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King of the Vagabonds

By: Neal Stephenson
Narrated by: Neal Stephenson (introduction), Simon Prebble, Kevin Pariseau
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Publisher's summary

A chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of “Half-Cocked Jack” Shaftoe – London street urchin turned legendary swashbuckling adventurer – risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox – and Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent a contentious continent through the newborn power of finance.

The Baroque Cycle, Neal Stephenson’s award-winning series, spans the late 17th and early 18th centuries, combining history, adventure, science, invention, piracy, and alchemy into one sweeping tale. It is a gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive historical epic populated by the likes of Isaac Newton, William of Orange, Benjamin Franklin, and King Louis XIV, along with some of the most inventive literary characters in modern fiction.

Audible’s complete and unabridged presentation of The Baroque Cycle was produced in cooperation with Neal Stephenson. Each volume includes an exclusive introduction read by the author.

Listen to more titles in the Baroque Cycle.
©2003 Neal Stephenson (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
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Critic reviews

“Bawdy, learned, hilarious, and utterly compelling, [it] is sprawling to the point of insanity and resoundingly, joyously good.” ( Times of London)
“Thrillingly clever, suspenseful, and amusing.” ( New York Times Book Review)
"Most tales of 'olde' times are replete with castles, robed lords and ladies, and handsome men on horseback. But what about the wretches they pass on the side of the road as they go off to a lively joust? is about those men, the poor, the grifters, whose names are lost to history—the vagabonds. Stephenson's novel tells their story, with the able help of storyteller Simon Prebble. Prebble's witty banter is perfect as the voice of Jack, a knave who is out to prove that even a lowborn can succeed in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. Prebble even does a great job with the historical characters such as Isaac Newton, Ben Franklin, and others. Equal parts action and adventure, along with a healthy dose of humor, make this a great listen." ( AudioFile)

What listeners say about King of the Vagabonds

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

interesting but flawed

I wish I had enjoyed this as much as Book One:Quicksilver. A bit hard to follow the various characters' motivations, and a really lamentable rendition of Hava Nigila... just overall not too compelling.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

well written, wonderful narration

Simon Preble is a fantastic narrator, his pace and tone are always appropriate, and his characterizations give life and are never over the top.
now the story, I am a long time fan of Neil Stephenson, and like all his books this is compelling and well paced, more action in then Quicksilver, if you are looking for that, exhaustively detailed. the majority of yhe novel maintains a very light, adventurous tone, the character seem both charmed and charming. The last few chapters though, get heavy, or rather are brought down to earth. SPOILER : In the book there are two very different instances of sexual assault, they are realistic and not sensationalized, but nonetheless it took me a moment to get back into the story.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Places you right there, smell, taste, touch

Where does King of the Vagabonds rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

At the top of audio books. A very good performance for the period in history.

What did you like best about this story?

This is book 2 of 8 in the Baroque series, for that point I cannot really comment on the how much I like the story. That said, the story line is excellent and we are properly introduced to important characters.Toe rad this author, I find myself going away during the book and researching the real history line. In this book especially William of Orange. The author is marvelous at spinning a story line around historical facts.To read how the binary code was understood at this point in history and how it was initially used as encryption for covert notes for me is fascinating. I cannot get enough of the bridges that Stevenson fills for me with respect to trade, the power cities. the early frauds, all of this is power packed.

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

Both Jack and Eliza came to life.

If you could rename King of the Vagabonds, what would you call it?

I would not rename the book. The series of these books is written for the common persons lot in life. The Vagabond is a very important element in the development of European society, and in fact globally that the story must be told.This character and way of life is rarely told.

Any additional comments?

I find that I must replay chapters continuously, this series is not cops and robbers with a lot of words going nowhere and wham bam climax. For me, in order to get the real message behind the story, I have to listen again, because the nuances and intrigue are very important later on in the novel and series.It is like learning math, miss a section and you cannot solve the equation. Same with Stevenson's writings.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

More intriguing than quicksilver

I really want to enjoy this series. I had heard that if you can make it through Quicksilver, you will love the rest of the baroque cycle. I am still not convinced, but this was a bit better.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Better than Book 1 in this series, but not enough.

This book is #2 in the Baroque Cycle. If you are considering this one, then I would expect that you have already listened to “Quicksilver”, the first book in the series.

I listened to this book because I couldn’t believe that a series could rate as high as this series does with a lead-off book (Quicksilver) that was as poor as that one was. This one had to be much better, right? Okay, to be fair, it was better. It was even much better, but the first book was so poor that being much better than “Quicksilver” meant that “King of the Vagabonds” was still average or a bit below.

