The System of the World by Neal Stephenson - Fantasy - SFBookcase.com - Reference of Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels/Authors.

The System of the World (The Baroque Cycle)

Series: The Baroque Cycle
Volume: 3
Genre: Fantasy
ISBN: 0060523875
Pages: 832 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Price: $27.95
Reader Rating: 9 out of 10
Votes: 1

The System of the World by Neal Stephenson

Description: 'Tis done.

The world is a most confused and unsteady place - especially London, center of finance, innovation, and conspiracy - in the year 1714, when Daniel Waterhouse makes his less-than-triumphant return to England's shores. Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, confidant of the high and mighty and contemporary of the most brilliant minds of the age, he has braved the merciless sea and an assault by the infamous pirate Blackbeard to help mend the rift between two adversarial geniuses at a princess's behest. But while much has changed outwardly, the duplicity and danger that once drove Daniel to the American Colonies is still coin of the British realm.

No sooner has Daniel set foot on his homeland when he is embroiled in a dark conflict that has been raging in the shadows for decades. It is 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, a.k.a. Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level, as Half-Cocked Jack plots a daring assault on the Tower itself, aiming for nothing less than the total corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system.

Everything that was will be changed forever..