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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Confusion - the new Neal Stephenson book

20:05 / 05.04.04

Has anyone else been reading this? It arrived at the weekend, and I am working through it. My thoughts are still pretty sketchy, as I am only a third through it, but on the whole it seems quite good. The pacing is quicker than in "Quicksilver" with lots more action going on. You see less of Daniel Waterhouse (at least so far) which is a shame, as I like him. However you see more of the Shaftoes, which can only be a good thing. Any thoughts?

11:43 / 06.04.04

I was going to give it a go, but it seems a bit daunting. I loved Cryptonomicon, heard a rumour somewhere he was going to follow it up, which I suppose he has in a way, but historical novels... I kind of tend to think yuck. For much the same reasons, I haven't exactly rushed out to get the new David Mitchell either.

nedrichards is confused

16:47 / 08.04.04

Just ordered my copy off amazon so I'll get back here in a couple of weeks or so.

13:48 / 16.04.04

I just finished this yesterday, though I am still marshalling my thoughts. I have to say I felt the story dragged a bit at times, though the adventures of the cabal were consistently entertaining. I have to say I really like Jack Shaftoe, he's a great character. I'm less sure about Eliza and her plotlines, though that might be because I have a fairly low tolerance for courtly inrigue and the like. However it does end on somewhat of a cliffhanger, which while good for sales always kinds of annoys me. A story should be written well enough that I should want to pick up the next installment, without being forced to just to find out what will happen. Anyone else been reading this?

06:15 / 17.04.04

Still working my way through. The Shaftoe bits are very complex. I can't remember how he knew how Arcachon related to Eliza, though.
Good interview here.

Ghost Daybreaker

23:15 / 18.04.04

I am finishing up Quicksilver right now (pg. 828) so I can start reading The Confusion.

Jack connected Eliza to D'Arcachon because of the white horses with pink eyes. Which I believe was all she knew about the man who sold her and her mom into slavery.

nedrichards is confused

10:09 / 19.04.04

350 pages in and it seems much easier to get into than Quicksilver. Perhaps that's becuase I'm already acquainted with the characters though. So, small mind dumps.

Both Quicksilver and The Confusion have a number influential Cabals - any bets that we'll see another for 'The System Of The World'?

Eliza's story is much more of a drier continuation of Cryptonomicon - the construction of money, power and secrets as we know them today. Interesting that Stephenson feels the need to leaven all of these stories with copious helpings of Shaftoe. Now that Jack has gone into the East (bear in mind I'm only half way through) Bob has to come into the foreground and undercut some of the Leibniz to Fatio style scenes. Shaftoe as authorial saftey fuse so to speak.

I will confess to loving the courtly set pieces, although they're almost entirely fictional they feel more true to life than anything else in the books. The Fall Of Batavia in quicksilver and Jean Bart's Masque in this said more to me about Artifice in Early Modern Courtly Life than a terms worth of doing it at university. Possibly because I suck.

nedrichards is confused

10:25 / 19.04.04

Oh sorry, just to add that there's collborative annotations (with lots of content by Stephenson himself) for this book as well as Quicksilver.