Quicksilver

AI Rating: 1/10 - Neal Stephenson's *Quicksilver* (2003), the opener to the Baroque Cycle, is a sprawling historical epic blending science, philosophy, cryptography, and adventure in the 17th-18th centuries. Featuring characters like Daniel Waterhouse and Isaac Newton amid the Enlightenment's dawn, it prioritizes intellectual intrigue, historical detail, and libertarian individualism over any progressive messaging. No social justice themes, identity politics, or diversity quotas; female characters like Eliza drive plots through cunning and agency without modern ideological overlays. Storytelling reigns supreme.