Quicksilver
Jan. 29th, 2004 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
likethebeerFinal verdict: read the 2nd and 3rd parts. I think you can make out the major players without reading the first. I don't know what Stephenson did, but the main character in the first part, Daniel Waterhouse, became a lot more interesting.
Of course, if you skip the first part, you miss descriptions of a person in the last stages of kidney stones. This is remedied in the 3rd part.
Speaking of "last stages" reminds me of The Music Room, a book I should own. Dennis McFarland wrote sections of it just to illustrate what happens to a person in the last stage of cirrhosis of the liver. A beautiful passage. And, having read 3 of his books, I have to say: the man did have a more than passing acquaintance with alcoholism, or some other addiction. But don't let that scare you away.
Of course, if you skip the first part, you miss descriptions of a person in the last stages of kidney stones. This is remedied in the 3rd part.
Speaking of "last stages" reminds me of The Music Room, a book I should own. Dennis McFarland wrote sections of it just to illustrate what happens to a person in the last stage of cirrhosis of the liver. A beautiful passage. And, having read 3 of his books, I have to say: the man did have a more than passing acquaintance with alcoholism, or some other addiction. But don't let that scare you away.
