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Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle is set in this era. Newton, Hooke, Wren, Leibniz and many others all appear as characters. It’s a 2800 page monster, but a treat

Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle is set in this era. Newton, Hooke, Wren, Leibniz and many others all appear as characters. It’s a 2800 page monster, but a treat if you enjoy historical fiction and the history of ideas.

KineticLensman 6y ago
Yes. Baroque Cycle is a true monster and varies in quality but I stuck with it for superb perspective on the birth of the modern age, and some of leading scientific rivalries of the time (e.g. Newton vs. Leibniz). As well as the beginnings of science, it also considers the creation of modern finance systems. At the risk of opening up the standard argument about the quality of the endings in Stephenson's books, I thought that the [spoiler-omitted: technology] conclusion of the third book in the cycle, although not particularly dramatic, is an excellent counterpart to the [spoiler-omitted: superstition] beginning of the first book.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  It's entertaining, but the tone and atmosphere are so anachronistic. I like historical fiction that gives more of a sense of the alienness of past societies. Here's a translated quote from the novel 三国演义, per Wikipedia: "Brothers are like limbs, wives and children are like clothing. Torn clothing can be repaired; how can broken limbs be mended?"
watersb 6y ago
I just finished this beast one hour ago. Coffee culture and all the other bits of innovation and turmoil of the Enlightenment. Church vs State, Kings vs Commerce. This epic fiction was completed some time in 2004, Tulips and Beanie Babies had crashed hard but there was far more coffee yet to drink, and junk residential mortgages had yet to destroy the world... The characters of 1700 trying to make sense of this new thing called "money", its first derivative called "currency", and ever more abstruse instruments "bank notes" (what is a bank?). Mutual shares in associations of investors of "insurance", "corporations", or even trade in those things to form "stock markets". And here you are, trying to explain the blockchain to your Mom.
- deleted 6y ago
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KineticLensman 6y ago

Yes. Baroque Cycle is a true monster and varies in quality but I stuck with it for superb perspective on the birth of the modern age, and some of leading scientific rivalries of the time (e.g. Newton vs. Leibniz). As well as the beginnings of science, it also considers the creation of modern finance systems. At the risk of opening up the standard argument about the quality of the endings in Stephenson's books, I thought that the [spoiler-omitted: technology] conclusion of the third book in the cycle, although not particularly dramatic, is an excellent counterpart to the [spoiler-omitted: superstition] beginning of the first book.

perl4ever 6y ago
It's entertaining, but the tone and atmosphere are so anachronistic. I like historical fiction that gives more of a sense of the alienness of past societies. Here's a translated quote from the novel 三国演义, per Wikipedia: "Brothers are like limbs, wives and children are like clothing. Torn clothing can be repaired; how can broken limbs be mended?"

watersb 6y ago

I just finished this beast one hour ago. Coffee culture and all the other bits of innovation and turmoil of the Enlightenment. Church vs State, Kings vs Commerce. This epic fiction was completed some time in 2004, Tulips and Beanie Babies had crashed hard but there was far more coffee yet to drink, and junk residential mortgages had yet to destroy the world... The characters of 1700 trying to make sense of this new thing called "money", its first derivative called "currency", and ever more abstruse instruments "bank notes" (what is a bank?). Mutual shares in associations of investors of "insurance", "corporations", or even trade in those things to form "stock markets". And here you are, trying to explain the blockchain to your Mom.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]