Customer Reviews

King of the Vagabonds: The Baroque Cycle #2

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Here's the complete list to help people avoid buying something they already have:

Quicksilver, Vol. I of the Baroque Cycle
Book 1 - Quicksilver
Book 2 - The King of the Vagabonds
Book 3 - Odalisque

The Confusion, Vol. II of the Baroque Cycle
Book 4 - Bonanza
Book 5 - The Juncto

The System of the World, Vol. III of the Baroque Cycle
Book 6 - Solomon's Gold
Book 7 - Currency
Book 8 - The System of the World

First off, this book and all the books in Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, however packaged and numbered, make for excellent reading. My stars are based on the excellence of the books themselves.

As for the reviewers who feel that repackaging is evil or greedy, well, okay. But if I were the author, I would be delighted that the publisher is investing the money and effort to repackage the books in a way that will bring them to a wider audience.

The new titles on the cover are racier and more true to the content; "King of the Vagabonds" and "Odalisque" will pull more readers to pick up a copy than "The Confusion" ever could. "Quicksilver", however, holds its own as a title in this company, so keep it.

Breaking up the enormous page counts into more tractable sizes will pull in many of my friends, who simply refuse to pick up fat books. They don't have the time, they're afraid the book will be hard reading -- whatever. So the publisher is accommodating that potential readership, and at the same time returning to the days of skinny book classics. (Ever read The Great Gatsby? That's a novella or novellette, not a novel! Ditto most of Hemingway's stuff. Ditto C.S. Forester -- novels, sure, but SKINNY novels.)

The fact of the matter is, it's cheaper to print one fat book than three skinny ones. In choosing to repackage the Baroque Series books in a more extended manner, the publisher is taking a calculated risk; they're boosting their costs, but also expanding their potential market to more first-time readers, who will then buy the complete inventory of Stephenson books once they get hooked.

So, good for Harper. And go, Neal Stephenson!

The Baroque Cycle is not a trilogy, trilogy meaning "a group of three novels which together form a related series, although each is complete in itself." It is eight novels published in three hardcover volumes. Thus "cycle." In an interview in 2004, Stephenson said that one reason why he named it a "cycle" was that some people would call it a trilogy when it obviously wasn't and he wanted to, as best he could, prevent that anoyance.

Stephenson and Harper Collins could have published this series in eight hardcover volumes from the beginning. After all it is EIGHT novels. They would have sold almost three times the volumes and made a lot more money. They didn't. Instead, they published the entire series in THREE volumes and as quickly as possible. It takes a long time to proofread, edit and typeset four hundred thousand words. Also they would have sold almost three times the amount of trade paperbacks. Now they are publishing each volume seperately in mass market. I think it comes down to two reasons. First, that it is, as above stated, eight novels. Second, some people find a nine hundred page volume intimidating but would be willing to read a four hundred page novel. This is who these editions are for.

It's striking how eager some people are to point fingers and claim someone else is greedy. They are ignorant concerning how difficult it is to write a book and their reviews end up revealing how ignorant they are concern writing and the publishing industry. I've read reviews of people claiming it was half the book, that the volumes were renamed. I questioned whether they have even read it. All I have to do is grab my trade paperback volume of Quicksilver and flip through it to find that the first novel (like the name of the volume) is Quicksilver, the second is King of Vagabonds and the third is Odalisque. How can a person read something so obvious and not remember? It isn't difficult.

A little education concerning payment rates for popular books. Agents commission is fifteen percent of the top of the author's commission. Author's commission for a hardcover is fifteen percent. For a trade paperback, seven and a half. For mass market, ten percent. This means that Stephenson earnes approximately three and a half dollars off every hardcover (85% of 15% of the cover price). He makes sixty-eight cents (7.99x10%x85%) from each paperback.

It's not difficult to do a little research concerning the contents of a book before it is released. The information was revealed on amazon months before the book came out in bookstores. The simple answer is, research before you buy.

If you haven't read the books, start with the Baroque Cycle start with #1. If you have, shut up.

