The Confusion

The Confusion

Hardcover - USA - 1st edition.

Author Neal Stephenson Published 2004-04-13 Type Fiction Genre Adventure Themes Adventure, Historical fiction Age Group Adult

The Confusion is a historic fiction novel by Neal Stephenson, published on 2004-04-13, and the second of three volumes of The Baroque Cycle and followed up by The System of the World. The Confusion consists of two smaller books, The Juncto and Bonanza which are intermixed across chapters.

The book follows three made up characters as they travel around Europe in the late 1600s and interact with an otherwise historical England during the days of Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, and various other members of the Royal Society. The Juncto follows events based around Eliza, Gottfried Leibniz, and Daniel Waterhouse, and Bonanza follows Jack Shaftoe on a voyage around the world. Both books concurrently follow a time line which merges in the end.

Personal

Own?	Hardcover, USA, 1st edition
Read?	Audiobook read by Kevin Pariseau and Katherine Kellgren
Finished	2017-10-23

There was such a long gap between when I finished Quicksilver and began The Confusion, that I actually had to go back and re-read the last section of Quicksilver to remember where I left off. I'm glad that I did, because it helped make sense of the early events of The Confusion. The book, like Quicksilver, is utterly fantastic!

Review

Overall:

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The book is well-written, and chocked full of excitement, action, intrigue, and historical knowledge.
• The wide range of cultures and sciences is very interesting, as is the fight between Newton and Leibniz.
• All of the characters, including the heroes, villains, and side characters are all interesting and well-developed.
• Enoch Root is even more explicitly described as being an immortal, though nothing concrete is made of it.
• The ending is pretty awesome and really makes you ready for the sequel.

Bad

• The similarities between Cryptonomicon are heavier, even bringing in an ancestor of Goto into the mix, which is even more silly. I would have preferred less similarity, as it requires a fair amount of suspension of disbelief.
• The book focuses more on economics, which I still find interesting, but I'd still prefer more about science.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Covers

• 

  The US first edition cover uses the LTC Pabst Oldstyle typeface over an old city map. The coloration is the color of a metallic alloy. It's a bit dull but fitting.

Representation

Strong female character?	Pass
Bechdel test?	Unknown
Strong person of color character?	Unknown
Queer character?	Unknown

Links