Inhaltsangabe
In the year 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves -- including one Jack Shaftoe, aka King of the Vagabonds, aka Half-Cocked Jack -- devises a daring plan to win freedom and fortune. A great adventure ensures -- a perilous race for an enormous prize of silver ... nay, gold ... nay, legendary gold.§In Europe, the ezquisiste and resourceful Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, is stripped of her immense personal fortune. Penniless and at rise from those who desire either her or her head (or both), she is caught up in a web of international intrigue, even as she desperate seeks the return of her most precious posession.§Meanwhile, Newton and Leibniz continue to propound their grand theories as their infamous rivalry intensifies, stubborn alchemy does battle with the natural sciences, dastardly plots are set in motion ... and Daniel Waterhouse seeks passage to the Massachusetts colony in hopes of escaping the madness into which his world has descended.
