King of the Vagabonds: Book Two of The Baroque Cycle

This is Volume I, Book Two of the author's Baroque Cycle. Book One, Quicksilver followed Daniel Waterhouse, a member of the 17th century English Royal Society, through two story threads that involved his early college years and his later life in the Massachusetts colony.Waterhouse makes no appearance in Book Two, which instead deals with Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe, an English vagabond and a kidnapped slave girl that he liberates from the Turks at the Siege of Vienna. Shaftoe and Eliza wander throughout the various German principalities before finally arriving at Amsterdam.Though Books One and Two are actually free standing novels which have no common characters to speak of, it is my understanding that the threads of the two books converge in Book Three, Odalisque, so there is no reason to purchase this particular book unless you have read Quicksilver and intend to proceed on to Odalisque.In fact, subsequent to publication of these free standing books, the publisher has released Books One-Three in a single work, entitle Volume I Quicksilver. It is unfortunately confusing that the title of Book One and Volume One are the same. Buy Volume One, which will contain Quicksilver, King of the Vagabonds and Odalisque. The five remaining books of the Baroque Cycle are contained in two subsequent Volumes.

What better way for the inimitable Neal Stephenson to tell the story of the origins of modern money than through the adventures of a Restoration-era Cockney thief and the exceptionally well-educated slave girl he rescues from the Ottoman Turks at the siege of Vienna.Not that the scientific luminaries we met in Quicksilver are left entirely out of this swashbuckling narrative – Gottfried Leibniz appears in the flesh with hands-on instruction in the role of novel mining technology (much of which he invented) in the evolution of both coinage and the emergence of financial paper.Nor are the political luminaries of this fraught and dangerous era left out of the story – Eliza the slave girl ends up on intimate terms with both a pretender to the English throne and one of its future occupants, and the eponymous Jack shares a Parisian ballroom with Louis the Sun King, both of them on horseback no less.The Baroque Cycle gets better in this the second book of the eight-book series (which doubles as the second book of the first of three volumes, for those who count that way). On to Odalisque.

I had picked up one of his books at a thrift store, thinking from the title that it was an H P Lovecraft pastiche. I was blown away by the book and happliy discoved that it defied gendre or pigon holing. Keen and sharp witted, on the cutting edge of tech.I had to look at his other works and I'm glad that I did. Love this book. His sense of history, of creating a unique and diverse cast. I DEVOURED this book and look forwards to reading the next in the cycle.The book was part of a larger order and came in a timley manner and well packed. The inner wrapping of tight plastic as well as a backer board of cardboard both waterproffed it and assure a mint quality of the book(s).

is always exciting and fun and educational though what is real and what is made up is at times hard to discern.... also he never mentions in any of his book, what people are eating...he talks about excrement and other rectally described acts, weapons, sex, geography history physics math philosophy metaphysics religion and so much else but not of what Jack , or Eliza generally eat....

Enjoyable read.

The first half of the book mostly duplicates the first book in the series.

Excellent read for fans of Jack Shaftoe. I've the larger volumes where this is a book within but it is nice to have this in your collection for just a few dollars.

I sent this book to my brother in prison. He loves to read and he loved reading this book. He wants more.

Please be aware that this is an MP3 "CD", not a set of CDs.For others who where as confused as I, here is the complete order of The Baroque Cycle:Quicksilver:1. Quicksilver2. The King of the Vagabonds3. OdalisqueThe Confusion:4. Bonanza5. The JunctoThe System of the World:6. Solomon's Gold7. Currency8. The System of the World

Wow, wieder ein Volltreffer! Voller Informationen, spannender Wendungen und immer wieder atemberaubend lustig. Man taucht so richtig ein ins 17. Jahrhundert; man merkt mit wie vile spaß der Autor sich eine längere Auszeit von Science-fiction nimmt ohne dabei weniger fesselndes Gasrn zu spinnen..