Hi there fellow NS-readers - hi to SinisterSal, yes I do know what you mean about the highly irritating use of 'phant'sy' word in Quicksilver (and a few other similar examples - like, WTF is a 'glacis'??). I think NS has tried here to so oversteep himself in the history, culture, mindset and language of the era that he has misjudged this, and in the language aspect, gone a bit too far. He has not adapted the archaic language absolutely consistently, so such gimmicks stand out much more awkwardly as a consequence (tbh, had he done so, it could well have made the novel quite unreadable). I am still ploughing on with it when I get a chance to read - it's so illuminating to get his take on the London of the Great Plague, Great Fire, etc and the gruesome ways they did experiments on live animals to satisfy their thirst for new knowledge.
Cote thank you so much for the book recommendation - I will certainly be looking out for the Ernest Cline book; it's so good to be able to get such feedback from readers who seem to have similar tastes!
In support of Iain M Banks, I personally do enjoy his big ideas of The Culture (the benevolent quasi-deity superculture who subtly intervene at times into less advanced civilisations - a kind of UN of the universe! -) because I think that's rather inspired; his novella 'State of the Art' I found particularly poignant; it's one of my all-time favourites. I also found the ideas that he played with recently in 'The Hydrogen Sonata' (re: advanced civilisations eventually subliming themselves, and the discovery of the experimental lies regarding their religion/holy book that had been originally told) really intriguing. (His own atheism rather comes through as the underlying premise there, IMO). I find Asimov and AC Clarke a bit outmoded now - though good.
Back to Neal Stephenson: I'm also really looking fwd to getting into Anathem now. If only I had more time/energy to READ! (and little enough housework gets done these days, as it is).