What a difference the right character makes! I was on page 384 when I suddenly realized that Eliza was finally someone in the narrative that I could care about. Because of her, Jack Shaftoe became more interesting too. (If I was a stickler for Nancy Pearl's rule, I would have abandoned the novel long before this point [Take 100, subtract your age and the result is the number of pages you should read before giving up on a book. When you're 100, you're free to judge a book by its cover.]) But I did end up liking the book, although not as much as I had hoped.
It shouldn't have been that way. I was so optimistic when I started this huge book. After all, Isaac Newton was a prominent character. How could he fail to be fascinating? Well, by appearing for a while, then dropping out of sight, that's how. He reappears fleetingly at the end, at least. Daniel Waterhouse was mildly interesting, but so clueless about politics (and women) that he was next to useless as a narrator. It was the sections about his older self, trying to return from Massachusetts to England on a ship and escaping from pirates that kept me reading until I found Eliza. I'm usually an enthusiastic reader of historical fantasy, but I found my attention drifting frequently. I'd have to back up a couple of paragraphs to make sure I hadn't glossed over a significant point.
I've read a few Stephenson novels at this point in my reading project: Snow Crash, The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, and Cryptonomicon, varying from 2 to 3 stars for me. I am coming to the conclusion that Neal is just not the lid to fit my pot. What’s interesting to me is that I have hit the 2003 to 2004 part of my reading list and many of the titles are huge brick-like tomes! What was it about this time period that encouraged these huge doorstoppers of books? Now comes the question, will I continue this series? Well, I'm going to give the second volume a try for sure. My library has it so it will be effortless to acquire. And I still have some time to wait before the Ruler of my Historical Fantasy Heart, Guy Gavriel Kay, publishes his newest title.
Book Number 445 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project
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