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    The Confusion: Volume Two of The Baroque Cycle
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    The Confusion: Volume Two of The Baroque Cycle
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    The Confusion: Volume Two of The Baroque Cycle
    Ebook1,309 pages22 hours

    The Confusion: Volume Two of The Baroque Cycle

    By Neal Stephenson

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In the year 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves -- including one Jack Shaftoe, aka King of the Vagabonds, aka Half-Cocked Jack -- devises a daring plan to win freedom and fortune. A great adventure ensues -- a perilous race for an enormous prize of silver ... nay, gold ... nay, legendary gold.

    In Europe, the exquisite and resourceful Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, is stripped of her immense personal fortune by France's most dashing privateer. Penniless and at risk from those who desire either her or her head (or both), she is caught up in a web of international intrigue, even as she desperately seeks the return of her most precious possession.

    Meanwhile, Newton and Leibniz continue to propound their grand theories as their infamous rivalry intensifies, stubborn alchemy does battle with the natural sciences, dastardly plots are set in motion ... and Daniel Waterhouse seeks passage to the Massachusetts colony in hopes of escaping the madness into which his world has descended.

    This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061793387
    Unavailable
    The Confusion: Volume Two of The Baroque Cycle
    Author

    Neal Stephenson

    Neal Stephenson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Termination Shock, Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (with Nicole Galland), Seveneves, Reamde, Anathem, The System of the World, The Confusion, Quicksilver, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, Zodiac, and the groundbreaking nonfiction work In the Beginning . . .Was the Command Line. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

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    Reviews for The Confusion

    4/5

    103 ratings41 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A captivating follow up to Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. I greatly enjoyed this book and the entire world created by Stephenson. This book continues the story of Jack Shaftoe and Eliza, but introduces many more characters from places all over the world. The plot moves forward quite a bit more than the first novel, and takes us on an adventure literally around the world. I particularly enjoy putting myself in the various cultures of the late 17th century and there were many times I was lost in my thoughts about what it was like to live at that time.

      As always, the writing is clever, witty, and humorous and I enjoy the conversations between characters. As I said after reviewing the first book in the series, I would still have a hard time recommending this book to anyone who does not have a love of the historical period. This is not historical fiction in the traditional sense. If you do not have an understanding of the political happenings of the time, I do not see how you could follow the story.

