Just a suggestion regarding my current favourite author.Neal Stephenson started out as a science fiction writer (Snow Crash is brilliant and surreal) but then wrote Crytonomicon, a brilliant geeky mixture of computers, code breaking, action and treasure hunting that jumps between WW2 and the present day.All fine and good, but his next book, Quicksilver took it another step. This is the first book in his baroque cycle and is set in the late 17th century. It's characters are the ancestors of the characters in Cryptonomicon with plenty of real historical figures thrown into the mix. The book is slow but rich in texture and concerns itself with the transition from alchemy to the age of science.Two sequels follow, The Confusion and The System of the World. In these books the pace picks up with piratical adventures, the intricacies of baroque finance, the pursuit of mysterious gold, bloody revenge and a total immersion in the world Stephenson creates.And that's all I'm going to say.
Gus
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