Quicksilver, Redux

Posted by: dballing | March 29, 2004

Quicksilver, Redux

I’m 400 pages in, and the worst possible thing could happen.
Stephenson just starts fucking around with the Geography of Europe. He invents a country in the middle of nowhere. Quicksilver is a book set in a historical setting. It’s quite obviously “our world” because it’s got bits dealing with the Crusades, the Black Plague, numerous historical figures, etc.
But then, he completely shatters the suspension of disbelief by making up a country. Adding insult to injury, it’s not even something “subtle” like having a country’s name that might be vaguely pronounceable. Nope, this mythical country’s name is Qwghlm. No, that’s not spelled wrong. No, there are no vowels in it.
I give up, Neal. You’re officially a moron. I read through “Book I” (which is, basically one half of Quicksilver), through around 400 pages or so, and realized I didn’t give a wet slap about any of the characters. Not a one. If page 401 told me that a guy from the future came back in time with an M16A2 and slaughtered them all, I would have been OK with that. Now, you just start making up countries with unpronounceable names (although, I’m supposed to believe that’s pronounced “taggum”… yeah, whatever) and expect me to just play along.
When I read Stephenson’s earlier works, I went on a buying frenzy at the time, snatching up copies of everything I could find, and reading them voraciously.. they were great (although they all seemed to suffer from Stephenson’s inability to write a good ending).
Seems now, the entire book is the ending, because the entire volume sucks ass.
I think I finally figured out the “point” of the book. He’ll write the three volumes in increasing orders of stupidity and see how sycophantic the book-buying populace… will they keep snatching up his works, even if they amount to nothing more than drunken ravings? Get over yourself, Neal, you’re not Jim Morrisson, so the drunken nonsense routine isn’t going to play for you nearly as well as it played for him.

Posted in Book Reviews

Responses

My first was Cryptonomicon, which sold me. After that, The Big U, then Zodiac, then Diamond Age, then Snow Crash… last two thanks to Gregg. When I heard about Quicksilver, I almost drooled.
Now, though… not so sure.
By: Gary on March 29, 2004
at 9:22 pm
This is his “Metal Machine Music” perhaps: he wants out of his contract with his publisher.
Since nobody wants to begin in the middle of a trilogy, the whole trick is to have a first book that is really popular, since the readership for subsequent volumes will be a subset of the first book’s readers. I wonder how many will be left to read the final installment?
By: Ying on March 29, 2004
at 10:13 pm
Qwghlm is supposed to be Wales, I thought. Long weird names, etc. I recently thought about trying to read it again.. I’ll just wait for the audiobook.
By: Gregg on March 29, 2004
at 10:51 pm
That fake country figures somewhat prominently in his previous book, Cryptonomicon. Daniel Waterhouse spent time there during the war. Introducing it might have been weird, but once it’s part of the story, having it vanish would be weirder.
By: shiii on March 30, 2004
at 5:05 am
Kasia mentioned that as well… I think my “suspension of disbelief” was successful in Cryptonomicon because the story kept me distracted from the unreal nonsense.
By: Derek on March 30, 2004
at 7:13 am
How strange that I read this on a day I’m staying home from work with a cold, wrapped up in a blanket on the couch and reading Snow Crash.
By: Jason on March 31, 2004
at 2:34 pm
As a side note, the sequel (“The Confusion”) sucks too. I’m around 50 pages into it and already wondering if I can sell it second hand to someone..
By: Kaj on April 12, 2004
at 5:50 pm

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