The final installment in Stephenson's massive Baroque Cycle trilogy begins in the year 1714.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Entertainment Weekly John Giuffo
Self-indulgent ambition disguised as historical fiction was never this much fun--or this successful.
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
Learned, violent, sarcastic, and profound: a glorious finish to one of the most ambitious epics of recent years. [1 Sep 2004]
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Outstanding
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Library Journal Jackie Cassada
Stands out as a masterwork of time, place, and people. [15 Sep 2004, p.51]
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Outstanding
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Publishers Weekly
Another magnificent portrayal of an era, well worth the long slog it requires of Stephenson's many devoted readers. [13 Sep 2004, p.57]
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Outstanding
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Salon Andrew Leonard
There is more method to Stephenson's madness in these tomes than in any of his previous works. By the end, one realizes that in many cases what once seemed a foray into insubstantial irrelevance was a carefully placed foundation stone.
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Favorable
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San Francisco Chronicle Michael Berry
It takes a lot of work to keep up with all the machinations, but there are plenty of payoffs for readers who remain sufficiently alert as the page count marches toward four digits.
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Favorable
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Los Angeles Times John Brewer
At his best Stephenson captures the inventiveness, speculative mania, political divisiveness, rapid change, casual cruelty and dizzy invention of the age. At his worst his scenes are reminiscent of Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" -- hypersensitive to detail, yet somehow lifeless because of their obsessive verisimilitude. [26 Sep 2004, p.R6]
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Favorable
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The Guardian Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Many think Cryptonomicon Stephenson's best book. The System of the World is better; although having to read Quicksilver and Confusion to reach the 900-page punch line makes heavy demands on the reader.
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Favorable
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Booklist Brad Hooper
Obviously--given the book's length--details are profuse, but each detail speedily draws readers into the narrative rather than impeding it. [15 Sep 2004, p.180]
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Mixed
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Village Voice Douglas Wolk
It's a grand, if slow, entertainment most of the way, but when Stephenson tries to freight it with a still grander significance, it crumples like a periwig beneath a carriage wheel.
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Mixed
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Washington Post Gregory Feeley
Despite its frenzied complications and watch-me-top-this ingenuity -- much of it funny and some of it genuinely moving -- "The System of the World" is continually asking to be rendered down to its essence, a rather bald set of assertions for 892 pages.
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Mixed
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The Globe And Mail [Toronto] John Burns
There's something for everyone to like, and to hate. [16 Oct 2004, p.D13]
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