I just finished Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, which is a sort of prequel to Cryptonomicon and the first of the Baroque Cycle, which apparently follows the adventures of one (fictional) Daniel Waterhouse from the time of the English Restoration, through his activity in bringing about the Glorious Revolution through what looks to be his role in assigning the proper credit for the invention of calculus and universal gravitation to Isaac Newton. He might also have to give some testimony concerning the legitimacy of Prince Jamie the Pretender.
I didn't really get interested in this book until about page 600, which left me some 300 pages to go, but looking back on it, it is worth the read.
Stephenson has set up a ``Metaweb'' page which includes annotations, biographies, etc. It's at http://www.metaweb.com/wiki/wiki.phtml. Enjoy.
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