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Description edit see section history

In the year 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves -- including one Jack Shaftoe, aka King of the Vagabonds, aka Half-Cocked Jack -- devises a daring plan to win freedom and fortune. A great adventure ensues -- a perilous race for an enormous prize of silver ... nay, gold ... nay, legendary... read more

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “"Flirtation is customarily more or less obvious, mousieur, but you do not have to mention it!”
    Eliza
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  • “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a yo-yo,” Enoch said.
    Highlighted by 35 Kindle customers
  • “The wording does not come naturally in this bastard language of Sabir, but Moseh’s plan was to synergistically leverage the value-added of diverse core competencies into a virtual entity whose whole was more than the sum of its parts…”
    Highlighted by 31 Kindle customers
  • “For every human being who is born into this universe is like a child who has been given a key to an infinite Library, written in cyphers that are more or less obscure, arranged by a scheme — of which we can at first know nothing, other than that there does appear to be some scheme — pervaded by a vapor, a spirit, a fragrance that reminds us that it was the work of our Father. Which does us no good whatever, other than to remind us, when we despair, that there is an underlying logic about it, that was understood once and can be understood again.”
    Highlighted by 29 Kindle customers
  • The mind is its own place, and in it self Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n. — MILTON, Paradise Lost
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  • “For confusion is a kind of bewitchment — a moment when what we supposed we understood loses its form and runs together and becomes one with other things that, though they might have had different outward forms, shared the same inward nature.”
    Highlighted by 26 Kindle customers
  • “Pay attention, that’s all,” Eliza said. “Notice things. Connect what you’ve noticed. Connect it into a picture. Think of how the picture might be changed; and act to change it. Some of your acts may turn out to have been foolish, but others will reward you in surprising ways; and in the meantime, simply by being active instead of passive, you have a kind of immunity that’s hard to explain —”
    Highlighted by 25 Kindle customers
  • God has chosen the world that is the most perfect, that is to say, the one that is at the same time the simplest in hypotheses and the richest in phenomena. — LEIBNIZ
    Highlighted by 23 Kindle customers
  • We say of some Nations, the People are lazy, but we should say only, they are poor; Poverty is the Fountain of all Manner of Idleness. — DANIEL DEFOE, A Plan of the English Commerce
    Highlighted by 21 Kindle customers
  • Where men build on false grounds, the more they build, the greater is the ruin. — HOBBES, Leviathan
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  • Jeronimo stepped forward, piously wringing his hands, and began to mumble some words in Latin; but then his demon took over and he shouted, “Fuck! I do not even believe in God! I swear by all of you Vagabonds, Niggers, Heretics, Kikes, and Camel-Jockeys, for you are the only friends I have ever had.”
    Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers
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Organizations edit see section history

  • The Royal Society: Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, for the advancement of science and physics.

First Sentence edit see section history

He was not merely awakened, but detonated out of an uncommonly long and repetitive dream.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 2 of 3 in The Baroque Cycle. (standard series)

Preceded by Quicksilver, and followed by The System of the World.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Neal Stephenson (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

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Publication Date: 2004
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Page Count: 815

Classification edit see section history

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

Some fairly explicit sex scenes.


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