I just read these books recently.
The Baroque Cycle is a trilogy of three books by Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World.
It's not AH, it's historical fiction, set in the period from 1655 to 1714, mainly in England, France and Germany. It has some fantasy elements, but they are subtle enough that they can be ignored. There is no real plot, just lots of subplots centering around the three main characters, Daniel Waterhouse, the son of a Puritan, Jack Shaftoe, an orphan and vagabond, and Eliza, a virginal teenage concubine in the harem of the Turkish Sultan.
It should really have been called The Enlightenment Cycle as that is what the book is really about - the clash between two worldviews, on the one hand Catholicism, Aristocracy and the Divine Right of Kings, and on the other hand Puritanism, Natural Philosophy, Commercialism and Parliamentarianism.
So is it a good book? Well, I really enjoyed it. Stephenson comes up with plots and characters that are really inventive and fun, and he manages to weave loads of real historical people into the plot too, from William Penn to Blackbeard. But I noticed there are a lot of negative reviews at amazon.com, people complaining that the book is too long, that Stephenson's prose style is too long winded and that the book is not as fast paced as his previous novels. Well, each of the three books is about 900 pages of fairly small print, so yes, it is quite long. And Stephenson's prose style does raise the suspician that he is being paid by the word; I guess it is a matter of personal taste whether this bothers you or not. As for pacing . . . well, there are parts of the novel that are very "educational", lots of explanation about politics and science and the relationships of various branches of European nobility. The novel is about two thirds "educational historical fiction" to one third "swashbuckling historical fiction", and I can understand how people who are not interested in history might find it very boring. On the other hand, if you like the kind of historical fiction which is fun to read but also teaches you about stuff you didn't know, this is what to pick up when you've finished all the Flashman books. I rate it 10/10.
By the way, some editions of the books come with useful stuff such as maps and lists of characters, which are a great help in keeping track of what's going on.
Okay, Provender Gleed by James Lovegrove. Maybe I should quote a paragraph from the novel.
"She spent a few moments inspecting the books, seeing if any new titles had appeared. This was Damien's ideological library, set apart from the run-of-the-mill hardbacks and paperbacks that could be found elsewhere in the flat. The books in the bedroom were the ones he returned to again and again, the ones he cherished. Academic treatises and works of political philosophy rubbed shoulders with less reasoned but more impassioned tomes. Anthologies of anti-Family writing. Tracts deploring the Families' stranglehold over ordinary people's lives. Angry denunciations of the public's fascination with all things Familial. And of course, the famous what-if? novel, penned by Anonymous, The Meritocrats, which posited a world where the Borgias and the de'Medicis had not joined forced in the Sixteenth Century and become the de facto rulers of Italy and therefore had not inspired the rise of Families in other nations. Utopic in outlook, and a dense and immensely dull read, The Meritocrats had arrived on the anti-Familial underground scene roughly three years back and swiftly became a sensation. It was reputed to have found a home in more than a million households across the world, despite being available only in blurrily-printed and badly-bound foolscap samizdat form, and was a particular favourite among university students, who passed it around like a naughty secret. Is herself did not know anyone other than Damien who owned a copy and thought the 'million' estimate might be an exaggeration. She had also, despite several noble attempts, never managed to finish the book. She was somewhat ashamed of that. It was a seminal work. As Damien once said, 'Anyone who hates the Families and hasn't read The Meritocrats doesn't truly hate the Families.' And maybe that was so and maybe Is didn't truly hate the Families - but she thought she did, and she thought that hatred wasn't all you needed to get through to the end of Anonymous's 750-page doorstop. The patience of a saint and the endurance of a marathon runner were also required. It was a novel in name only. In lieu of plot there was a series of barely connected events. In lieu of characters there was a cast of ciphers who parroted the author's opinions. Each time she had borrowed Damien's copy, Is had vowed to plough all the way through. Each time, usually somewhere around page fifty, it had defeated her."
Provender Gleed is basically a standard thriller with a romantic subplot set in a rather eccentric alternate timeline, the main character being the twenty-four year old Provender Gleed, only son of Britain's most powerful Family, whose mother is trying persuade him to marry, and therefore ensure the continuation of the Gleed line. Although the plot is nothing special the writing whisks you along - Lovegrove's prose style is fluent and witty and reminded me of Iain Banks or Christopher Brookmyre. The one thing that annoyed me was that even though the POD was in the Sixteenth Century the ATL shared many of the same people, companies and slang with OTL. Totally implausible, but then I suppose other, more experienced AH writers do this sort of thing too. I give it 8/10 but I don't think it's the sort of book anyone would want to read again and again. More of a good relaxing holiday/commuter read.
My copy was a "very large paperback" version. I don't know whether it will coming out in normal size paperback but I hope so. Lovegrove is an author who deserves to be a success.
Finally The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. The POD is that Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 US Presidential Election. It's written from the point of view of Philip Roth, as a nine-year old Jewish boy. What I really liked about this novel was that it felt so realistic. There is a nice sense of uncertainty all the way though - is Lindbergh merely a right-wing isolationist or is he an out and out Nazi? I also thought the rather weird ending was quite realistic too - in my opinion it's no stranger than many of the bizarre and unpredictable things that have happened in real American history - but I can see how some people might think it's completely implausible. This book made me think, which is good. Roth even includes an appendix at the back of the book with info on the historical figures in the book, which I appreciated. I was slightly disappointed by the way Roth's ending made for a rather boring timeline, but you can't have everything. 10/10 and you will probably be able to find the book cheap at this time of year, seeing as how it's been such a big seller.
