Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson
published 2003 - read 2004

This centuries-earlier prequel to Cryptonomicon is in fact the first part of a prequel trilogy, which makes its longwindedness somewhat understandable: Stephenson is laying the groundwork for plots which will hopefully come to maturity in the following two volumes.  Sometimes this work is a little too obvious, particularly when it takes the form of courtly dramas and lists of Marquises and their Marquesseses, but mostly it's well-interwoven with a variety of macho adventures, some pirate battles, and a lot of clever scenes depicting the well-meaning, dog-dissecting ineptitude of early science.

Interestingly, as much as I gravitated towards the swordfights and Vagabonding on first read, on my second browse through Quicksilver it was the "Daniel Waterhouse, cowardly scientific bumbler" sections that I lingered on.  This mirrors my experience with Cryptonomicon and I'd love to discuss this further at some later point - maybe whenever I get around to reviewing System of the World, but certainly not now as I'm just struggling to get this webpage up and running before sunrise.

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