King of the Vagabonds   (book)

King of the Vagabonds: Volume Two of the Baroque Cycle

This is the second book in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. Except not really. It's the second part of the first book re-released as a Mass Market Paperback. The first full edition is called Quicksilver and the second full edition is called The Confusion. However, The Confusion is also labelled the second book in The Baroque Cycle... It took me and the guy I finally asked in Barnes and Noble a while to figure that out. I think I actually figured it out before he did. Ha HA! Small victories.

Right, the book. It was an exciting read. Half-Cocked Jack definitely stole the show with his insane (sometimes, literally) antics. There's a good deal of historical intrigue with the main characters weaved into it, and I'm not enough of a historian to tell where he got it wrong, although there is a rather comprehensive Dramatis Personae listing at the back, if you're bored enough to read it. I wasn't. It kept me entertained and kept me chuckling. Now that's a good book.