The Baroque Cycle is a trilogy of three books by Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World.
It's not AH, it's historical fiction, set in the period from 1655 to 1714, mainly in England, France and Germany. It has some fantasy elements, but they are subtle enough that they can be ignored. There is no real plot, just lots of subplots centering around the three main characters, Daniel Waterhouse, the son of a Puritan, Jack Shaftoe, an orphan and vagabond, and Eliza, a virginal teenage concubine in the harem of the Turkish Sultan.
It should really have been called The Enlightenment Cycle as that is what the book is really about - the clash between two worldviews, on the one hand Catholicism, Aristocracy and the Divine Right of Kings, and on the other hand Puritanism, Natural Philosophy, Commercialism and Parliamentarianism.
So is it a good book? Well, I really enjoyed it. Stephenson comes up with plots and characters that are really inventive and fun, and he manages to weave loads of real historical people into the plot too, from William Penn to Blackbeard. But I noticed there are a lot of negative reviews at amazon.com, people complaining that the book is too long, that Stephenson's prose style is too long winded and that the book is not as fast paced as his previous novels. Well, each of the three books is about 900 pages of fairly small print, so yes, it is quite long. And Stephenson's prose style does raise the suspician that he is being paid by the word; I guess it is a matter of personal taste whether this bothers you or not. As for pacing . . . well, there are parts of the novel that are very "educational", lots of explanation about politics and science and the relationships of various branches of European nobility. The novel is about two thirds "educational historical fiction" to one third "swashbuckling historical fiction", and I can understand how people who are not interested in history might find it very boring. On the other hand, if you like the kind of historical fiction which is fun to read but also teaches you about stuff you didn't know, this is what to pick up when you've finished all the Flashman books. I rate it 10/10.
By the way, some editions of the books come with useful stuff such as maps and lists of characters, which are a great help in keeping track of what's going on.
Okay, Provender Gleed by James Lovegrove. Maybe I should quote a paragraph from the novel.
"She spent a few moments inspecting the books, seeing if any new titles had appeared. This was Damien's ideological library, set apart from the run-of-the-mill hardbacks and paperbacks that could be found elsewhere in the flat. The books in the bedroom were the ones he returned to again and again, the ones he cherished. Academic treatises and works of political philosophy rubbed shoulders with less reasoned but more impassioned tomes. Anthologies of anti-Family writing. Tracts deploring the Families' stranglehold over ordinary people's lives. Angry denunciations of the public's fascination with all things Familial. And of course, the famous what-if? novel, penned by Anonymous, The Meritocrats, which posited a world where the Borgias and the de'Medicis had not joined forced in the Sixteenth Century and become the de facto rulers of Italy and therefore had not inspired the rise of Families in other nations. Utopic in outlook, and a dense and immensely dull read, The Meritocrats had arrived on the anti-Familial underground scene roughly three years back and swiftly became a sensation. It was reputed to have found a home in more than a million households across the world, despite being available only in blurrily-printed and badly-bound foolscap samizdat form, and was a particular favourite among university students, who passed it around like a naughty secret. Is herself did not know anyone other than Damien who owned a copy and thought the 'million' estimate might be an exaggeration. She had also, despite several noble attempts, never managed to finish the book. She was somewhat ashamed of that. It was a seminal work. As Damien once said, 'Anyone who hates the Families and hasn't read The Meritocrats doesn't truly hate the Families.' And maybe that was so and maybe Is didn't truly hate the Families - but she thought she did, and she thought that hatred wasn't all you needed to get through to the end of Anonymous's 750-page doorstop. The patience of a saint and the endurance of a marathon runner were also required. It was a novel in name only. In lieu of plot there was a series of barely connected events. In lieu of characters there was a cast of ciphers who parroted the author's opinions. Each time she had borrowed Damien's copy, Is had vowed to plough all the way through. Each time, usually somewhere around page fifty, it had defeated her."
Provender Gleed is basically a standard thriller with a romantic subplot set in a rather eccentric alternate timeline, the main character being the twenty-four year old Provender Gleed, only son of Britain's most powerful Family, whose mother is trying persuade him to marry, and therefore ensure the continuation of the Gleed line. Although the plot is nothing special the writing whisks you along - Lovegrove's prose style is fluent and witty and reminded me of Iain Banks or Christopher Brookmyre. The one thing that annoyed me was that even though the POD was in the Sixteenth Century the ATL shared many of the same people, companies and slang with OTL. Totally implausible, but then I suppose other, more experienced AH writers do this sort of thing too. I give it 8/10 but I don't think it's the sort of book anyone would want to read again and again. More of a good relaxing holiday/commuter read.
My copy was a "very large paperback" version. I don't know whether it will coming out in normal size paperback but I hope so. Lovegrove is an author who deserves to be a success.
Finally The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. The POD is that Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 US Presidential Election. It's written from the point of view of Philip Roth, as a nine-year old Jewish boy. What I really liked about this novel was that it felt so realistic. There is a nice sense of uncertainty all the way though - is Lindbergh merely a right-wing isolationist or is he an out and out Nazi? I also thought the rather weird ending was quite realistic too - in my opinion it's no stranger than many of the bizarre and unpredictable things that have happened in real American history - but I can see how some people might think it's completely implausible. This book made me think, which is good. Roth even includes an appendix at the back of the book with info on the historical figures in the book, which I appreciated. I was slightly disappointed by the way Roth's ending made for a rather boring timeline, but you can't have everything. 10/10 and you will probably be able to find the book cheap at this time of year, seeing as how it's been such a big seller.
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, was not looking for a sequel, much less a trilogy.