
Quicksilver
Book One of The Baroque Cycle
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Narrated by:
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Neal Stephenson (introduction)
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Kevin Pariseau
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Simon Prebble
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By:
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Neal Stephenson
About this listen
In this first volume of Neal Stephenson’s genre-defying epic, Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and courageous Puritan, pursues knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.
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.
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Story
When a foreign exchange student is found murdered at an Iowa University, Deputy Sheriff Clyde Banks finds that his investigation extends far beyond the small college townall the way to the Middle East. Shady events at the school reveal that a powerful department is using federal grant money for highly dubious research. And what its producing is a very nasty bug.
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Et tu, Neal?
- By Richard on 06-16-11
By: Neal Stephenson, and others
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Sinner
- A Prequel to the Mongoliad
- By: Mark Teppo
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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A severed head and a cry of “Witchcraft!” start a frenzied witch hunt in a sleepy German village. When her dead husband’s severed head appears on her doorstep, a local woman is charged with practicing heretical rituals. It is up to the knights to discover the truth behind the brutal murder before the torches are lit and the woman is burned at the stake. Their task proves daunting, though, as the townspeople have their own long-buried secrets and sins that they want to keep hidden - even if it means allowing the sacrifice of an innocent woman.
By: Mark Teppo
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Snow Crash
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Neal Stephenson is a blazing new force on the sci-fi scene. With the groundbreaking cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, he has "vaulted onto the literary stage." It weaves virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility - in short, it is the gigathriller of the information age.
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A solid sci-fi novel
- By Brent on 02-05-03
By: Neal Stephenson
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The Big U
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The New York Times Book Review called Neal Stephenson's most recent novel "electrifying" and "hilarious". But if you want to know Stephenson was doing 20 years before he wrote the epic Cryptonomicon, it's back-to-school time. Back to The Big U, that is, a hilarious send-up of American college life starring 30-year-old junior Casimir Radon.
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Bad first novel by great writer
- By clint on 01-03-21
By: Neal Stephenson
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The Starship and the Canoe
- By: Kenneth Brower, Neal Stephenson - foreword
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Freeman Dyson is a world-renowned astrophysicist who dreams of exploring the heavens and has designed a spaceship to take him there. His son, George, a brilliant high-school dropout, lives in a tree house and is designing a giant kayak to explore the icy coastal wilderness of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.
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Excellent Story - Captivating, Poignant, Educational
- By Anonymous User on 11-25-20
By: Kenneth Brower, and others
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Pattern Recognition
- By: William Gibson
- Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Cayce Pollard is a new kind of prophet - a world-renowned "coolhunter" who predicts the hottest trends. While in London to evaluate the redesign of a famous corporate logo, she's offered a different assignment: find the creator of the obscure, enigmatic video clips being uploaded to the Internet - footage that is generating massive underground buzz worldwide.
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Only gets better with age
- By Mika on 12-14-18
By: William Gibson
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The Years of Rice and Salt
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 25 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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It is the 14th century, and one of the most apocalyptic events in human history is set to occur - the coming of the Black Death. History teaches us that a third of Europe's population was destroyed. But what if the plague had killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been - a history that stretches across centuries, a history that sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, a history that spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation.
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Robinson's best; Pinchot's usual excellence
- By Alex Levine on 05-13-15
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A Peculiar Peril
- The Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 22 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Jonathan Lambshead stands to inherit his deceased grandfather’s overstuffed mansion - a veritable cabinet of curiosities - once he and two schoolmates catalog its contents. But the three soon discover that the house is filled with far more than just oddities: It holds clues linking to an alt-Earth called Aurora, where the notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley has stormed back to life on a magic-fueled rampage across a surreal, through-the-looking-glass version of Europe replete with talking animals (and vegetables).
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A book with "all the things in it"
- By Bruce on 01-25-21
By: Jeff VanderMeer
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New Found Land: The Long Haul
- By: Austin Grossman, Neal Stephenson, Sean Stewart
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Evans, Elizabeth Jasicki, Graeme Malcolm, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Original Recording
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Imagine two worlds at war. In one, citizens with jetpacks and ray guns have colonized Venus. In the other, magic reigns supreme, and history turns on swords and spells. Now imagine they have just discovered a third world. Our world. Our timeline of rideshare apps and strip malls is about to become the newest battlefield in the long war between science fiction and fantasy.
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You'll like this if you liked The Zeta Family.
- By Tory Thai on 06-12-21
By: Austin Grossman, and others
What listeners say about Quicksilver
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- S. Jones
- 09-12-10
Absolutely Fascinating
I couldn't stop listening. Although I'm not a science buff and didn't understand much about science, I enjoyed Stephenson's rich and detailed portrayal of a bygone era - and one that is the backdrop of much historical fiction. I loved the way he played with time by depicting his character Daniel Waterhouse backward and forward - as a young man destined for the new world and an old man going back to the old world. By ordinary standards, Waterhouse is brilliant; by the standards of his peers (Isaac Newton, Godfrey Leibniz) he is ordinary. Having just finished listening to "The Three Musketeers" and Captain Blood," this novel fit right in - about the same time and with many of the same political figures. It is worth mentioning that Quicksilver is the "prestory" to other novels in the cycle, not entirely an independent novel in its own right. Stephenson is a great storyteller and has a wonderful sense of humor. Narrator Simon Prebble is excellent - as usual. I'm completely hooked.
