Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle

[Chrome]

The next book was just reviewed in the NY Times ... anyone read this stuff?

I read Stephenson's Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, and they were okay and good, respectively ... but I'm not sure if I should take the plunge with this new trilogy of his.

[Dr. Rat]

I really like Stephenson a lot (Cryptonomicon & In the beginning was the command line are both fine).

I tried hard on the first of the Baroque cycle, and I might go back and try again (a few of his ideas have stuck with me) but I just couldn't finish it.

Maybe it's becasue I've read so much from and about the era he's writing about, but I just couldn't buy the characters or the voice he was telling the story in. Just didn't work.

By and large the book seems to have gotten beat up by fans like me. Not as good as it shoud have been at any rate.

What'd NYT say about Book 2?

--eric