Status
Available
Series
Collection
Publication
HarperTorch (2006), Edition: 1st Printing, 400 pages
Description
A chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of "Half-Cocked Jack" Shaftoe - London street urchin-turned-legendary swashbuckling adventurer - risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox. . . and Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent a contentious continent through the newborn power of finance.
User reviews
LibraryThing member johnnyapollo
What's interesting about this book were all the subtle references to things which we are all now familiar, yet are contemporary to the time period of the book's story - I guess that's something that that's common in much historic fantasy. I really like the protagonist, "Half-Cock" Jack Shaftoe -
The other facet of this book I really enjoyed was the repartee between Jack and Eliza - I also liked that the Eliza character is a Qwghlmian girl and this ties back into his novel Cryptonomicon (as does the entire book, with one of Shaftoe's descendants figuring prominently in the same novel). The interaction is very fresh as is the approach. In all a very enjoyable and dominant part of the storytelling. I would rate the book higher but the ending is a little diffuse - the best parts of the book are when the couple are together and they split apart in the latter part. Stephenson is also infamous in his lack of tidy endings - I've read a handful of his books and while the storytelling is very well done, I'll have to agree with that opinion of him. It's not that the endings all suck, it's just that they tend to leave the reader hanging a bit which leaves a lot of open questions - I do believe that's just his style and very intentional.
Show More
he's your everyman adventurer, part crook and part hero, very reminiscent of the likable knaves of so many pre-century characters - the storytelling also reminds me quite a bit of our own King of the Hobos related by "A No. 1" during the turn of the century.The other facet of this book I really enjoyed was the repartee between Jack and Eliza - I also liked that the Eliza character is a Qwghlmian girl and this ties back into his novel Cryptonomicon (as does the entire book, with one of Shaftoe's descendants figuring prominently in the same novel). The interaction is very fresh as is the approach. In all a very enjoyable and dominant part of the storytelling. I would rate the book higher but the ending is a little diffuse - the best parts of the book are when the couple are together and they split apart in the latter part. Stephenson is also infamous in his lack of tidy endings - I've read a handful of his books and while the storytelling is very well done, I'll have to agree with that opinion of him. It's not that the endings all suck, it's just that they tend to leave the reader hanging a bit which leaves a lot of open questions - I do believe that's just his style and very intentional.
Show Less
LibraryThing member PghDragonMan
If you’ve read Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver and The Confusion, this book will bore you silly. If you slice out all the scenes without or that do not contribute to the character of Jack Shaftoe, Stephenson’s Falstaff for this epic story of nobles and late 17th Century Europe, what you have
I almost wish I had never read the first two books of the Baroque Cycle because this is a much more enjoyable telling of the tale as a lot of the long exposition is left out and all the action is left in. Think of it as an intelligently done Reader’s Digest version of the story.
Originally I was tempted to give this a half star rating as it does not contribute to the Baroque Cycle at all. I have to check the details of Jack’s capture at the end of this story against original volumes as I did glean some details I don’t remember from the original. In the end, I decided to evaluate it on its own merits. Stephenson is a great Action / Adventure writer who uses exceptionally well done dialog to draw you into the fantasy he is weaving. Four stars is not stretch for this book.
If you are into period fantasy novels with a romantic bent to them, you’ll love this one. It is a great adventure story and a dark comedy as well. Jack Shaftoe speaks a more modern English than he should, given the setting for the story, but he throws more barbs and is the hero of more improbable adventures than any character to be found outside of classical literature, hence my comparison to Falstaff, and Eliza is as worthy an inspiration to men to do her bidding as Juliette, or any other female set to a page, even though she too is blatantly anachronistic and a decidedly naughty Juliette.
Show More
left is King of the Vagabonds.I almost wish I had never read the first two books of the Baroque Cycle because this is a much more enjoyable telling of the tale as a lot of the long exposition is left out and all the action is left in. Think of it as an intelligently done Reader’s Digest version of the story.
Originally I was tempted to give this a half star rating as it does not contribute to the Baroque Cycle at all. I have to check the details of Jack’s capture at the end of this story against original volumes as I did glean some details I don’t remember from the original. In the end, I decided to evaluate it on its own merits. Stephenson is a great Action / Adventure writer who uses exceptionally well done dialog to draw you into the fantasy he is weaving. Four stars is not stretch for this book.
If you are into period fantasy novels with a romantic bent to them, you’ll love this one. It is a great adventure story and a dark comedy as well. Jack Shaftoe speaks a more modern English than he should, given the setting for the story, but he throws more barbs and is the hero of more improbable adventures than any character to be found outside of classical literature, hence my comparison to Falstaff, and Eliza is as worthy an inspiration to men to do her bidding as Juliette, or any other female set to a page, even though she too is blatantly anachronistic and a decidedly naughty Juliette.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ohernaes
Second part of the first (long) novel of Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle". Centered on vagabond and adventurer Jack Shaftoe. One must love this fellow who when he was a kid earned money by hanging on the legs of people sent to the gallows in order to hasten their death, and later tried the equally
Show More
morbid profession of test-living in pest-infested houses, but the story was far from entertaining all the time, and I was happy when I reached the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member santhony
This is Volume I, Book Two of the author’s Baroque Cycle. Book One, Quicksilver followed Daniel Waterhouse, a member of the 17th century English Royal Society, through two story threads that involved his early college years and his later life in the Massachusetts colony.
