King of the Vagabonds: The Baroque Cycle #2 (The Baroque Cycle) - Neal Stephenson

Half-cocked Jack Finally Explained

It's apt that one of the titles in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is The Confusion, because that's what the numbers in the set produce. I read Quicksilver first, then The Confusion, which is subtitled Baroque Cycle #2--but actually this book (King of the Vagabonds) should be next, as it gives the backstory for Jack and Eliza. Regardless, Stephenson's mastery of politics and intrigue in the turbulent 18th century makes this an exciting and thought-provoking read.

This is a paperback of the middle 3rd of Volume 1: Quicksilver

Here's the complete list to help people avoid buying something they already have:

Quicksilver, Vol. I of the Baroque Cycle
Book 1 - Quicksilver
Book 2 - The King of the Vagabonds
Book 3 - Odalisque

The Confusion, Vol. II of the Baroque Cycle
Book 4 - Bonanza
Book 5 - The Juncto

The System of the World, Vol. III of the Baroque Cycle
Book 6 - Solomon's Gold
Book 7 - Currency
Book 8 - The System of the World

Get Past It

Should the publisher have printed King of the Vagabonds separately? Sure, why not? Where they missed was in not clearly labelling it for those of us who bought Quicksilver, in which this book is contained as the second part. Readers felt ripped-off when they purchased a book they'd already read, and that's understandable. But the blame goes to the marketing department of the publisher, not to Neal Stephenson, who wrote an incredibly fascinating and diverse portrait of the world at the time when knowledge was first beinging to replace belief; when science emerged out of religion; when the world as we know it now was first being born. And it is an amazing accomplishment--for a second, just say out loud that someone could make a best-seller out of an eight volume series about the acrimony between Newton and Leibnitz over the discovery of the calculus, about the necessity of a stable currency, about the birth of 'natural philosophy', about the beginnings of cryptography; and that they'd be able to put in a grand showdown between alchemists and pirates--it sounds absurd, doesn't it? But Stephenson carrys it off magnificently.

This particular volume (yes, it IS the second book of the large volume Quicksilver--if your Quicksilver is divided into three books, you've read it; if your Quicksliver ends with Watterson escaping from pirates, you haven't and it's safe to buy) is a complete and shocking contrast to the first book in the series. That book was about the birth of science, it was very intellectual with little action and focussed mainly on the characters of Daniel Waterhouse and Issac Newton. King of the Vagabonds could not be more different--none of the characters in the first book appear (and I kept waiting for them to do so), none of the action overlaps, and the themes are completely different. Where Quicksilver (the book, not the volume) was about ideas, King of the Vagabonds is about action. It's pirates and gypsies and fighting and cavorting mostly through continental Europe. Not until the next volume (Odalesque) will any of the characters from the first two books meet, and then only incidentally. The big confrontations come much later, so don't expect it now.

I throughly loved The Baroque Cycle, as did my 20 year old son. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you are interested in ideas, if you enjoy the detailed portrayal of times and places other than our own, you might love it as much as we did. I was only sorry it was only 8 volumes.

Repackaging Can Be a Good Thing

First off, this book and all the books in Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, however packaged and numbered, make for excellent reading. My stars are based on the excellence of the books themselves.

As for the reviewers who feel that repackaging is evil or greedy, well, okay. But if I were the author, I would be delighted that the publisher is investing the money and effort to repackage the books in a way that will bring them to a wider audience.

The new titles on the cover are racier and more true to the content; "King of the Vagabonds" and "Odalisque" will pull more readers to pick up a copy than "The Confusion" ever could. "Quicksilver", however, holds its own as a title in this company, so keep it.

Breaking up the enormous page counts into more tractable sizes will pull in many of my friends, who simply refuse to pick up fat books. They don't have the time, they're afraid the book will be hard reading -- whatever. So the publisher is accommodating that potential readership, and at the same time returning to the days of skinny book classics. (Ever read The Great Gatsby? That's a novella or novellette, not a novel! Ditto most of Hemingway's stuff. Ditto C.S. Forester -- novels, sure, but SKINNY novels.)

The fact of the matter is, it's cheaper to print one fat book than three skinny ones. In choosing to repackage the Baroque Series books in a more extended manner, the publisher is taking a calculated risk; they're boosting their costs, but also expanding their potential market to more first-time readers, who will then buy the complete inventory of Stephenson books once they get hooked.

So, good for Harper. And go, Neal Stephenson!

Baroque Cycle

The Baroque Cycle is not a trilogy, trilogy meaning "a group of three novels which together form a related series, although each is complete in itself." It is eight novels published in three hardcover volumes. Thus "cycle." In an interview in 2004, Stephenson said that one reason why he named it a "cycle" was that some people would call it a trilogy when it obviously wasn't and he wanted to, as best he could, prevent that anoyance.

Stephenson and Harper Collins could have published this series in eight hardcover volumes from the beginning. After all it is EIGHT novels. They would have sold almost three times the volumes and made a lot more money. They didn't. Instead, they published the entire series in THREE volumes and as quickly as possible. It takes a long time to proofread, edit and typeset four hundred thousand words. Also they would have sold almost three times the amount of trade paperbacks. Now they are publishing each volume seperately in mass market. I think it comes down to two reasons. First, that it is, as above stated, eight novels. Second, some people find a nine hundred page volume intimidating but would be willing to read a four hundred page novel. This is who these editions are for.

It's striking how eager some people are to point fingers and claim someone else is greedy. They are ignorant concerning how difficult it is to write a book and their reviews end up revealing how ignorant they are concern writing and the publishing industry. I've read reviews of people claiming it was half the book, that the volumes were renamed. I questioned whether they have even read it. All I have to do is grab my trade paperback volume of Quicksilver and flip through it to find that the first novel (like the name of the volume) is Quicksilver, the second is King of Vagabonds and the third is Odalisque. How can a person read something so obvious and not remember? It isn't difficult.

A little education concerning payment rates for popular books. Agents commission is fifteen percent of the top of the author's commission. Author's commission for a hardcover is fifteen percent. For a trade paperback, seven and a half. For mass market, ten percent. This means that Stephenson earnes approximately three and a half dollars off every hardcover (85% of 15% of the cover price). He makes sixty-eight cents (7.99x10%x85%) from each paperback.

It's not difficult to do a little research concerning the contents of a book before it is released. The information was revealed on amazon months before the book came out in bookstores. The simple answer is, research before you buy.

If you haven't read the books, start with the Baroque Cycle start with #1. If you have, shut up.