By Neal Stephenson

Within the 12 months 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves -- together with one Jack Shaftoe, aka King of the Vagabonds, aka Half-Cocked Jack -- devises a bold plan to win freedom and fortune. an exceptional event ensues -- a deadly race for a tremendous prize of silver ... nay, gold ... nay, mythical gold.

In Europe, the beautiful and imaginative Eliza, Countess de l. a. Zeur, is stripped of her tremendous own fortune by means of France's most voguish privateer. Penniless and in danger from those that wish both her or her head (or both), she is stuck up in an internet of overseas intrigue, whilst she desperately seeks the go back of her Most worthy possession.

Meanwhile, Newton and Leibniz proceed to propound their grand theories as their notorious contention intensifies, obdurate alchemy does conflict with the typical sciences, dastardly plots are set in movement ... and Daniel Waterhouse seeks passage to the Massachusetts colony in hopes of escaping the insanity into which his global has descended.
This P.S. version good points an additional sixteen pages of insights into the e-book, together with writer interviews, prompt examining, and extra.

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Extra info for The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, Book 2)

Sample text

But our lovemaking had been very real, and I yet treasured the memory. Nor, I told myself, would I forget this one, for I’d never been inside the vast structure that housed the queen’s wardrobe, that which was not of immediate need and kept at Whitehall Palace. I’d adored Elizabeth of England from the first moment I’d seen her, gorgeously gowned, on a white horse, when I was but eleven and she’d come to visit her favorite, the Earl of Leicester, near my home in Warwickshire. The boy led me round the corner into an alcove hidden from the street.

I asked, for a man as important as Edward Arden in this area owed direct allegiance to Leicester. He shook his head and leaned closer. “More like, he’s foregone it. Leicester’s been as mean as that bear on the tunics. He pesters and prosecutes recusants, and Cousin Edward’s spleen is up over it. ” Recusants were those with Catholic loyalties or leanings. They were recorded and fined if they didn’t attend the Protestant church. In the early days of her reign, the queen had commanded that everyone could keep his conscience private, but since several attempted Catholic plots and rebellions, she’d let her advisors convince her to change her policy.

We seemed to have passed from attire to military materials. As we rounded the next corner, my worst fears leaped at me from the shadows. Within a dimly lit grotto of garments, behind a small portable table sat a man simply but finely attired all in black; his amber eyes shone flatly, like an adder’s. It took me but a moment to realize I knew him—that is, I knew who he was. I had glimpsed him at court the time the players had taken me with them. His hunchback form was unmistakable. For months, the whole city had talked of naught but the bloodless battles between this man and the Earl of Essex.

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The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, Book 2) by Neal Stephenson
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