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35 people found this helpful
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- Mariluz
- 08-05-18
TV Series Fodder
As with all of Neal Stephenson's books, I got to the end and wished there was more. Luckily, in this case, there is!
Since I don't like historical fiction, I didn't think I'd like this book, but it isn't really historical fiction. At the same time, it isn't an alternate past either. The genre for this book is unique. It tells a big picture story of major past motivations that makes history finally make sense. Characters from the past are no longer cardboard cutouts in my mind. Thanks to Stephenson, they are now real people with social alliances, quirks and values that would naturally lead to their actions recorded in history books.
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1 person found this helpful
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- w.rose
- 06-27-12
Love History Love Science
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I would recommend it to any friend who loves science and history
What did you like best about this story?
The details the author provides and how he sets the scenes
What about the narrators’s performance did you like?
The narrator is good
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
One of my favorite parts was in the first half when the main character is in Massachusetts.
Any additional comments?
It took me a long time to listen to this book...which provides value. There is a lot of detail and period changes, but it is so worth the listening.
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- P. J. Sedgwick
- 10-18-19
I like the characters but no plot to this story
I like the characters but there is no plot to this story. I am hoping the payoff must come in later books and this was to develop some characters.
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- Isaac Horn
- 04-13-18
Little Slow, But Necessary
Where does Quicksilver rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
This was probably one fo the harder books to get through, if only for the long meandering story. But it a necessary foundation piece.
Has Quicksilver turned you off from other books in this genre?
No, historical fictions can be a difficult read but Neal Stephenson does an excellent job of keeping git well grounded and interesting.
Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?
Enoch is a thread through out this series and his mysterious origins, and operations are well captured.
If you could rename Quicksilver, what would you call it?
Prequel. Because it set the stage for the 7 books to come.
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- J.W.
- 04-01-13
Stephenson makes you earn it...
I suspect Neal Stephenson to deliberately start his books slow. Very slow, agonizingly slow. I suspect he wants only the brave to finish his books. The deserving ones. Any one of his books will get mixed reviews by people who gave up. People who did not want to push through. But if you do...the reward is so wonderful, so enriching. Mixing fact with fiction, actual history with fictional adventures can be so rewarding. Neal Stephenson is the kind of history teacher you wish your children to have. One that creates a story that sucks you up and leaves you wanting more. Mostly he finds a link with binary history and weaves it ever so gently into his stories. For those who stay and listens this story brings a wealth of information and enjoyment. But only start this if you are willing to follow the epic journey to it's end.
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Overall
- Heady
- 09-22-10
LOVED IT!
I really loved this book...and the sequels...I'm up to the third one and I find them all big fun! It's going to be one of those series that I will be sad to have it finish. I look forward to my commute time so I can catch up on my listening. I guess I'm a bit of a girl-geek who loves history...maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much. It reminds me of the Ken Follet books about the middle-ages, which I enjoyed as well!
Also learned a valuable lesson -- I shouldn't put too much stock in reviews, since this book got such bad ones and if I'd read those before I bought the book I might not have.
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58 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Jerry Hilts
- 02-04-11
WARNING
This is not "Quicksilver" the first volume of the three volume Baroque Cycle.
This is "Quicksilver" the first *book* of the first volume. The first printed volume, also conveniently called "Quicksilver", contains "Quicksilver", "King of the Vagabonds", and "Odalisque". Theses are separate purchases on Audible.
So, other than being a bit disappointed to find out that I bought "Quicksilver" instead of "Quicksilver", it's a quite enjoyable story. If you're a science geek like me, you'll enjoy the fictionalized account of Newton, Hooke, Leibnitz and other key players in this key point our history.
The audio quality and narration is also particularly good, though the Dutch, German and French accents all sound a bit similar.
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50 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Ted
- 08-24-10
Definitely good.
Here's the deal: when I work on projects around the house I like to listen to audiobooks. This book is ideal because Simon Prebble has an amazing voice, and the book is nice and long. I had read the book so it was easy for me to follow along. If you want constant action, this isn't for you. The action scenes are few and far between, and Stephensen puts long, boring dialogs in all of his books which is when I hit x2. Otherwise, just be patient and you'll be hooked. Eventually.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Julie W. Capell
- 11-02-14
Listening makes easy work of this long novel
There are a lot of reasons one might be tempted to skip this book (too long, not interested in old English history, no female characters, no plot), but one very good reason to pick it up: amazing writing. Although the themes of this novel and Snow Crash (still my favorite Stephenson novel) couldn’t be more different, the same brilliant writing is present in each. In Quicksilver, Stephenson fascinates with an account of the beginnings of modern science in the 1600s in England, throwing in a good bit of English history to boot. Want to know why coins have little markings on their sides? How sundials work? When the burning of London happened? What kinds of experiments the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge did in the first years after its founding? It’s all here, along with pirates, religion, politics, wars and blunderbusses. There’s barely a plot to hold it all together, but still I couldn’t put it down. I am definitely going to be reading the next book in the series.
[I listened to this as an audio book performed by Simon Prebble and Kevin Pariseau. They did a marvelous job. I decided to listen at 1.25 speed, which was great, really made the book fly by. I finished in about a week! I would highly recommend this as a truly enjoyable listen.]
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2 people found this helpful