The System of the World

Neal Stephenson

Heinemann Press

Otago Daily Times, February 26th 2005

In The System of the World, Neal Stephenson concludes his Baroque cycle in the style with which he began it — an eclectic and heady mixture of historical fact and fabulation that veers from painstakingly detailed descriptions of 18th century London to acts of daring worthy of James Bond.

After the diversions of the second book, Stephenson returns to the adventures of Daniel Waterhouse, with whom we started the trilogy. The ageing natural philosopher is faced with a number of seeming impossible tasks: protecting Isaac Newton at the trial of the Pyx (and effecting reconciliation between Newton and Liebniz), saving the notorious Vagabond Jack from death by hanging, and completing construction of his own “logic mill”. How (and if) he succeeds is not clear until the final pages and his adventures make compelling reading.

These dramas are interspersed with a verbal portrait of the London in the early 1700s that is almost tangible — including more than one could wish to know about the city sewers — and I had great fun trying to pick what was fact from fiction. In many cases I’m still not sure. All of this makes for a brick of a book, and I found myself skipping some of the geographical detail to concentrate on the action, but this is not a criticism. It simply means that I will read it again to catch the layers I missed the first time around. My only complaint is that the size of the book makes it physically hard to read, but it is well worth the effort.