The Baroque Cycle
Neal Stephenson
32 people recommended it in 16 threads, 2007–2024.
1 commenter pushed back on it — worth reading the threads.
What people on Hacker News said
This is a story of the dawn of science through the network of scientists surrounding the Royal Society of London.
Clever, detailed historical fiction epic about the 1600s and 1700s in Europe, The Middle East, and a bit of North Americas east coast.
I'll be honest, the first read of the Baroque Cycle took me some time and I came close to putting it down. I've since re-read it about six or seven times.
But oh god, Baroque Cycle was unparalleled from a character-building perspective. I loved every second of it.
The Baroque Cycle - Neal Stephenson - It was 3000+ pages all told, and I LOVED it. His writing has always enthralled me, and I was hooked from the start
Who doesn't want to read fiction about The Royal Society, Isaac Newton and Liebniz mixed in with phrases in the line with "In memory of Englands greatest swordsman, beaten to death with a club by an Irishman".
Intertwined, complex story spanning over decades of an era I hardly knew anything about was a welcome surprise, it reads pretty much like Cryptonomicon or Reamde, but on a grander scale.
Stephenson inserts the most curious historical details of the period into the books and you are constantly checking wikipedia - did this really happen? Usually the most outrageous details are picked from history.
Where it comes up
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