The System of the World
The Baroque Cycle Vol. 3

By Neal Stephenson

   
   “Tis done,” indeed. The series that could have been several books culminates in only a third volume, THE SYSTEM OF THE WORLD. The Baroque Cycle is Neal Stephenson’s finest work, trumping William Gibson’s THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE. No, Peter Jackson still hasn’t made a bid to film Gibson’s trilogy. Just as well. Like Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, some books are better left in their original medium. Somehow the Philosophic Mercury evaporates when certain books are translated to the screen. Although the Sci-Fi Channel did well enough with Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea works. Surely, with a rousingly compelling thrill-ride involving the hero and heroine, Jack Shaftoe a.k.a. Jack the Coiner, and royal strategist/spy/abolitionist Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon-Qwghlm, some ambitious director might give The Baroque Cycle the old Gresham’s College try?

    From a scriptwriter’s point of view, though, the final volume of the trilogy poses a thornier challenge than trying to catch a Hollywood producer’s eye at the Chateau Marmont. Jack the Coiner’s assault on the Tower of London, for one, might strain even Dreamworks’ army of CGI animators. Although a few action lines and camera shots might do it justice, the audience may be as baffled as the reader trying to keep track of the endless gambits over the future of England’s wealth. If you think Enron is corrupt, you don’t know Jack about Sir Isaac Newton, who’s embroiled in a deadly philosophical duel with Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, a battle that parallels the war over English succession. The political machinations make the spectre of a vote recount in Ohio seem blissfully uncomplicated.

   Hang the movies, preferably at Tyburn. THE SYSTEM OF THE WORLD is a rare treat of a novel that respects the reader’s intelligence and populates the milieu of 18th-century London with fascinating characters such as Caroline, Princess of Wales (no doomed Diana, she), who has a humorous German-to-English language lesson with lover Johann von Hacklheber, Eliza’s son: “I love you.” “I loaf you.” “I love you.” “I lubb you.” Prose like Alchemic gold, flesh-and-blood characters and high Technologickal adventure make this the Philosopher’s Stone of trilogies.