Neal Town Stephenson (1969-) is an American writer, famed for his speculative fiction. His range of genre forms has expanded from science fiction to historical fiction, cyberpunk, post-cyberpunk, and baroque.
Courtesy of Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle)
It is Neal's Baroque Cycle that has recently put us on a treacherous adventure that is best described as a typical comedy of errors. In August, 2023, a patron submitted to the library staff his purchase request for an audiobook entitled Quicksilver, because he "would like to see this title as audiobook, as he was not satisfied with the print or e-book." Since the author was unknown, the staff placed Dean Koontz as the author. As such an item happened to be in stock, the patron was duly supplied, but immediately returned for it was discovered as a wrong item by the wrong author. He "would like us to purchase either an eAudiobook or Audio CDs of Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver." To satisfy the patron's needs, both CD and digital editions were purchased.
Two months later in October, 2023, the same patron approached the library for the remaining two installments in volume one Quicksilver, for the acquired item was only the first book in the volume. In December, 2023, he somehow reverted to his earlier wish for digital format by asking for the eAudio version of volumes two and three, the Confusion, and the System of the World. His request had to be denied, for from the very beginning he had been advised that the series was unavailable on eAudio, due to the publisher's (Brilliance) prearrangement for not pursing digital format. Even though the first installment in volume one was in digital format, it was published by a different publisher. As a concession, the CD edition for both volumes was promptly purchased and delivered to the patron. In between times, a new error was detected, for the vendor overwrote the library call number specification, causing a potential inconsistency.
Little did we anticipate that a storm was waiting at the end of last month. On receiving a brand-new volume three on CD, the patron was thrown into a total rage, stating that first the Libby version of volume three was abridged, but didn't clearly say that it was abridged. He believed that it was deceptive to patrons and should be remedied. Second, the CD audiobook of the System of the World that we had newly acquired was actually only the final book in the volume, which included multiple books. The complaint that library and patron were cheated on audiobook came to me exactly at 4:57 pm on the eve of my vacation. To complete my work on hand for the day, I put it on pause for the time being.
Once home, I checked first our online reference tool, NoveList. It stated clearly three volumes,
- 1.Quicksilver (Oct 2003)By: Stephenson, Neal
- 2.The confusion (Apr 2004)By: Stephenson, Neal
- 3.The system of the world (Oct 2004)By: Stephenson, Neal
I doublechecked also our vendor's site that listed seven titles in the Baroque Cycle, without offering any volume information, or interrelationships. Every listed title was Part of the Baroque Cycle series.
To alleviate the pain of being cheated endured by the patron, I turned again to Wikipedia that summarized most succinctly,
- Quicksilver, Vol. I of the Baroque Cycle
- Book 1 – Quicksilver
- Book 2 – King of the Vagabonds
- Book 3 – Odalisque
- The Confusion, Vol. II of the Baroque Cycle
- Book 4 – Bonanza
- Book 5 – The Juncto
- The System of the World, Vol. III of the Baroque Cycle
- Book 6 – Solomon's Gold
- Book 7 – Currency
- Book 8 – The System of the World
For some mysterious reason, the breakdown into eight books is only relevant to audiobooks, not print books. Similarly unlike other volumes, the second volume does not have a customary volume title, but a combination of books 4 and 5. As it turns out, information on these unique characteristics is preciously sparse. It is up to users to work everything out in the dark, which may be the part of the fun the author injects into us readers and libraries alike. No wonder, the patron in question was joyful for the first time,
"First I’ll joyfully make clear that recently the scpl acquired the complete audio CD set of the complete 2nd novel of the Baroque Cycle trilogy, The Confusion, (comprised of Book 4 and 5 of the series, unabridged on 29 CDs), which I checked out today and am excited to get started on …"
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