It's all a bit mercurial

[andrewducker]

Just finished reading Quicksilver last night, which has led me to spend the following 3 hours reading Neal Stephenson's website, numerous Wikipedia articles on the Glorious Revolution and James II, and annotations from around the web.

I'm somewhat overwhelmed by the huge amounts of detail, and in some ways would have preferred it if he'd just written an entertaining non-fiction book.

Next in the series is The Confusion, which will hopfully make me _less_ confused. But first I have about 5 other books to finish off - including We Need to Talk about Kevin and the second Science of Discworld book.

Comments

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

You are weak. I read Quicksilver. Then when the other two were both out, I bought them and read all three in sequence over a couple of days. They are perfect.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Wait... if you read a book that's part of a series, would it not make sense to read the other books next while it is still fresh in your mind, rather than reading something else?

[andrewducker]

Frankly I need a break from it. I've been frustrated and bored rigid by bits of it, and I could do with something that's more fun.

The bits about Science! and Finance! are great - and Daniel Waterhouse is a great observer of cool stuff, but fairly large chunks did nothing for me.

We Need to Talk about Kevin (which I'm also halfway through) is amazingly good, so I'm looking forward to finishing that.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Bored rigid? You speak lies. Is it the diplomacy? Or the three solid pages of haggling?

Be warned, the next two books pretty much alternate science, finance, diplomacy and war in successive chapters, to great effect.

[andrewducker]

Occasionally the reports of "Person X (who we've never heard of), then does Y, in order to annoy person Z, who we've vaguely heard of, thus causing A, B and C to happen, which causes person C to sneeze loudly, which wakes Someone Important up, causing the invasion of somewhere I've never heard of, under the pretext that {insert more events revolving around people and places who were only introduced half a page ago and don't seem to tie into the plot in any way} get a bit much - but they aren't nearly so bad as large chunks of the Jack Shaftoe Plot, which mostly seem to consist of "And Then Jack had a misadventure based around a fascinating chapter of a history book I was just reading, which doesn't actually have any effect on the plot, but allow me to make references to things I know about and you don't?"

In fact, so far, I could have done without Jack Shaftoe entirely, except for the bits where he introduces Eliza to the plot. This may have something to do with the fact that the Daniel Waterhouse sections largely explain to the reader what's going on, and Eliza also explains the plotics she's involved in, whereas Jack understands nothing, and so neither does the reader (unless already educated about that bit of history).

[ex-sarnath969.livejournal.com]

The next books do clarify things.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Science of Discworld?

[andrewducker]

Amazingly good. And not like "Science of Star Trek" - they're science books, with alternate chapters of Discworld (by PTerry) and Science - written by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen (who are fantastic science writers who'se The Collapse of Chaos is highly recommended).

[makyo.livejournal.com]

Indeed. The premise of the book is that the Wizards of Unseen University have constructed a little universe in a bottle. They watch it carefully and find that, due to the lack of chelonium and elephantigen, `proper' flat worlds can't exist there - instead they get these weird spherical ones, and thus the project is dubbed `Roundworld'.

Chapter by chapter, a Pratchett story following the wizards examining and analysing the new world (which is actually Earth) alternates with chapters written by Stewart and Cohen explaining in depth the science of the phenomena that the wizards observe.

I'm biased (Jack and Ian are both professors in my department) but I recommend it if you like Discworld and/or are interested in science. All three of the authors have a very readable style, and the book was sufficiently well-received to spawn two follow-up volumes (`tSoD II: The Globe', in which the wizards observe human society and culture, and `tSoD III: Darwin's Watch', in which the wizards study evolution).

[andrewducker]

I am remarkably envious that they both work in your department.

[makyo.livejournal.com]

I've been extremely fortunate, and have learnt many interesting things from talking to either or both of them. I certainly recommend everyone to take advantage of any available opportunities to hear them speak.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

I have read several Ian Stweart books and found them readable and good.

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

I finished Quicksilver about a week ago and I'm now a couple of hundred pages into The Confusion, which I'm enjoying a lot although, like Quicksilver, I do find it a bit of a shaggy dog story, with more characters than I can keep track off, a changing face of civilisation that I can't entirely follow and many things politic and economic that aren't transparent to me in their mechanics.

However, I've never wanted to go back and do A-level physics more in my life.