The biggest improvement with this book is that this book actually has a story, with a beginning, a middle, and a hanging ending. The ending is such that it leaves you wondering how an author could leave the characters in such a state, but of course then you realize that this is a series. I am unwilling to spend any more time on this series just to learn what happens to the characters in it.

The writing is good, the narration is also fine, but the story left me flat at the end. I do wonder how the author ties up the ends that are left loose in this book, but not enough that I’m willing to listen to any more in this series.

This book doesn’t refer back to anything from the first book in any but the most superficial way. If I had skipped the first book and started the series with this one, I wouldn’t have missed anything. Had I done that, I might have even gone on to the next book. But one dud (Quicksilver) followed by a book that ends like a soap opera (King of the Vagabonds) isn’t something that I want to pursue for another five books and 87+ hours.

In the end, this book does at least have a story, which is an improvement on “Quicksilver”. Without pursuing the rest of the series I can’t speak with certainty, but I would recommend that you start with this book if you absolutely MUST get these books.

– Loren

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story

Book two of the Baroque Cycle. Great story, lots of fun, engaging, interesting characters, great mix of real and fictional. I highly recommend this book.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

The Series from the Vagabonds point of view

This story focuses more on Jack and Eliza and their adventures. it covers a different part of society during the same time period. Kind of makes you wonder how we came to be given this part of history. The story is engaging and thought provoking. I find the topic interesting and the reading is great.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Another amazing audiobook

I read this series first and then about 15 years later came back to them through audible. The writing and the narration go so well together. I’m so impressed! Strongly recommend.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Less Math Fiction, More Action

This book, although about Half-Cock Jack (no, that is not "half-cocked"), is really a bridge between Book 1 and 3. Jack finds Eliza at the siege of Vienna, and by the end of the book you start to realize that Eliza is going to be more of a character than Jack will.

Book 1 showed the scientists and mathematicians, and their noble patrons, while this story shifts focus on the poor. So there are vagabonds, soldiers, miners, Satanists, Turks, hareems, the oddities and intrigues of nobles, spies, diplomats, early modern capitalism and more. The action is definitely higher than in book 1. Better yet, Neal Stephenson doesn't shift gears back and forth in time anywhere near as much (or so it seems) as in Book 1, so it is much easier to follow, especially if you are doing something else.

The section on early modern capitalism - focusing mainly on the trading center in Amsterdam - is very interesting. Well worth sitting still and listening to that section. The section in which Jack gets entangled with the Satanists is a bit hard to follow, requiring you slow down and pay attention. All in all a number of "laugh out loud" moments, which makes this yarn a rollicking one. One cautionary note, however: this book is a little more sexually oriented than Book 1, so if you are listening in the car with others - especially children - you are going to have to turn it off unless you want to answer a lot of interesting questions.

The narrator, Simon Prebble, shows that the range of his voices is even greater than in Book 1, and continues to keep me engaged.. Hey, you got through Book 1, and if you ignored the reviews there and listened anyway - and found it interesting - trust me that you will enjoy this one too.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Swashbuckling and rambling

Book 2 of the Baroque Cycle is a lot more fun than Book 1.

That doesn't mean it doesn't have the same flaws. There is still very little approaching a plot. The narrative is still merely an device that enables Stephenson to describe at great length the politics, economics and science of 17th century Europe. There are only the vaguest gestures toward narrative progression, there are numerous entirely extraneous incidents, and the novel stops rather than ends.

But as long as you can tolerate the above, this is an enjoyable work. Jack and Eliza are extremely entertaining protagonists - seeing the glories and horrors of baroque Europe through the eyes of a cheeky cockney vagabond and a hyper-intelligent courtesan is a lot more fun than the rather anonymous protagonist of Book 1. And unlike the previous novel, this one has an astonishing geographic and social range, spanning the muddy slums of London, the silver mines of Germany, the wars between the Turks and the Austrians, the banking cities of the Netherlands, the palaces of France, and the slave galleys of North Africa.

And while there is verbiage aplenty and the usual ridiculously detailed explanations and descriptions from Stephenson, some of them are absolutely wonderful - I particularly enjoyed his surreal, dreamlike description of the siege of Vienna and of Eliza's byzantine plotting with various crowned heads of Europe.

These novels are not for everyone but this one requires considerably less patience and its charms are more immediately evident to the reader interested in a turning point in world history.

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6 people found this helpful