      Looking forward to the third and final book. Great stuff!
    • 4/5
      Second volume of the Baroque Cycle, by Neal Stephenson. A marvelous book. A sort of prequel to Cryptonomicon, introducing the ancestors of some of the characters (the Shaftoes and Waterhouses). Yes, it's full of anachronisms, but so what? The characters are all memorable and the settings magnificent. What I like about books like this is they raise enough questions to inspire me to go out and read more about the historical period in question, especially some of the non-European areas (was there really a pirate queen of the Malabar coast? What exactly were the religious beliefs of the Jansenists? Was the Inquisition that active in Mexico? Was there really an active trade exporting wootz from India to Japan?) I look forward to the next volume in the series coming out in paperback, so it will fit on my bookshelves.Your local bookstore or library may have some problems deciding where to shelve this. Barnes and Noble put it in the Science Fiction section, which doesn't really make that much sense.
    • 4/5
      Non-stop adventure! The links back to the first book in the trilogy, Quicksilver, are very strong, so you'll want to read that first. The whole web of action here is quite complex but Stephenson keeps us well oriented without overdoing it. OK, I am a bit of an armchair philosopher. I think it was buried in this book, some discussion that the puzzle of the continuum and the puzzle of free will are linked somehow. Actually there is a nice discussion of the theory of monads of Leibniz... that presumable sketches out the link, but it's too slender a link to carry any weight. Of course folks have started from a kite string and gradually built up stronger and stronger cables to build a bridge of interstate highway capacity, so ... will volume 3 revisit the philosophical conundrums? We certainly seem set up for a lot more of that kind of action!It's a big fat book but enough of a page turner!
    • 4/5
      Tales of derring-do and swashbuckling piracy, combined with the financial shenanigans of financing the wars of France in the court of the Sun King. Will Jack Shaftoe and Eliza meet again?
    • 5/5
      The continuing sagas of Daniel Waterhouse, Jack Shaftoe, and Eliza. This book (and the entire series) is amazing. It's absolutely chock full of history. It's got drama by way of plots, subplots, counterplots, betrayals, bad luck, and just plain old happenstance. It's got some incredibly funny sections - seriously laugh-out-loud parts. Treatises on commerce, ship building, torture, and calculus. It's truly amazing.
    • 4/5
      Neal Stephenson's 2004 novel "The Confusion," the second part of his Baroque Cycle, seems aptly named, for readers may often find themselves confused. Its 815 pages contain numerous characters, some of whom travel around the world, and convoluted plot lines. Plus, it picks up a story begun in "Quicksilver" and concluded in "The System of the World," both novels of comparable size. So keeping it all straight can be a challenge.But the title actually refers to an early meaning of the word as a mixture or co-mingling or fusion. We find references to this idea at numerous points in the novel, including the fact that it consists of two stories, "The Juncto" (involving Eliza, mostly in France) and "Bonanza" (involving Jack Shaftoe on his round-the-world adventures). These stories may seem unrelated most of the time, yet eventually they become "con-fused," as Stephenson usually spells the word. Then, too, there are references to gold, coins and liquids being con-fused.The great scientist Isaac Newton, although a minor character in the novel, actually lies at its center. Newton was also an alchemist and, for the last 30 years of his life, master of the Royal Mint. Stephenson "con-fuses" these two pursuits by imaging that Newton takes the job at the mint in order to gain access to the gold that passes through there. Alchemists and others in the late 17th century are convinced the gold once owned by King Solomon has special properties useful for alchemy. It is also believed that the gold Jack and his colleagues steal in an act of piracy is King Solomon's gold. Sooner or later some of that gold is likely to pass through the Royal Mint, and Newton wants to be there when it does.One must read "The System of the World" to discover how this turns out, but in "The Confusion" Jack and Eliza have endless trials. He must survive, evade pursuers and somehow make it around the world and back, he hopes, to Eliza. Meanwhile, she becomes a French duchess, but is separated from her and Jack's son. As Jack is skilled at piracy, she is unusually gifted at financial affairs, and her complicated dealings gain, and occasionally lose, fortunes. She also contracts smallpox, which diminishes very little her astounding beauty."The Confusion," if sometimes confusing, provides a wild ride.
    • 5/5
      The term ‘confusion’ can connote many things. It usually indicates a state of bewilderment. It also denotes a jumbled and chaotic time or place, a disjointed mingling of disparate elements and events that appear to have little in relation to each other.It is, in other words, a perfect one-word summation of our world at the later end of the seventeenth century. It was a time of tremendous upheaval in numerous aspects of civilization, a period of intellect and innovation that many expected would lead to a new age of enlightenment.Leave it to American author Neal Stephenson to make a rollicking pirate novel of it all.The Confusion, Stephenson’s superlative second volume in his trilogy The Baroque Cycle, is, indeed, a confusion of high adventure, international intrigue, scientific discourse, and economic chaos. Stephenson even throws in math, cryptology, and the precursor to the modern computer, just in case he might be accused of narrative laziness.Building on events outlined in Quicksilver, Stephenson wastes no time in thrusting the reader into the thick of things. Familiarity with the preceding novel is essential, as he has too much to write about without the additional bothersome worry of exposition. When you write of people who, “in a single grammatically correct sentence, [manage] to make reference to Apolonius of Perga, the Folium of Descartes, and the Limacon of Pascalâ€?, back-story is so much wasted ink.Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds, is now a galley slave in Algiers, plotting with his fellow oarsmen (a mixed bag of Irish, Jewish, Russian, and Arabic men, plus one wayward samurai) to buy themselves free from servitude through an ingenious scheme. Hijacking a ship laden with Spanish gold, Shaftoe finds himself again in the thick of world events, sailing around the globe in search of wealth, fame, and his true love.Meanwhile, in a second tale ‘con-fused’ with the first, former slave and peerless spy Eliza continues to quietly subvert the economies of Europe, working behind the scenes as England attempts to wage war with France with no financial support. Unlike Shaftoe’s bizarre exploits in India and beyond, Eliza finds herself in a changing world “where power came of thrift and cleverness and industry, not of birthright, and certainly not of Divine Right.â€?Stephenson, a former science-fiction writer, has produced a seamless blend of historical fact and riotous fiction as vivid and imaginative as anything the great fantasists could ever dream up. His is a dazzling world of visionaries and treachery, an epoch of intellectual rebellion and cultural revolution that our planet has never again seen the like of.It’s a confusing story to be sure, but Stephenson has a sure hand at keeping the flow steady, never getting bogged down in details. His effort is stunning at times, with a poignant cliffhanger ending that provides both closure and excitement for the upcoming final volume. Eliza describes confusion as “a kind of bewitchment – a moment when what we supposed we understood loses its form and runs together and becomes one with other things that, though they might have had different outward forms, shared the same inward nature.â€? By this definition, Stephenson has produced an epic confusion of his own, a clash of styles and themes that frustrates, enchants, and ultimately astounds.
    • 4/5
      Two novels are interspersed - the continuing story of Daniel, Jack and Eliza - from Versailles to the Spanish Inquisition in Mexico - non stop adventure...
    • 2/5
      The title says it all.
    • 2/5
      Second in "The Baroque Cycle" (or, the 4th and 5th books in it, to use Stephenson's reckoning).
      I didn't find this to be a quick read.
      Stephenson IS a good writer, and the book is really filled with interesting thoughts and turns of phrase. But it just doesn't move you along in the way an entertaining novel ought to - while at the same time being filled with a series of Most Unlikely events and coincidences, sprawling loosely here and there, flitting about the world, mixing historical fact with stereotypes and fiction.

