Neal Stephenson's grand vision

REVIEWS BY GAVIN J. GRANT

The Confusion is the second 900-page volume in Neal Stephenson's huge Baroque Cycle trilogy. Readers, and there will no doubt be many given how strong Stephenson's following is, will be fascinated to find that inside these covers there are actually two novels: Bonanza and Juncto. These two novels take place concurrently between 1689 and 1702 and mainly follow two characters: Jack Shaftoe, a galley slave with plans to become much more, and secret agent Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, who is trying to get to London with her baby. Pirates, a treasure quest, the Inquisition, the court of Louis XIV, and the rivalry between Isaac Newton and Wilhelm Leibnitz all make appearances in a complex plot that effortlessly, elegantly and energetically goes back and forth between the two tales and leaves the reader looking forward to the third volume.

With its vivid retelling of the roots of science, The Confusion—and the whole Baroque Cycle—is one of the most interesting pieces of current fiction in any genre. The combined trilogy (not including the earlier, somewhat linked Cryptonomicon) will be the equivalent of a series of at least half-a-dozen novels published in less than a year. Stephenson's vision is grand indeed, and lucky are the readers who choose to follow along.


First contact

The Child Goddess by Louise Marley covers ground similar to Mary Doria Russell's book-group favorite The Sparrow. In a near future very similar to the present (except with space flight), Isabel Burke, a priest in the Order of Mary Magdalene, is asked to travel to Virimund. Virimund was thought to be uninhabited until a group of semi-feral children is discovered. During first contact, one of the children has been killed and an injured child has been taken into protective custody. Apart from there being no adults on Virimund, there is something odd about these children: they do not seem to be growing older.

Complicating the journey and Isabel's job is Simon Burke. Burke is a top scientist at World Health, and he and Isabel had previously worked together in the Australian outback, where they became deeply attracted to one another. Even though Isabel is bound by her oath of celibacy and Burke is married—Burke's wife is a busy, but sad character who is mostly seen waiting by the phone—their relationship is a key factor in the book. Burke is the one person who knows enough about viruses in children to work with Isabel to solve the mystery.

In The Child Goddess, Marley brings together religious and medical ethics and asks what we want from the universe and how far we are willing to go to get it. This interesting novel will generate much discussion among readers.


They're watching you

As the nation's cyber-security policy comes under review, energetic futurist Bruce Sterling's The Zenith Angle gets more timely by the minute, which will no doubt make this one of the few action novels that are must-reads this summer.After September 11, 2001, gadget-obsessed computer scientist Derek Vandeveer is hired by the federal government to amp up its computer security. Through an odd series of circumstances, Vandeveer not only becomes pivotal in a number of governmental decisions but also becomes aware of a Star Wars weapon located where no one would ever think to look. Vandeveer's transformation from family man and information geek to muscle-bound cold warrior is a little hard to swallow, but Sterling's enthusiasm for the rest of the world—including Bollywood movies, the future of the Internet, rocket design and the guts of how politics really work—is more than enough to keep the pages turning in this fast-paced thriller.


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