Stephenson is one writer who remembers what most other genre authors have forgotten: you used to actually learn something new from every book, every short story, every novella in the Science Fiction universe. This book is historical fiction, not science fiction, but it conveys the same sense of discovery and wonder that I used to get from Larry Niven novels or Clarke stories. That's not surprising; to many Americans, the past is now as foreign and strange a place as the future seemed in the 1950s, and any author who plumbs history's depths as thoroughly and honestly as Stephenson does here is bound to create an engaging yarn. This book is set in the late 1600's, and is a sort of prequel to his book Cryptonomicon. Sharply, wittily drawn characters and expansive explorations of European science and society make this a welcome summer read. Almost as welcome as its sequel...