Waterhouse makes no
Though Books One and Two are actually free standing novels which have no common characters to speak of, it is my understanding that the threads of the two books converge in Book Three, Odalisque, so there is no reason to purchase this particular book unless you have read Quicksilver and intend to proceed on to Odalisque.
In fact, subsequent to publication of these free standing books, the publisher has released Books One-Three in a single work, entitle Volume I Quicksilver. It is unfortunately confusing that the title of Book One and Volume One are the same. Buy Volume One, which will contain Quicksilver, King of the Vagabonds and Odalisque. The five remaining books of the Baroque Cycle are contained in two subsequent Volumes.
Waterhouse makes no
Show More
appearance in Book Two, which instead deals with Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe, an English vagabond and a kidnapped slave girl that he liberates from the Turks at the Siege of Vienna. Shaftoe and Eliza wander throughout the various German principalities before finally arriving at Amsterdam.Though Books One and Two are actually free standing novels which have no common characters to speak of, it is my understanding that the threads of the two books converge in Book Three, Odalisque, so there is no reason to purchase this particular book unless you have read Quicksilver and intend to proceed on to Odalisque.
In fact, subsequent to publication of these free standing books, the publisher has released Books One-Three in a single work, entitle Volume I Quicksilver. It is unfortunately confusing that the title of Book One and Volume One are the same. Buy Volume One, which will contain Quicksilver, King of the Vagabonds and Odalisque. The five remaining books of the Baroque Cycle are contained in two subsequent Volumes.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ConnieJo
I was initially very disappointed that this wasn't the continued story of Daniel Waterhouse. But I soon realized Jack Shaftoe was about a hundred times better. Why follow an inferior puritan natural philosopher who is more of an observer when you can follow a syphilitic homeless man that does
This book was AMAZING. The first book in this series was interesting, but dry reading. Pretty much everything that Jack does is entertaining. This storyline fills us in on the continental impact of the politics that Daniel was observing among the rich in London in the first book, and continues on with a French and Dutch perspective.
Jack blunders into many semi-important points in history, and somehow always makes them better with his own contribution. He is HILARIOUS, which sounds unlikely if you've read a description of these novels. But this one definitely is. It gets better when we find out later his trials are being noted and rich people are reading about him in picaresque novels. The best is when he escapes prison and blunders into a French costume party, only to run into the King of France, who is dressed up as Jack Shaftoe the picaresque hero who recently escaped from prison. This was GOLD.
His clever ways out of situations, his progressively more elaborate hallucinations, and his various ends at the end of this novel are fantastic.
His lady love, Eliza, is also a great character, and would have been so much better if Jack wasn't outshining her on every page. She's a rescued slave that uses her feminine charms to learn politics and financial matters, so she can play the Dutch markets to earn a fortune to permanently abolish slavery. She has no problem with what people think of her sexual escapades (which are mostly imagined or implied), nor does she bat an eye when she needs to publicly execute someone. She holds her own in intrigues, and uses every scrap of information she can muster to work against slavery.
But her and Jack split up towards the end of the novel, and it alternates between her financial adventures in the Hague and Jack's escapades in Paris. I can tell you which section I was dreading every time.
This novel was so good that I picked up Odalisque almost immediately, and I almost always give myself time between books in a series.
Show More
whatever he wants?This book was AMAZING. The first book in this series was interesting, but dry reading. Pretty much everything that Jack does is entertaining. This storyline fills us in on the continental impact of the politics that Daniel was observing among the rich in London in the first book, and continues on with a French and Dutch perspective.
Jack blunders into many semi-important points in history, and somehow always makes them better with his own contribution. He is HILARIOUS, which sounds unlikely if you've read a description of these novels. But this one definitely is. It gets better when we find out later his trials are being noted and rich people are reading about him in picaresque novels. The best is when he escapes prison and blunders into a French costume party, only to run into the King of France, who is dressed up as Jack Shaftoe the picaresque hero who recently escaped from prison. This was GOLD.
His clever ways out of situations, his progressively more elaborate hallucinations, and his various ends at the end of this novel are fantastic.
His lady love, Eliza, is also a great character, and would have been so much better if Jack wasn't outshining her on every page. She's a rescued slave that uses her feminine charms to learn politics and financial matters, so she can play the Dutch markets to earn a fortune to permanently abolish slavery. She has no problem with what people think of her sexual escapades (which are mostly imagined or implied), nor does she bat an eye when she needs to publicly execute someone. She holds her own in intrigues, and uses every scrap of information she can muster to work against slavery.
But her and Jack split up towards the end of the novel, and it alternates between her financial adventures in the Hague and Jack's escapades in Paris. I can tell you which section I was dreading every time.
This novel was so good that I picked up Odalisque almost immediately, and I almost always give myself time between books in a series.
Show Less
LibraryThing member KateSherrod
Again, this time around I'm enjoying the audio version, except for this: Prebble, voicing Eliza's dialogue, gives her a farcically throaty, husky voice that drives me right up the wall. since I really don't like this character anyway, that's a problem. But Jack is so good I mostly forgive.
LibraryThing member jklavanian
Least favorite of Stephenson's novels. Main characters seemed interesting at first, but after a while I just didn't care about them.
LibraryThing member Kristelh
2nd book in The Baroque Cycle. Alternate History features a vagabond who wonders through Europe, France and Holland. Gives a glimpse of the countries during this early time period with a lot of humor. I listened to the audio read by Simon Prebble. The historical setting is the late 17th/early 18th
Show More
centuries for the Baroque cycle and the stories combine history, adventure, science, and alchemy. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
6.75 inches
ISBN
0060833173 / 9780060833176