Should the publisher have printed King of the Vagabonds separately? Sure, why not? Where they missed was in not clearly labelling it for those of us who bought Quicksilver, in which this book is contained as the second part. Readers felt ripped-off when they purchased a book they'd already read, and that's understandable. But the blame goes to the marketing department of the publisher, not to Neal Stephenson, who wrote an incredibly fascinating and diverse portrait of the world at the time when knowledge was first beinging to replace belief; when science emerged out of religion; when the world as we know it now was first being born. And it is an amazing accomplishment--for a second, just say out loud that someone could make a best-seller out of an eight volume series about the acrimony between Newton and Leibnitz over the discovery of the calculus, about the necessity of a stable currency, about the birth of 'natural philosophy', about the beginnings of cryptography; and that they'd be able to put in a grand showdown between alchemists and pirates--it sounds absurd, doesn't it? But Stephenson carrys it off magnificently.

This particular volume (yes, it IS the second book of the large volume Quicksilver--if your Quicksilver is divided into three books, you've read it; if your Quicksliver ends with Watterson escaping from pirates, you haven't and it's safe to buy) is a complete and shocking contrast to the first book in the series. That book was about the birth of science, it was very intellectual with little action and focussed mainly on the characters of Daniel Waterhouse and Issac Newton. King of the Vagabonds could not be more different--none of the characters in the first book appear (and I kept waiting for them to do so), none of the action overlaps, and the themes are completely different. Where Quicksilver (the book, not the volume) was about ideas, King of the Vagabonds is about action. It's pirates and gypsies and fighting and cavorting mostly through continental Europe. Not until the next volume (Odalesque) will any of the characters from the first two books meet, and then only incidentally. The big confrontations come much later, so don't expect it now.

I throughly loved The Baroque Cycle, as did my 20 year old son. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you are interested in ideas, if you enjoy the detailed portrayal of times and places other than our own, you might love it as much as we did. I was only sorry it was only 8 volumes.

Since the "Baroque Cycle" novels are so large, it looks like the paperback versions will be split in twain. It make sense, although it looks a little greedy.

Anyway, if you've already read QUICKSILVER, skip this book. If you haven't, dig in! Stephenson's epic historical fiction is a delight. His mix of history and politics (Louis XIV vs. William of Orange), math and science (Newton vs. Liebnitz), and rollicking adventure (the eponymous "Half-Cocked" Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds) makes for a rich reading experience. Stephenson gets a lot of flack for his tendency to "infodump" (go off on long factual tangents), but if you have an interest in the subject matter they just fly by.

as to the book itself, it's ok. not nearly as interesting as stephenson's other work. i loved snow crash, diamond age, cryptonomicon, anathem and reamde so i'm patiently slogging along hoping the baroque cycle will get better as i get further along. so far, it's slow going.

as to the repackaging controversy, i am one of the indignant group. i wouldn't mind at all if the publisher was clear. but naming both volume one of the 3-part series AND volume one of the 8-part series "quicksilver" is very misleading. even to amazon itself. amazon says "would you like to see this book on kindle? click here to ask the publisher." well, king of the vagabonds is already on kindle as part of the long quicksilver. i both called and wrote audible.com to try and figure out why my audible versions were ending in the middle of my kindle version, and the reps had absolutely no clue.

thanks to all the amazon reviewers for solving the mystery.

King of the Vagabonds is the second installment of Neal Stephenson's ambitious and epic Baroque Cycle. I was disappointed with Quicksilver, the first book, because, though it was a thorough and realistic historical fiction, it had neither a compelling main character nor a cohesive plot. Thus, it felt like a textbook, except that I wasn't sure which anecdotes about the real historical figures were factual and which were fictional. In other words, if we're going to skip the plot, I'd rather read about 17th century scientific discoveries in a non-fictional account. After all, there are plenty of interesting ones.

