The Confusion

Warning: While this post contains only minor spoilers for The Confusion, it does have more major spoilers for Quicksilver, the previous book in the series.

Last month, I posted a review of the first book in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, Quicksilver.  As I mentioned before, this is an eight book series collected into three books.  The Confusion contains books 4 and 5, named Bonanza and Juncto respectively.  However, like George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, books 4 and 5 take place at the same time.  Because of this, the book alternates back and forth between the two rather than displaying them in sequence, so the two books can be read as one ordered story.  While it did make the book a little confusing at first glance, I loved it.  It is exactly the sort of thing I would have endeavored to do anyway (and will endeavor to do with Martin's books when I read them again).

Bonanza brings back my favorite character from Quicksilver: Jack Shaftoe, the vagabond.  I was slightly worried that his disappearance in half way through Quicksilver meant that he was only meant to move some other characters to certain positions.  Luckily, that was not the case.  Bonanza contains a great gunfight in 18th century Cairo and generally hops around the globe, showing the reader interesting places as it goes.

Juncto is basically the dumping ground for every character in the series other than Jack and his companions.  There were a few things that made me laugh out loud, such as Jack's brother's commanding officer's (enough apostrophes?) tendency to refer to everything as a training exercise and the introduction of Tsar Peter the Great.  The book also does a good job of explaining how economics worked in the early 18th century.  While Juncto is certainly not as action packed as Bonanza, it is still interesting and entertaining.

I did notice, especially near the end of the book, if you were reading the entirety of Bonanza, followed by the entirety of Juncto, it could get a bit confusing.  Luckily that confusion is completely ameliorated by the construction of The Confusion.

This is a better book than Quicksilver but to find it so, you must put in the effort to read Quicksilver.  This is certainly not a series that allows you to skip around between books. I would definitely recommend this book, it is entertaining and educational.

Overall, I would give this book an 87%.