England, 1714. London has long been home to a secret war between the
brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist, Isaac
Newton, and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the
Coiner. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level
as Half-Cocked Jack hatches a daring plan, aiming for the total
corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system. Enter Daniel
Waterhouse: Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, Daniel has been on a
long and harrowing quest to help mend the rift between adversarial
geniuses. As Daniel combs city and country for clues to the identity of
the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers,
political factions jockey for position while awaiting the impending
death of the ailing queen, and the "holy grail" of alchemy, the key to
life eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton. As Newton,
Waterhouse, and Shaftoe each circle closer to the object of Daniel's
quest, everything that was will be changed forever. . . . "[Stephenson
has] managed to give Middle Earth a run for its money." -- Janet
Maslin, New York Times "Stephenson spent nearly two thousand pages
setting his convergent plots in motion, and they all collide brilliantly
in the third and final installment of his Baroque Cycle. . . .
Historical fiction was never this much fun -- or this successful." --
Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A)
