This is the third book in the Baroque Cycle, after Quicksilver and King of the Vagabonds. Large chunks of this book are written in the form of letters, which I imagine might annoy some readers. I enjoyed this book, but you have to be in the right mood to read it because some of the prose is quite dense. [isbn: 0060593083; 0060833181]
I thought I was reading this book slowly, until I remembered that I am reading the large page three books all in one volume version. If I had bought this book as a single paperback in a standard paper size it would have been 400 pages. This book is better than Quicksilver, with a more engaging story line and less time spent on verbose descriptions of life 300 years ago. I'm sure those descriptions will be vital later in the series, but when you're reading them they are still a chore. This book is a page turner, even if the plot is a little hard to believe in places. I enjoyed it a lot. [isbn: 0060593083;0060833173]