System of the World, The (Baroque Cycle, 3)

England, 1714. London has long been home to a secret war between the brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist, Isaac Newton, and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the Coiner. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level as Half-Cocked Jack hatches a daring plan, aiming for the total corruption of Britain’s newborn monetary system. Enter Daniel Waterhouse: Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, Daniel has been on a long and harrowing quest to help mend the rift between adversarial geniuses. As Daniel combs city and country for clues to the identity of the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers, political factions jockey for position while awaiting the impending death of the ailing queen, and the “holy grail” of alchemy, the key to life eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton. As Newton, Waterhouse, and Shaftoe each circle closer to the object of Daniel’s quest, everything that was will be changed forever. . . . “[Stephenson has] managed to give Middle Earth a run for its money.” ― Janet Maslin, New York Times “Stephenson spent nearly two thousand pages setting his convergent plots in motion, and they all collide brilliantly in the third and final installment of his Baroque Cycle. . . . Historical fiction was never this much fun ― or this successful.” ― Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A)