The System Of The World

Feb 25, 2026 10:26 AM

Author:Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson follows his highly-praised historical novels, Quicksilver and The Confusion, with the extraordinary third and final volume of the Baroque Cycle.

The year is 1714. Daniel Waterhouse has returned to England, where he joins forces with his friend Isaac Newton to hunt down a shadowy group attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers with 'Infernal Devices' - time bombs. As Daniel and Newton conspire, an increasingly vicious struggle is waged for England's Crown: who will take control when the ailing queen dies?

Tories and Whigs clash as one faction jockeys to replace Queen Anne with 'The Pretender' James Stuart, and the other promotes the Hanoverian dynasty of Princess Caroline. Meanwhile, a long-simmering dispute between Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz comes to a head, with potentially cataclysmic consequences.

Wildly inventive, brilliantly conceived, The System of the World is the final volume in Neal Stephenson's hugely ambitious and compelling saga. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters in a time of genius, discovery and change, the Baroque Cycle is a magnificent and unique achievement.

Reviews

Neal Stephenson has saved the best until last with The System of the World, a fittingly breathtaking conclusion to his Baroque Cycle, implausibly trumping all of the trilogy's previous strengths, but unfortunately introducing one weakness in that the whole rambunctiously magnificent undertaking had to end

—— Christopher Brookmyre , Glasgow Herald

Truly remarkable

—— LA Times

Historical fiction was never this much fun - or this successful

—— Entertainment Weekly

A beautiful and majestic fictional panorama

—— John Updike

A deft and brilliant exploration of guilt, family and the rippling repercussions of a single moment in life

—— Red

A superb achievement

—— New York Times

A magnificent novel

—— Independent

The best thing he has ever written

—— Observer

McEwan's best novel so far, his masterpiece

—— Evening Standard

Subtle as well as powerful, adeptly encompassing comedy as well as atrocity, Atonement is a richly intricate book... A superb achievement

—— Sunday Times

An evocative depiction of the dangers of innocence and ignorance in the face of uncomfortable reality.

—— Herald

Brilliantly explores the currents of guilt, shame and anger... Utterly satisfying, complete

—— Scotsman

A complex, thought-provoking novel.

—— Fanny Blake , Woman and Home

Smoulders with slow-burning menace

—— The Times

Just brilliant, particularly for the clever, poignant final chapter. I loved the shattering, satisfying twist

—— Tasmina Perry , Red

I love being transported to a different era and this masterly novel succeeds at every level

—— Stephanie Beacham , Daily Express

This is a rare creature - a heartbreaker with genuine heart. Wonderful

—— Herald

One of the great unrequited love stories

—— Eve Magazine

An astonishing narrative... a novel that stick with you long after you finish it

—— Rich Clarke , Week

Simply stunning from beginning to end, this tense, evocative, beautifully-drawn novel transported me back to the 1930s and 40s, swept me away - and broke my heart too.

—— .

Atonement is a magnificent novel, shaped and paced with awesome confidence and eloquence

—— Independent

Subtle as well as powerful, adeptly encompassing comedy as well as atrocity, Atonement is a richly intricate book- A superb achievement which combines a magnificent display of the powers of the imagination with a probing exploration of them

—— Sunday Times

The narrative, as always with McEwan, smoulders with slow-burning menace. You know that, even as you savour the voluptuous sentences, something terrible will happen and sure enough it does

—— The Times

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