In which Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and courageous Puritan, pursues knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe -- in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.

The first book (Quicksilver) of the New York Times bestselling first volume (QUICKSILVER) in Neal Stephensons grand multi-volume epic, The Baroque Cycle.