While the Baroque Cycle Spins Its Wheels...

I finally finished Neal Stephenson's The Confusion the other day, after many late night incursions, driving myself to the ends of chapters before allowing myself to sleep, and I enjoyed it thoroughly; surely this is the only novel set in late 17th-century Europe to include a sly allusion to Reservoir Dogs. (At least, I'm pretty sure that's what's going on in that scene...) Salon went gaga for Stephenson recently, as Laura Miller did the interview and Andrew Leonard the review.

As the plot thickens, it becomes less and less clear whether the entire "Baroque Cycle" is intended to be primarily a historical novel or a science fiction/fantasy novel set in the past. That one of the characters appears to be immortal creates enough ambiguity on its own; combining that with what may be King Solomon's gold, dare I say, confuses the issue considerably. There's some precedent for a degree of fantasy in the "serious" historical novel--Dorothy Dunnett's Nicholas de Fleury had some psychic powers--but in the long run, Stephenson might intend the cycle as science fiction of a different sort, which he explains to Miller:

Fiction that's not considered good unless it has interesting ideas in it. You can write a minimalist short story that's set in a trailer park or a Connecticut suburb that might be considered a literary masterpiece or well-regarded by literary types, but science fiction people wouldn't find it very interesting unless it had somewhere in it a cool idea that would make them say, "That's interesting. I never thought of that before." If it's got that, then science fiction people will embrace it and bring it into the big-tent view of science fiction.

All right then, but what shall hold me over for the next six months until The System of the World brings the trilogy to a close?

Well, if it's the historical era that's caught your fancy, you might turn to A Pirate of Exquisite Mind, a biography of 17th-century pirate-scientist William Dampier that scored praise from Sara Wheeler in NYTBR, though less well received by Paula Backscheider in last Sunday's WaPo Book World, who noted, "The authors' inattention is especially frustrating since, in nearly every respect, Dampier is that best of biographical subjects -- the representative but exceptional person, one who reveals the indomitable spirit and amazing knowledge of the hundreds of men who lived out the same stories but did not find a publisher."

But if you find yourself more engrossed in the intricacies of the financial thriller, then perhaps you'd prefer the latest from David Liss, A Spectacle of Corruption, which Michael Agger loved, especially the "bits of historical detail that Liss folds into his narrative with the deft touch of a practiced pickpocket," though he does offer tips on what he'd like to see in future installments of the memoirs of Benjamin Weaver, 18th-century private eye. I haven't actually started this one yet, but I've begun to familiarize myself with Weaver through Liss' first novel, A Conspiracy of Paper, and look forward to making my way through both stories soon.