pirate Blackbeard to help mend the rift between two adversarial geniuses at a princess's behest. But while much has changed outwardly, the duplicity and danger that once drove Daniel to the American Colonies is still coin of the British realm.The Baroque Cycle, Neal Stephenson's award-winning series, spans the late 17th and early 18th centuries, combining history, adventure, science, invention, piracy, and alchemy into one sweeping tale. It is a gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive historical epic populated by the likes of Isaac Newton, William of Orange, Benjamin Franklin, and King Louis XIV, along with some of the most inventive literary characters in modern fiction.Audible's complete and unabridged presentation of The Baroque Cycle was produced in cooperation with Neal Stephenson. Each volume includes an exclusive introduction read by the author.
Publication Year: 2006
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Solomon's Gold was dull. So, so dull. For any other writer, I'd give "dull" two stars. The novel is written in legible English and it isn't actively offensive. However, this is Neal Stephenson. He wrote *Cryptonomicon.* He wrote *Seveneves.* He wrote *The Confusion,* which came immediately before this novel in his Baroque Cycle. Neal gets graded on a curve. *The Confusion* combined Stephenson's love for the Dickensian with a fascinating tale about pirates, princesses, and stolen treasure. *Solomon's Gold* finds Stephenson giving full flight to his compulsion to describe, in excruciating detail, every neighborhood of Early 18th Century London - down to the last cobblestone. To leaven the dreariness, he distracts us with a tale about what a dick Isaac Newton was. This is not the stuff of which 5-star reviews are made. I feel like this book is an example of a writer getting too well-respected. Where was the editor telling him tighten things up, that his 300-page story could have been told in 125 pages, tops? Where were the beta readers, the friends and family who could have put a hand on Stephenson's shoulder and told him, "We love you, but this one's getting away?" Wherever they were, this book could have used them. I'm pressing on with the next book in the Cycle, but it has some amends to make.
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