The Confusion

Volume two of the Baroque Cycle, built as two books — Bonanza and The Juncto — interleaved chapter by chapter, which is what the title puns on. One follows Jack Shaftoe’s galley-slave consortium chasing silver around the world; the other follows Eliza through the money politics of Versailles, Amsterdam and London. It shared the 2005 Locus Award with the volume that follows it.

Context: a16z carded the Baroque Cycle as one entry and described it as “a sweeping, detailed, fantastic, and funny account of the life and times of Isaac Newton,” recommending it to readers who bounced off Stephenson’s science fiction — the selling point being that “it has endings!” Volume one, Quicksilver, is already in the anti-library; this is the middle.

Connections

• a16z Infra Reading List — the list this came from; Fantasy section, Baroque Cycle entry.
• The Baroque Cycle — the series card.
• Quicksilver — volume one.
• The System of the World (Stephenson novel) — volume three.
• Neal Stephenson — the author.
• Isaac Newton — the figure the cycle is organised around.
• Republic of Letters — the Royal Society world the trilogy is set inside.
• Historical Fiction — the genre.
• Cryptonomicon — the Stephenson novel the cycle is a prequel to, by family line.
• Snow Crash — the Stephenson book Kyle has already read.
• a16z — the firm whose infrastructure team curates the list.