One of the things that I particularly like about Neal Stephenson is that his books share some of the qualities of yours [g]. In fact, if I could only ever read one author's works for the rest of my life I would choose either your Outlander series, Neal Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy or Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles. Although all written in quite different styles those three wonderful sagas all share certain characteristics, not the least being that they are all BIG BOOKS [vbg]. But apart from sheer gargantuism, they are all stories of many layers and texture that can be read and re-read without ever feeling like you've taken everything in. They all cross many genres, including history, mystery, adventure, romance and a touch of the supernatural. They all make me laugh out loud in places. They all involve real historical events and people entwined and threaded with fictional ones. Neal Stephenson also has a lot of science in his book (I think it was your comments to Christopher Brookmyre about science that took me off on this tangent [g]).

The book Quicksilver that you have is the first book in Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy which is set during the Enlightenment. Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz and Benjamin Franklin all feature prominently. If you were wanting to get a taste of Stephenson's writing this may not be the best place to start as the books in this trilogy are not quick reads [g]. I would recommend his novel Cryptonomicon. It is much shorter but also mixes history, fiction and science to tell the story of the development of cryptanalysis, computers and digital information. Also, many of the characters in Cryptonomicon are descendants of characters in The Baroque Trilogy which will give you an added insight into those books should you decide to go on and read them. Neal Stephenson also has a character who suffers from the same sort of time displacement as Master Raymond [g].

I better end before this turns into a Big Book itself! Thanks for letting me ramble.

The library has lots of Brookmyre, so I'm heading there to get a taste of his writing.

Helen

I haven't, yet. I do have one of his books–I _think_ it's QUICKSILVER–on my TBR…er…heap. Somewhere…

What do you partcularly like about him?

By and large, there's no reason to have to read his books in chronological order. Even though Parlabane is the main character of some of the novels, his personal life doesn't evolve in the same way that, say, Jamie's and Claire's do. [g] So you could read even those novels out of order, if you needed to. And aside from the Parlabane novels, only two (SACRED ART and SNOWBALL) have a continuing main character; the others are completely stand-alone. (I _would_ read SACRED ART before SNOWBALL, though.)

Personally, I like to read an author's stuff in order, just to see how they evolve in terms of their writing, but it's not necessary here in terms of the stories.

Yes, I patronize alibris and abebooks all the time. [g] _And_ Kindle editions!

Just wondering, while we're on the subject of methadone authors [g], whether you've read any of Neal Stephenson's works?

Somehow, I can't see American publishers being bothered by that. [g] Much more likely, the use of Scots (Glaswegian) idiom and cultural references; remember, these are the people who renamed HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE (and carefully "translated" all the British references), because they thought the American public wouldn't understand what a philosopher's stone was and would be too dumb to figure out the references in context.

If you loved HARD BLACK PENCIL, you'll _really_ like PANDAEMONIUM, which has an ensemble of young teenagers dealing with sex, the Pope, _and_ demons. [g]