New York: Morrow, (2003.) dj. Hardcover first edition - An epic novel, set in the 17th century - the dust jacket describes it as "history, adventure, science, truth, invention, sex, absurdity, piracy, madness, death and alchemy." The first book in The Baroque Cycle which provides part of the deep backstory to the characters and events featured in Cryptonomicon. Set in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the novels feature ancestors of several characters in Cryptonomicon, as well as events and objects which affect the action in that book.
927 pp including a list of dramatis personae. Map endpapers. ISBN: 0-380-977427.