It's kind of difficult to know how to review a book that's part of a three-volume, eight book series. I can say that if you've committed yourself to finishing the Baroque Cycle before reading Stephenson's upcoming Anathem, this one is like a nice palate cleanser following Quicksilver. More vagabond-fueled adventure, less binary arithmetic. Now I feel refreshed, and once again ready to follow the complicated social and cultural implications of calculus through another narrative. Sexy! Or something.