King of the Vagabonds is, therefore, quite an improvement, mostly because it has two extremely entertaining main characters: Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe (who is, literally, half-cocked) and Eliza, who Jack rescues from a Turkish harem. Both are lowborn, but they're smart and ambitious (and Eliza is beautiful), so they find themselves involved in the goings-on of the upper class.

That's because, of course, Neal Stephenson's real purpose in The Baroque Cycle, is to give us a comprehensive and entertaining historical fiction about the great events going on in this time in history. In this, Stephenson certainly succeeds; his version of history is appropriately dirty (plenty of manure and maggots), scandalous, and funny (in that ironic way that the British have). The audiobook reader, Simon Prebble, adds another layer of authenticity with his perfect upper-crust, Cockney, French, and German accents.

Even though I liked King of the Vagabonds better than Quicksilver, I still have the same issue: I am being schooled, and the lessons, unlike the humor, are not subtle. Nearly every page contains information and/or explanations that are meant to teach me something. Even the dialogue is full of it. Here's an example in which Eliza is ice skating at The Hague and talking to the French Ambassador to the Dutch Republic:

Ambassador: ... that fellow has asserted that, since he cannot represent an uncrowned king, he must still be representing the late Charles II, who was crowned in 1651 after the Puritans chopped off the head of his father and predecessor. My King was crowned in 1654.

Eliza: But with all due respect to the Most Christian King, monsieur, doesn't that mean that Charles II, if he still lived, would have three years' seniority over him?

Ambassador: A rabble of Scots at Scone tossed a crown at Charles's head, and then he came and lived here, begging for handouts from Dutchmen, until 1660 when the cheese-mongers paid him to leave. Practically speaking, his reign began when he sailed to Dover.

Englishman: If we are going to be practical, sir, let us consider that your King did not practically begin his reign until the death of Cardinal Mazarin on the ninth of March, 1661.

Who really talks that way? The whole book is like this, with frequent sections of explanation about mining, coin stamping, investments and speculation, importing and exporting, Satanic rituals, religious sects, etc, etc. Somehow, though they're lowborn and uneducated, Jack and Eliza are like walking encyclopedias, constantly explaining things to each other for our benefit. (Eliza was educated in the Turkish harem, but I doubt that the nuances of each European financial system and stock market were part of her training. Or that she really could be discussing subtle political maneuvering with William of Orange and the Duke of Monmouth.)

However, this issue is maybe just mine. I don't like it when an author's purpose, even when it's clearly stated, is so transparent behind the text of a novel. If this is not an issue for you, then you are likely to greatly enjoy King of the Vagabonds. Neal Stephenson has a great understanding of this time period, he relays it thoroughly in lovely language, the few action scenes are exciting, and the novel is gently humorous (and sometimes hilarious) throughout. If you're an audiobook reader, you won't want to miss Simon Prebble's narration.

I have to agree that extracting a part of a previous book and marketing it in this confusing way seems to be a rip off. Especially as I bought the initial book here at Amazon. Getting a e-mail about a "new" book sucked me right in.

I had picked up one of his books at a thrift store, thinking from the title that it was an H P Lovecraft pastiche. I was blown away by the book and happliy discoved that it defied gendre or pigon holing. Keen and sharp witted, on the cutting edge of tech.

I had to look at his other works and I'm glad that I did. Love this book. His sense of history, of creating a unique and diverse cast. I DEVOURED this book and look forwards to reading the next in the cycle.

The book was part of a larger order and came in a timley manner and well packed. The inner wrapping of tight plastic as well as a backer board of cardboard both waterproffed it and assure a mint quality of the book(s).

... on Harper Collins and Neal Stephenson. If you have read Quicksilver, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. A more or less verbatim excerpt of the section in Quicksilver of the same name, in my opinion this "book" is just the bait in a pathetic greedy scam.

Perhaps I am stupid but I thought from the back cover blurb that this was new material and after reading maybe a third of it wondering, when is this going to start, finally looked at the copyright info, and now feel like the world's biggest sucker.

And look out-I see a whole raft of "books" which are basically chapters of the books in the Baroque Cycle are "coming soon".