Quicksilver

As extraordinary an achievement as Cryptonomicon , Quicksilver is Neal Stephenson's first novel in his acclaimed Baroque Cycle. Neal Stephenson follows his international bestseller, the WWII thriller Cryptonomicon , with a novel set in the 16th and 17th centuries, in a world of war, scientific, religious and political turmoil. With a cast of characters that includes Newton, Leibniz, Christopher Wren, Charles II, Cromwell and the young Benjamin Franklin, Stephenson again shows his extraordinary ability to get inside a place and time; as he did for the futures of his science fiction ( Snowcrash , The Diamond Age ) and for WWII ( Cryptonomicon ), here he does for the England of the Civil War and the Europe of the Wars of Religion and the Scientific Revolution. Quicksilver is yet another tour-de-force from a writer who is simply unique.