      In a way, it's too much about concept, I think. The characters are more Dickensian caricatures than "real" people. Overall, it seems to be trying to be a sort of adventure/thriller about finance and economics... and I don't feel it really worked as well as it could have.
    • 1/5
      zoology rames gupta
    • 5/5
      This is how you do historical fiction! A wide-ranging tale covering the history of royal families, court intrigue, early espionage and cryptography, scientific invention, finance, etc. Epic in every way.
    • 4/5
      A continuation of Stephenson's fun series of Early Modern historical fiction, this one is set in the years after the Glorious Revolution. It also puts a lot more of its focus on the adventures of the vagabond Jack Shaftoe as opposed to the natural philosopher Daniel Waterhouse (mostly absent) and the political-financial intriguer Eliza. Jack's part of the novel is largely spent in various adventures in North Africa, India and beyond, with a somewhat surreal and Orientalist feel, as opposed to the European politics that grounded "Quicksilver," the first novel in the Baroque Cycle. I enjoyed "Quicksilver" more, but "The Confusion" was amusing enough in its own rights, and had some good moments in its latter half as elements came together with the flash-forward elements of the first novel.
    • 5/5
      uhy77
    • 4/5
      Jane Austen had two principal themes: Love and Money. This the second volume of "The Baroque Cycle", has them as well. We continue the picaresque career of Jack Shaftoe, as he exhibits his love for the Eliza of his dreams, literally around the world, by pursuing and carrying Alchemy's greatest gift. Ironically, this volume covers the period in which the discipline of Alchemy dies, replaced by modern chemistry and the birth of the modern representational alchemy, high finance. The other picara is the Eliza herself, as she floats through Europe, hounded by men of obvious intent, but varying technique. Actually having children, but only one by a romantic attachment. As this is a middle volume, she remains imperilled at its conclusion. Neal Stephenson continues to draw for us all a portrait of the most important age of the history of our planet, and to put warts and sweat on the faces of many famous names, who gain in humanity what they now lose in false auras. Sadly, there's only another volume to go, but I'm still up for it.
    • 5/5
      Continuing my reread (listen) of The Baroque Cycle, The Confusion feels very well balanced to me. It mixes (con-fuses) two tales. One is the tale of a noblewoman who relates to us the growth of money and finance in Europe. The other is the tale of a diverse crew of Barbaby slaves who swashbuckle their way to stealing a trove of alchemical treasure and circumnavigate the globe.

