Quicksilver   (book)

Quicksilver: Volume One of The Baroque Cycle

This book had a pretty slow start, but it's picking up now. It's set in the past, with characters that have the same surnames as the characters from Cryptonomicon. It's a pretty nerdy book, with some of the main characters being Isaac Newton and Leibnitz. Religion, sex, pirates, war, kings looting banks, and an epic sea battle round out this book nicely if you can get past the slooooow beginning.