Termination Shock

Best book I've read by Stephenson in awhile. Like since Diamond Age. His early books were actual techno thrillers. As he's gotten older he seems to have settled into writing books that include a LOT more description than is absolutely necessary. This is one of those. However, for me, this one isn't as deadly as Seveneves which I gave up on. (That book's premise made it sound as if I'd love it but the pace was deadly.)

This book is set just far enough in the future that we are not there yet, but it's pretty clear that we will be. If not in the specific details, the general idea is spot on.

The characters are solid and interesting. I wanted to read about them which is what made the excess of description ok. That said, if I hadn't been stuck at home with Covid right as I started this, I might have lost the thread due to lack of time. There's a good 150 pages that could be cut right out of this book and we'd never miss it.

I've said it before and I'll probably say it again - Neal Stephenson needs a very firm editor, and unfortunately, he's reached the fame level where he can choose not to listen to one. And listen to one he definitely does not in this bloated, slow-moving novel about climate change. It's described as a "techno-thriller about climate change" and half of that is right - it's about climate change - but unfortunately there's nothing thrilling about 700+ pages (or 1300+ on my e-reader) that could and should have been edited down to 2-300.

The novel is set in a not-too-far future where climate change has progressed enough that it's undeniable, and various nations and factions are starting to think of desperate measures. The plot mainly follows Saskia, aka the queen of the Netherlands who's visiting the US to unofficially learn more about some new climate technology proposals that might help prevent Holland from sinking entirely underwater, and Laks, a Canadian sikh of Indian origin who is a specialist in stick fighting and decides to help push back China on the disputed India/China border.

There are various interesting concepts here as well as lots of theoretical technology described in entirely too much detail, as if Stephenson is hoping someone will take his novel as an instruction manual to build the things per his instruction - no, nobody needed all that detail, if any such thing happens it will not be because it was described in a novel. There are some other potential interesting plot points, particularly around the role of China in events, that never seem to be satisfactorily resolved. And there are a couple of random sex scenes with Saskia, fortunately more circumspect than the world's most terrible sex scene we got in Cryptonomicon (google it if you don't believe me) but completely irrelevant to the plot in any way I could figure out. And a lot of descriptions of random people's backgrounds and details even if you're never going to meet them again or have no reason to need to know this. Honestly it was extremely painful to even finish this book and I had to do some serious skimming around the 500 page mark to even have a chance to make it through. This ain't no Snow Crash or Diamond Age, folks. And unfortunately Stephenson's last few books have all suffered this bloat and show no signs that he's going to start being more concise or letting an editor give him the desperately needed assistance that his books are begging for these days.

I'm going to call it right now: this is probably going to make my Goodreads' list for "longest book read in 2022." 720 pages, amiright?

Too bad they weren't 720 pages that culminated in a jaw-dropping, show-stopping perfect ending. Instead I found myself scratching my head at the end, saying, "What was the point?"

The book moved quickly and had some interesting story lines in play, as is usually the case with anything Stephenson writes. And I had hopes that when he finally wove them all together, I would feel the satisfaction of all the pieces falling into place in a way that revealed something I'd been too obtuse to spot before. But no. It's like when you watch a "smart action movie" where you assume it's going to be more than just car chases and you'll find some clever reveal that makes you appreciate it on a different level – but the reveal never comes.

On the plus side: Stephenson often offers small lessons in geography and history, and this book is no exception. The cast is pretty diverse. If you're unfamiliar with geo-engineering, it's a good introduction to those concepts.

One other thing that bothered me: in his attempt to write a strong, empowered female character (the Queen of the Netherlands), he sort of turned her into an unfeeling robot who liked to demonstrate she was hip to having "f*ckboys." It didn't feel authentic to that character and was unnecessary to the plot.

I'll stick with REAMDE, thanks.

This is an interesting counterpoint to the Kim Stanley Robinson novel, Ministry of the Future. Where KSR's fiction dealt with climate change via bureaucracy and finance, Stephenson goes a little more cowboy. As I live in West Texas, I was impressed by how on-the-nose his depiction of the area felt, both the geography and the population. He even threw in an off-the-cuff reference to Permian Basin! I know, Stephenson is infamous for his excessive research. Well, not so much the research but his compulsion to share so much of that research, even if it doesn't always need to be there for the story to move forward. In this case, he was telling a big story with a lot of plot threads woven together, and I didn't really register any infodumps.

The characters are given good motivations, the plot moves forward in plausible ways, and things look like they might be solvable by the end. I'll be chewing on some of his ideas for a while longer, but if you're a Stephenson fan, or a fan of international climate change drama (they must exist), highly recommended.