Sara's reading log

I am a book hoarder and reader. My main genre is SF, but I also love magic realism, fantasy and general fiction. Favorite authors are Iain M. Banks, Ursula K. LeGuin, Haruki Murakami, José Saramago, Isaac Asimov, Ben Aaronovitch and more. My rating system is based on five stars. I rate books based on my expectations and what a books aims to be. This means that the brilliant 'Fahrenheit 451' gets five stars because I thought it would be good, people said it was good, and it was good, but 'A Closed and Common Orbit' also gets five stars because in its series, in its style, I really enjoyed it and was not disappointed.

The System of the World by Neal Stephenson

  • Started on: 2012-06-09
  • Finished on: 2012-06-19
  • Read in: English
  • Rating: *****
  • Genre(s): Historical Fiction

After reading “The Confusion” last week I moved right on to the last book in the “The Baroque” cycle, “The System of The World”. This is the book where it all comes together, the long and winding stories of Daniel Waterhouse, Isaac Newton, Jack Shaftoe and Eliza. The main character in this book is Daniel, who has been called back to England from America by Sophia Charlotte of Hanover. Jack is a coiner making false coins out of special gold, Newton is Master of the Mint but also an Alchemist. Queen Anne wants her successor to be Catholic, the Whigs want it to be George of the House of Hanover, a protestant.
The book is, as those before it, very detailed, very dense, with many characters, story-lines and politics. There is really no way to write a summary of suck a complex story. Another reason for no summary is that anything said about this book would spoil the other two books. I loved this book, as I loved the rest of the series. If you liked the other two (which you need to read to get this book), you’ll like this one. If not, you won’t. For me this is five out of five stars.

  • Started on: 2012-06-09
  • Finished on: 2012-06-19
  • Read in: English
  • Rating: *****
  • Genre(s): Historical Fiction

After reading “The Confusion” last week I moved right on to the last book in the “The Baroque” cycle, “The System of The World”. This is the book where it all comes together, the long and winding stories of Daniel Waterhouse, Isaac Newton, Jack Shaftoe and Eliza. The main character in this book is Daniel, who has been called back to England from America by Sophia Charlotte of Hanover. Jack is a coiner making false coins out of special gold, Newton is Master of the Mint but also an Alchemist. Queen Anne wants her successor to be Catholic, the Whigs want it to be George of the House of Hanover, a protestant.
The book is, as those before it, very detailed, very dense, with many characters, story-lines and politics. There is really no way to write a summary of suck a complex story. Another reason for no summary is that anything said about this book would spoil the other two books. I loved this book, as I loved the rest of the series. If you liked the other two (which you need to read to get this book), you’ll like this one. If not, you won’t. For me this is five out of five stars.