      The Baroque Cycle is science fiction written about history. It makes me feel smart reading it and it a damn good time as well.
    • 4/5
      The Confusion is Volume II of the author’s Baroque Cycle. Volume I contains the first three “books” of the cycle, while The Confusion contains Book 4 (Juncto) and Book 5 (Bonanza). These two books were originally published separately, but when combined in this volume, the “chapters” are alternated so as to maintain chronological order. That is because the two books deal with two completely separate story lines. Juncto is set in northern Europe and features Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon and Qwhglm, and Daniel Waterhouse. Bonanza follows the adventures of Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe from his days as a galley slave along the Barbary Coast through Egypt, the Indian sub-continent (Hindoostan), the Far East, New Spain (Mexico) and ultimately back to England.If you read Volume I, Quicksilver, or the three books that were encompassed therein, then you are familiar with the characters and the historical landscape (late 17th, early 18th century). While the historical fiction contained in these works is highly educational and at times fascinating (at others, somewhat confusing), this is not my favorite Stephenson effort. Nevertheless, as in his cyberpunk and sci-fi stories, a certain level of attention and effort is required in order fully grasp the author’s work. Some may not want to put forth the effort, but I appreciate it.
    • 4/5
      This is two interleaved books. Bonanza, book 4, follows the story of Jack Shaftoe who is sold to the Barbary pirates, and Junto, book 5, which follows the story of Eliza to Holland, France, and other places in her quest to make herself financially secure. I really enjoyed this book. More than the first. Not for those who don't enjoy long tangents and it really requires a good basic knowledge of European history as he doesn't slow down to explain much.
    • 5/5
      This is by far the best of the Baroque Cycle novels, and that's saying a lot. Greatly enjoyed every minute of reading this book.
    • 3/5
      Part Two of the Baroque Cycle. It quite the trip, it circumnavigates the globe in the late seventeenth century enveloping the reader. Conversely I'm not sure if knew now what I didn't know when I started this series I would've began. But in for a penny in for a pound.
    • 5/5
      This was even better than Quicksilver. The story never bogged down. This was the first book I read on my Nook, and I flew through it in 3 weeks (Quicksilver took me 4 months).
    • 5/5
      Finally finished slogging through Neal Stephenson's 3,000-or-so-page Baroque trilogy. Took me like six months, but it was definitely worth it. Leave it to Stephenson to make history both incredibly real-seeming and utterly ridiculous at the same time. If you liked Cryptonomicon and have any interest in Enlightenment-era London, Baroque is certainly worth a read. Just make sure to leave yourself plenty of time.
    • 3/5
      I liked this better than the first of the series, "Quicksilver". It covers a lot more geography, which makes keeping the storylines a bit difficult.
    • 4/5
      Though technically the sequel to Quicksilver, The Confusion in some ways could be read as a standalone story of the adventures of Jack Shaftoe, as he makes his away around the world going from adventure to adventure; and of Eliza, with her story of trying to survive in a world of intrigue and machinations in late 17th century Europe.For me, this turned out to be a quicker read as opposed to when I read Quicksilver. For one thing, the story is for the most part told in chronological order, instead of being broken into three time periods. For another, it's much more interesting to read about the adventures that Jack went through as he went from one adventure (or trouble) to another, as opposed to reading Daniel's history in Stuart England.To be honest, I can't really say that all parts of the book makes sense (but then the title is called "The Confusion"), but when dealing with such interesting characters, sometimes their force of personality itself can be enough to propel a story forward.And now as the story has caught up to the storyarc/time period of Daniel leaving Massachusetts at the end, I'm hoping that everything will be explained in the next novel.
    • 4/5
      Actually liked this a little better than Quicksilver, although it's much longer than it needs to be. Very interested to see how it all turns out.
    • 4/5
      The Confusion is the second installment of Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle. If you chose to jump into the series with this book, you will be totally confused. You will need to either abandon you reading and start with Quicksilver or forget you read this book, read Quicksilver and then re-read The Confusion. Either way, this is an epic undertaking. So is reading the book.I slogged through this one, like some of the characters enduring long confinement and staying alive because they did not lose sight of their cause, their final destination. I admit I put it aside several time to read other books, but I always came back to it. To have that much of a hold on me has to say something about the story.Will I go on to complete the Cycle? I am not sure, but I am anxious to get to the Cryptonomicon. Will I read them in order? Probably, but I may not.Like Quicksilver, it is loosely based on history, but I hesitate to call it historical fiction. I was pleased to read in the interview included in the book, Stephenson is well aware of his linguistic anachronisms and they were intentional. In reviews of other of Stephenson’s works I said he is a geek’s author. This solidifies that comment and validates that this is not a slam against him, but a compliment. You need to be well grounded in a lot of obscure areas to appreciate what goes on in the Baroque Cycle.Because it is so ponderous, I cannot give this a full five stars. Because I found the story so captivating I kept returning to it, I can’t say this is simply mediocre. Four stars, but not everyone will agree, I’m sure.
    • 5/5
