Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

Started Stephenson's Quicksilver the other day and wow. Ben Franklin as Boston street-urchin. Isaac Newton as mischievous schoolboy. The Waterhouses, of course, and the jacket blurb mentions another Shaftoe but he hasn't shown up by page 80 - but it's a thick book. But never mind the window-dressing, there is stuff going on in this story, grinding-of-celestial-gears kinda stuff. And it's only the first of a big fat trilogy, all of which is prequel to Cryptonomicon. I might even finally learn calculus. -I might have to. -Nicely written from a technical and stylistic point of view too, I must say, like what I try for. Putting aside the story and characters, it's skillfully written, the editor-in-my-head isn't getting much work.

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