Customer Reviews

Odalisque: The Baroque Cycle #3

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

 

 

Or even whole book! OK, right off the bat, I'd like to say that I am a huge Stephenson Fan. Guess I'm not enough of a fan to remember that the original series had sub-books within the published hardcovers. I saw this book and tried to figure out if it was new or not, since it had a new title and all. Since it says on the cover, "The Baroque Cycle Number Three", I thought it might be the retitled, paperback version of the third hard cover (Which I admittedly was too cheap to buy and waiting for paperback.) The book is actually a reprint of the last third of "Quicksilver!" There is NOTHING on the cover to indicate this; it is sold and marketed as whole book. I might add that the paperback version of "Quicksilver" is actually only the first third of the hardcover. Again, nothing to indicate that buyers aren't getting the whole book. Paperbacks are usually a way for readers to enjoy a book that they didn't want pay for in hardcover. By breaking the original hardcovers into multiple paperbacks, Stephenson's publishers have figured out a way to charge MORE for the series. I hope this isn't a trend in publishing. We'll see how long THIS review stays up!

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

i should have read the reveiw below before buying this! I hope they will take it back! I saw it on the new paperback shelf and did not even read beyond the name. When I got it home and looked at it I realized this was already included in the complete book sitting on my shelf.

This must be for those with weaker arms?

Like many of the other reviewers out there, I saw this on the shelves and wondered if it was something new. But it only took a minute to realize it was one of the parts of the previously published first volume: if you look at the table of contents of the first volume, "Odalisque" is the name of the third book in that volume; I could understand some of the complaints of the other reviewers if they had actually changed the titles, but "Odalisque" really is the third part of the Baroque Cycle (and Stephenson wrote in an interview that he deliberately did not call this the Baroque Trilogy).

Rather than consider this a cheap marketing gimmick, one might consider that this is the way it would have been published first time around for most books and most publishers. The Baroque Cycle really was written as 9 separate but linked novels. Stephenson said in an interview attached to the paperback version of "System of the World" volume that it could have been published as 9 separate books or as one huge book and they opted to originally publish it as three roughly 1000 page volumes, each containing three distinct books (with the difference that in the "Confusion" volume, these books are not separated but entwined, since they take place along the same timeline but with different characters in different places). But some readers who would be intimidated by a 1000 page volume would have no problem picking up a shorter novel and then reading the next one if they liked the first. If you happen to enjoy bulky novels, that is no reason to be offended by the fact that it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Note that this is not a paid advertisement or apology. I just happen to really like the cycle as a whole and I'm happy to have Stephenson's publishers market it any way they can to be sure he gets compensated well and can continue writing. It only keeps getting better (and bigger!) with each new work -- but at the same time there is no denying that his works have gotten more intimidating as well. My impression is that there is a relatively smaller crowd of people who were able to make the commitment to finish the third volume of this series, than those who read his previous novels like Snowcrash or Cryptonomicon. If breaking it down increases its readership, I'm all for it.

Contrary to the conspiracy-minded people below, this wasn't released this way as a cheap marketing trick. Mass market paperbacks are always more pages than their hardcover versions. Unfortunately, the hardcover version of the Baroque Cycle is already 1000 pages long. That would have made the mass market paperback version too thick to usefully sell - probably in the 1500 page range. That wouldn't be a convenient sized book, and so they had to break the series into smaller volumes.

Notably, it doesn't seem to have been that big a success, since they haven't released anything past Odalisque in this format.

Regardless, the Baroque Cycle is a great series of books, and I highly recommend it to anybody who likes historical fiction and/or sci-fi. And this edition is much more beach-reading sized, if, you know, you're into that kind of thing.

I protest this retitling in an effort to trick people who enjoyed the original three-volume cycle into purchasing the same merchandise twice.

I never owned the hardcover of Quicksilver and thus did not share the same outrage as all of the other reveiwers of this book. I thouroghly enjoyed all three "sub" books of the Quiksilver saga independantly. If you read the inside cover of the book it lists not three novels of te Boroque cycle, but eight or nine independant novels. So for those of you with any of the big three, be warned, there are many more releases of this cycle coming, apparrenlty none of which are actually new. I think I will have to jump ahead and buy the Confusion and the System of the World.

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.

This one was even better than the last in this set. Both a page turner and a pause for consideration book. Looking forward to the next one..

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).

Book #3 of 8 (or-- the second BOOK of the first of three VOLUMES, if you have that publishing format set)launches the "picaresque romance" story lines (ladies first!) of this sprawling tale.

Stephenson has a story line for a wide variety of interests: the Newton-Leibniz dispute; French court intrigues and international power plays; English and continental religious-based clique rivalries; baroque-era world trade and currency flows, etc. etc. BUT this book spends time on the more salacious side! By building the history and character of his heroine at this point in the overall epic, he sets the stage for her later appearances and actions.

If Bowdler ever gets to work on the Baroque Cycle, he'd have to start with the soft porn of some parts of this book, though.

I started Odalisque, the third installment of the paperback serial edition by Neal Stephenson. Quick Silver was the first of the trio and the King of the Vagabonds the sequel were excellent. Starting Odalisque was fun. The historical fiction mixed with real history is always exciting when you look at the socio poltical angles and intrigues, especially with a bawdy twist! These books were inspired by his firt novel, Cryptonomicon and are way way better than that initial effort. Unfortunately Cryptonomicon became too disjointed a mess. Same goes for Odalisque which started great but then became a muddling play half-way through the book and the story lost it's thread and my attention (maybe I'll pick it up again later). Mr. Stephenson though very talented and erudite, the editors seemed to have given him carte-blanche in these stories where Odalisque justed ended up being a hodgepodge of chaotic "enlightened" musings by the author. Because of the ambition of this work and thought provoking ideas contained, I give it 3 stars but normally would have given less. That being said, Mr. Stephenson is like the Robert Anton Wilson of this generation and I would love to see his take on the Illuminatti ala The Earth Will Shake and the Widow's Son.