      Another Baroque Cycle volume completed. So engrossing, so time consuming. This series is totally for history nerds with a dark cynical sense of humor. I love it, but I have spoken to a few folks who just can't get into Quicksilver. For variable reasons, this book is just too dense for the average reader. Stephenson is a superb and well researched writer who is dishing out so many nuanced details left and right that it may overwhelm. Some of the best moments in The Confusion come at unexpected times when all meaning is hinged on double or triple entendres and the reader's ability to remember a minor plot fact 300 pages prior. If you catch them, its fantastic, if not you are kind of left thinking that you missed something. Thus, I recommend reading this book in one go instead of putting down from month to month while you peruse some other book. You will be rewarded with a plot web so dense and dramatically strewn across history, the globe, religion, science, people, and economics, that by the end you will feel like you have taken 6 different seminars on 17th century world affairs. All of this is lined with such biting dark humor and intermittent bouts of swashbuckling that you will forget that you are reading a historical fiction book about the Enlightenment.
    • 4/5
      I am entirely perplexed by this trilogy! Usually by the time I have read the first book in a trilogy - let alone the second - I know well whether I am intending to keep the series for an indulgent re-read in the future. After reading the first book, I had been intrigued enough to read the second but felt that overall I would be discarding the series.What a difference a book makes! Over the course of this second book, I found myself musing on the story even while I was not reading about the continued adventures of Eliza and Jack. This book is reward for struggling through the first, which was enormously dense and detailed.The book is shared between Eliza (Juncto) and Jack (Bonanza), their stories intertwining. We find Jack alive and well, and free from the French pox (syphilis). He has been captured by Barbary pirates and his tale involves a convoluted plot between him and other members of the Cabal - to capture a shipment of gold that will lead to their fortunes being made. His story leads him across the world - through the Far East and finally taking a dangerous trip to Acapulco. The capture of the gold has massive repercussions across the world, affecting many including Eliza, who starts her story being waylaid by Jean Bart and carried back to France, where she once again begins manipulating trade.This time both stories are equally gripping for one reason or another, and the skipping between both allows Stephenson to develop two different tones - the formal, slow burning plot of Eliza and the swashbuckling adventures of Jack Shaftoe. Many, many characters take centre stage here and become beloved to the reader over the course of 800 pages. Obviously Jack and Eliza will have the attention of the reader, but there is also Leibniz (the dignified and friendly Natural Philosopher who has befriended Eliza from the beginning); Bob Shaftoe (brother of Jack, more upright and stolid); Princess Caroline (beautiful and fiercely intelligent); and the many entertaining members of the Cabal.We also see the beginnings of Minerva - the ship that is carrying Daniel Waterhouse back to England at the start of the first book in the trilogy - and meet her captain van Hoek (a Dutch captain who feels the need to shed body parts when in gravest danger).Altogether I am being overwhelmed gradually by the trilogy of books, and can find much to love about them. On the flipside, the writing is still inpenetrable at times and leaves me feeling confused as to what is actually occuring. At times the pacing of the story is woeful - leaving spells where I actually avoid picking up the book, although curiosity in the fates of Jack and Eliza always brings me back.I would tentatively recommend this book to everyone I know - with the proviso that it is still not *easy* reading (and that they have to suffer through book one to reach the heights of book two).
    • 4/5
      The second installment in Neal Stephenson’s massive Baroque Cycle, i.e. The Confusion, concentrates on the exploits of Jack Shaftoe and his merry band of multiculti galley slaves, as they both make plays and are played all around the known world in the late 17th century. The adventures of the series’ other two main characters – i.e. Daniel Waterhouse the natural philosopher, and Eliza the Duchess of various parts who’s also a hot babe/financial genius – are downplayed when compared to the Cycle’s first volume, Quicksilver. Given this shift of emphasis to Jack, the book is actually more coherent and easy to follow, especially since there are few new characters introduced on the European stage. But since I found the picaresque exploits of Jack Shaftoe the least interesting of this series’ main storylines, I enjoyed The Confusion perhaps a bit less than Quicksilver, even though it was easier to read.Never the less, several episodes in the adventures of Jack’s own little cabal stand out: their encounters in India and Japan are especially good fun. Much less interesting is the book’s rather interminable section in the New World; Stephenson seems to lose his narrative energy here, as if he felt he had to throw in some adventures in Spanish-colonial Mexico just to get his main characters across the western hemisphere and back over to Europe. This series isn’t for everyone, but since I’m still finding the frequent asides on subjects ranging from science and technology to shipbuilding and navigation to money and banking highly diverting and indeed instructive, I’m looking forward very much to finishing off the cycle with volume III.
    • 5/5
      As often happens with Neal Stephenson books, I had the sneaking suspicion throughout the series that I'm not quite smart enough to really understand everything that's going on, but I still had a rip-roaring great time reading this book. The characters are typical Stephenson characters (he often has the self-deprecating, adventurous, dumb-yet-geeky male and the witty, hyper-intelligent, sexy, manipulative female - I can't help but think these are two sides of Stephenson's own personality). I love the science fiction approach to historical fiction. Really amazing stuff.