"A terrific climax to the fantastic Baroque Cycle trilogy"

In 1714 Daniel Waterhouse arbitrates the irrational dispute between the aging mathematical giants Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, both angrily insisting they invented the calculus. However as the two greats brawl like street kids, Queen Anne nears death. The Jacobyte supporters contend with the Hanoverian sympathizers over the succession. Waterhouse fears for the future due to the monarchy dispute potentially harming intellectual pursuits and the math argument shredding collaborations.

Meanwhile street schemer turned noble schemer Eliza de la Zour influences Caroline of Ansbach, consort of the heir to the English throne furthering her desires; while outlaw Jack Shaftoe struggles to avoid the hangman. As the world seems heading towards madness, Waterhouse tries to keep the rising chaos from turning the world back into another Dark Ages. His hope lies in technology and that rationale people will seek a reasonable solution irregardless of the Newton-Leibniz war, but he fears for the future though he sees a glimmer of light through brilliant inventions that will keep society from totally reversing itself.

This final epoch to an incredible look at the beginning of the modern age is a terrific climax to the fantastic Baroque Cycle trilogy. The story line is packed with insight into the early eighteenth century especially a deep glimpse at some the most influential people of the age. Waterhouse is the glue that keeps the tale together though sidebars with Eliza and Jack stretch the hero's skills to the max. Satirically, as the throne contenders battle and the mathematical crown co-champions argue (ironically without logic) the inventors are the ones left standing alone keeping the light shimmering in a Shakespearean-like climax.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted November 28, 2004

Summary

'Tis done. The world is a most confused and unsteady place -- especially London, center of finance, innovation, and conspiracy -- in the year 1714, when Daniel Waterhouse makes his less-than-triumphant return to England's shores. Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, confidant of the high and mighty and contemporary of the most brilliant minds of the age, he has braved the merciless sea and an assault by the infamous pirate Blackbeard to help mend the rift between two adversarial geniuses at a princess's behest. But while much has changed outwardly, the duplicity and danger that once drove Daniel to the American Colonies is still coin of the British realm. No sooner has Daniel set foot on his homeland when he is embroiled in a dark conflict that has been raging in the shadows for decades. It is a secret war between the brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist Isaac Newton and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the Coiner, a.k.a. Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level, as Half-Cocked Jack plots a daring assault on the Tower itself, aiming for nothing less than the total corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system. Unbeknownst to all, it is love that set the Coiner on his traitorous course; the desperate need to protect the woman of his heart -- the remarkable Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon- Qwghlm -- from those who would destroy her should he fail. Meanwhile, Daniel Waterhouse and his Clubb of unlikely cronies comb city and country for clues to the identity of the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers with Infernal Devices -- as political factions jockey for position while awaiting the impending death of the ailing queen; as the "holy grail" of alchemy, the key to life eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton, yet is closer than he ever imagined; as the greatest technological innovation in history slowly takes shape in Waterhouse's manufactory. Everything that was will be changed forever ... The System of the World is the concluding volume in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, begun with Quicksilver and continued in The Confusion.