-----Original Message----- From: Kepler's Events [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
APPEARING AT KEPLER'S BOOKS! Neal Stephenson Friday, September 26, 7:30 pm On September 23rd, The Baroque Cycle begins! An historical adventure of prodigious scope, wit, and dramatic potency, the eagerly anticipated three-volume epic by Neal Stephenson begins with QUICKSILVER. Stephenson introduces us to a diverse cast of unforgettable characters in an epoch of breathtaking discovery in the age known as the Baroque. This free event will be held at Kepler's Books, located at 1010 El Camino Real in Menlo Park. 650.324.4321. For more information: http://keplers.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp;jsessionid=B421BA3C6622E1 023B48B7EE5773E09E.t2?s=storeevents&eventId=244160 >From the September 8 "What's Next" issue of TIME magazine. Isaac Newton, Action Hero By LEV GROSSMAN Cult-classic science-fiction novel - check. Comic novel about environmentalists - check. Best-selling thriller - also check. What is there left for Neal Stephenson - author of Snow Crash, Zodiac and Cryptonomicon, among other novels - to write? The answer is The Baroque Cycle, a stunning 3,000-page trilogy about 17th century scientists that will defy any category, genre, precedent or label - except for genius. (That's right, I'm using the g-word.) The Baroque Cycle is so huge that it's being released in six-month intervals, Matrix-style: Quicksilver drops in September, The Confusion in April 2004 and The System of the World in October 2004. But you'll wish it were longer. Its scope is galactically vast and encompasses the lives of noblemen, vagabonds and, above all, thinkers. Amid the still smoking aftermath of the Fire of London, the likes of Isaac Newton and Gottfried Liebniz (both major characters) are laying the foundations of modern science by hand, equation by equation. Stephenson has a once-in-a-generation gift: he makes complex ideas clear, and he makes them funny, heartbreaking and thrilling. In The Baroque Cycle, he proves on an epic scale that the key to knowing what's next is understanding what has come before.
