Neal Stephenson is known for writing lengthy tomes. Quicksilver as published in book form is the first volume of The Baroque Cycle. This volime is made up of three books, the first of which is called, oddly enough, Quicksilver. The Audible version I listened to was just the first book which I did not realize when I started it. This book is the story about Daniel Waterhouse, friend of Isaac Newton and other members of the Royal Academy. Daniel is the son of one of the Puritan revolutionaries that helped Cromwell who by this part of the story has been killed and Charles II was on the throne. Essentially Daniel's tale is a trek through the scientific developments of the time period. Many of these experiments included the use of Mercury, aka Quicksilver. But quicksilver can also apply to the mercurial nature by which Daniel navigates his adventures that lead him to the Colonies and back again to England. He is brought back to England by Enoch Root (a character from Stephenson's Cryptonomican which I haven't read yet). An escalating battle between Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, both independent inventors of Calculus, threatens to send the study of science back centuries if Daniel doesn't mediate the feud. This is typical Stephenson, wordy, esoteric, humorous, frequently confusing, and thought provoking. On to book two.
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