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Whatever Quicksilver is, it can't be classified as a historical novel. It is rather a sprawling, picaresque interpretation of the historical past. Stephenson is unapologetic about not reproducing speech patterns. But he also doesn't always reproduce beliefs. If you regard English Puritans and New England Dissenters as heroic figures, you won't like this book, for Stephenson has most of the old prejudices about both scattered throughout the book. You have no sense of how the characters' beliefs or actions are both uniquely of their time and, at one and the same moment, dramatically important. Stephenson is no Patrick O'Brian, using historical fiction to speak deeply into the human condition.

Instead, we have a semi-action-adventure novel of ideas. There are a lot of monologues in Quicksilver, set pieces in which Newton or Leibniz or Wilkins or Louis XIV explains the Facts of Nature and Realpolitik to one of the fictional characters. But if Stephenson isn't interested in the meticulous re-creation of a particular historical period, he's not at all indifferent to the "shock of the old." He makes you believe in the thrill and speed and wonder of the era. What now seems familiar—the calculus, barometers, silver mining, kidney stones, shorting the market—in Stephenson's hands becomes new and strange again, as if it was just invented.

This is a novel, in other words, about the modern world and how it got here. You can understand, with such an ambitious topic, why Quicksilver adds up to a whopping 953 pages—and why there are two more volumes to come. Still, it's all a little too much, and one can only hope that Stephenson will someday get an editor who is willing to take a hatchet to his manuscripts. After all, one of the recurring themes of modernity—in technology and commerce alike—is the relentless quest to do more with less.

Albert Louis Zambone, a D.Phil candidate at the University of Oxford, lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Quicksilver is available from Amazon.com and other book retailers.

Neal Stephenson's web site offers personal information, more book information, and an e-newsletter.

The HarperCollins website offers an interview with Neal Stephenson in both text and audio formats. It also has information about the book, about the author, and a chapter excerpt.

Books & Culture Corner appears every Monday. Earlier editions of Books & Culture Corners and Book of the Week include:

Poetry, Prayer, and Parable | The playful provocations of Scott Cairns (Oct. 06, 2003)

Terrorists on Trial | How the nation responded to an earlier attack. (Sept. 29, 2003)

The Contemplative Christian | Eugene Peterson calls believers to a life lived with "wholeness, honesty, without contrivance"-against the grain of much that's currently driving the church in America. (Sept. 29, 2003)

Recalling California | Want to understand what's going on in the Golden State? Toss your newsmagazines and pick up Joan Didion's new book (Sept. 22, 2003)

The Ph.D. Octopus, 100 Years On | How Christians can make a difference in the upside-down world of graduate school (Sept. 15, 2003)

The Difference Between Conservatives and Prolifers | William Saletan unspins, and respins, the abortion debate (Sept. 8, 2003)

A New View of Worldview | Some critics want to retire the concept. Not so fast, says David Naugle (Aug. 18, 2003)

'A Golden Age' of Religious Tolerance? | The Ornament of the World analyzes how the intellectual elites of medieval Spain eschewed fundamentalism and showed surprising sensitivity in reconciling competing truths. (Aug. 11, 2003)

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October (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47