Erasmas, 'Raz', is a young avout living in the Concent. Three times during history's darkest epochs, violence has invaded and devastated the cloistered community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe. But they now prepare to open the Concent's gates to the outside world, in celebration of a once-a-decade rite.

A follow-up to the bestseller Cryptonomicon , this book presents a cast of characters in a time of genius and discovery, men and women whose exploits defined the age of the High Baroque. It travels from the infant American colonies to the Tower of London, the glittering courts of Louis XIV, and all manner of places in between.

A panoramic novel of the latter half of the 20th century, ranging from World War II and the breaking of the Enigma code to more recent struggles for control of the Internet. From the author of Snowcrash .

It is the late 1600s on the high seas. A group of Barbary galley slaves plot as they ply the oars of a pirate ship, hatching a daring scheme to find an enormous cache of Spanish gold. Amazingly, they succeed - leaving some very unhappy men behind who vow to hunt down the vagabonds and bring them to justice, no matter the cost.

The only relief from the sea of logos is within the well-guarded borders of the Burbclaves. Is it any wonder that most sane folks have forsaken the real world and chosen to live in the computer-generated universe of virtual reality? In a major city, the size of a dozen Manhattans, is a domain of pleasures limited only by the imagination.

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?

Decades into our future, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has just broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful Neo-Victorians. He's made an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called a young lady's illustrated primer, designed to raise a girl capable of thinking for herself.

When an Arab student turns up drunk, and dead, in the lake in the East Iowa University, redneck Deputy County Sheriff Clyde Banks gets a feeling he's on to something big. It's a suspicion shared by low-ranking CIA agent Betsy Vandeventer. But before two great minds yell conspiracy theory, in steps top US policy-maker James Millikan.

Since childhood, Raz has lived behind the walls of a 3,400-year-old monastery, a sanctuary for scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians. There, he and his cohorts are sealed off from the illiterate, irrational, and unpredictable saecular world.

A combination of satire and thriller, this story occurs around the eve of the third millennium. Cozzano, a mid-Western governer has a biochip in his head, wired to a computerized polling system, tracking the mood of the electorate. The prospect of a radio-controlled President is not a good one.

Sangaman Taylor is Boston's modern-day Paul Revere, spreading the word from a 40-horsepower Zodiac raft. Embarrassing powerful corporations in highly telegenic ways is the perfect method of making enemies, and Taylor has a collection that would do any rabble-rouser proud.

As extraordinary an achievement as 'Cryptonomicon', Neal Stephenson's new novel is set in the 17th century, in another world of secrets, codes and conflict. Yet another tour-de-force from a writer who is simply unique.

Erasmas - Raz - is a young avout living in the Concent, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside world by ancient stone, honoured traditions and complex rituals. Three times during history's darkest epochs, the cloistered community has been devastated by violence. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of .