Excellent. An illuminating voyage through the Baroque Period. Guided in this case by the picaresque tale of Jack half cock Shaftoe - King of the Vagabonds and the equally delightful Eliza. This bloke Stephenson is a thoroughly brilliant story teller and I come out of each book a little better educated on how the world of today is informed and directed by its splendidly spectacular history. The narration was fantastic and I imagine does justice to a brilliant text. ( )

Full of action and compelling characters. ( )

Slightly worse since there's not enough scientific digressions, slightly better since there's better characters. Let's see what happens.


REREAD:

Huh, I forgot how well this book actually functions as a proper story, as long as you ignore it cuts out right at the end of the second act. Action? Romance? Not just expository Dialogue? I also tried my best to follow the financial and political plots going on, but it was still quite difficult. I also forgot Jack's drug addled trip trying to escape from a cult of Satan-worshippers in the woods . Good times.

Reread, still 4/5. ( )

Part two of the first Cycle takes a huge departure from the first book that mainly revolved around science and a richly detailed England to follow Jack, the self-styled King of the Vagabonds in this traveling adventure around all of Europe in the late sixteen-hundreds.

Include spies, a huge political intrigue, hanging out with all the lower sorts, and enough scrapes, tosses, and near-death experiences for any taste. Jack doesn't really have the ear of anyone, let alone a king, but what he does have is a talent for getting into the biggest messes.

What makes this special is not only the characters, which are a serious hoot but the amount of research and a perfect inclusion of real history and events on a scale I've never before seen. This might as well be a Masters course in history if it hadn't been written so excitingly and humorously.

I think I might have enjoyed this one even more than the first book in the Cycle, but only in terms of pure adventure and sneakily introduced economics, medicine, and a good idea about how the REST of the world lived during these times. Jack's about as low as they come. :)

I totally recommend this for Historical Fiction lovers everywhere. :) ( )

Slightly worse since there's not enough scientific digressions, slightly better since there's better characters. Let's see what happens. ( )