Hardcover, 896 pages
Published Nov. 15, 2021 by William Morrow.
Termination Shock takes readers on a thrilling, chilling visit to our not-too-distant future – a world in which the greenhouse effect has inexorably resulted in a whirling-dervish troposphere of superstorms, rising sea levels, global flooding, merciless heat waves, and virulent, deadly pandemics.
One man has a Big Idea for reversing global warming, a master plan perhaps best described as “elemental.” But will it work? And just as important, what are the consequences for the planet – and all of humanity – should it be applied?
Termination Shock sounds a clarion alarm, ponders potential solutions and dire risks, and wraps it all together in an exhilarating, witty, mind-expanding speculative adventure.
This really feels like a book of our times whilst looking slightly ahead. An eco thriller that I will review in more detail on Hive soon.
I think this was my 8th Stephenson book. It’s not the first one I’d recommend but I really liked the characters and story.
I did not know anything about it in advance and was pleased to discover that it’s about climate and solar geoengineering. I have been consuming a lot of non-fiction and fiction climate media lately and this was one of the best. It felt the most grounded in reality: self-interest driving action more than anything else.
Content warning Mild spoilers about some topics covered by the book
While his heroes might be horse riding vagabonds or rocket riding scientists, I have a feeling that everything that Neal Stephenson writes is essentially a techno-thriller. With Termination Shock this is true in both the theme as well as the style, and Stephenson again demonstrates his mastery over this hybrid genre.
This time around the topic is the climate crisis, a solution to which is presented in groovy technical details. Story takes place in a near future. It carries over the increasingly plausible and dystopian depiction of US that we've previously seen in Fall; or, Dodge in Hell. Though this time the story is more global, so we get to see other places in more detail. I especially appreciated European locales.
Characters are typically clever, witty or stoic, if a bit stylized (no-one really info-dumps in their everyday conversations like that). Not the most believable bunch, but I liked them.
There are the standard weak points as well. The story drags on a bit, and I lost interest in it after a while. It took me almost a year to finish the book because I dropped it around 2/3 of the way through and it took a vacation for me to pick it up again.
In the end, if you like Stephenson you'll like this book. If you don't there's probably nothing revolutionary here that will change your mind. And if you haven't read much of him so far there are better books to pick up first.
Oso arriskutsua iruditzen zaidan gai baten inguruko eleberria da Termination shock: geoingeniaritza. Etorkizun nahiko hurbilean kokatua. Beroketa globalak okerrera egin du eta AEBetako aberats bat estratosferan sufre dioxidoa botatzen hasi nahian dabil. Hurrengo hilabeteetan tentsio geopolitikoak, jukutriak... izango dira nagusi.
Pertsonaia batzuk besteak baino gehiago gustatu zaizkit, eta zatiren bat luze xamarra egin zait, baina orokorrean 700 orri pasatxoko liburukotea interesgarria iruditu zait. Gauza batzuetan asmatuko duela uste dut, adibidez, spoiler handirik egiteko asmorik gabe, eskuin muturrak klima aldaketa ukatzetik geoingeniaritza babesterako jauzia emango duela.
My biggest frustration with Stephenson books of late (#Seveneves, #FallOrDodgeInHell) is that IMO they went way off the rails in the third act. This was a fun read, my first venture into #clifi. This gave me a lot to think about, and I felt it ended well.
I wanted to like this more, because I was an early Stephenson fan from Zodiac days, and I still consider Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon to be masterful storytelling. But this? Almost insultingly silly character development, implausible relationships, and a strangely attenuated focus, given the backdrop of the most complex and unrelentingly global problem of our age. If Kim Stanley Robinson's approach to anthropocentric climate change tries to take too sweeping a view (at the expense of character development and human cultural complexity), here Stephenson suffers the opposite failing: too narrow a focus on the relationships around a particular technology, which reveals his increasingly stark limitations as a character-based storyteller. The one character he does manage to make compelling? Well, no spoilers, but I was shocked at the lazy (and infuriatingly bad) conclusion of that particular arc.
Meh, not a strong recommendation from me. Kind of boring and it doesn't feel like a coherent story to me. The main characters' story lines just feel thrown together.
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, …
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.
Underwhelmed after reading “Fall: Or Dodge in Hell”. At times I wished the chapters were named “My research about…”. In other ways it remained me of his early books.
Ever since Snow Crash, Stephenson has had me hooked. So, I can say only good things about this book. Great story, great characters, etc., etc.
I do feel that in a few years, we might (very strong might) find ourselves speaking about this book the same way we speak about the aforementioned work: as some sort of prophetic vision of the future and how we will come to deal with climate change.
I also have to say that the author sneaks in some current affairs. There are things mentioned that may require future readers to check Wikipedia, and there are a few nuanced opinions too.
I took off one star because I feel like the story wasn't quite ready to end and it all rapped up nest and tidy in the swiftest way possible.
I'm usually a fan of Stephenson, but this one didn't work for me at all. I never felt invested in any of the characters, and his usual diversions just felt pointless and unnecessary instead of interesting. Finally, what was the point of the book? That humans are pitifully stupid and destructive? We already knew that.
Normally I can't put down a Neal Stephenson book when I start to read it. With this one, I just couldn't get into it. Probably my first book of his that I haven't enjoyed reading.
I think the depth of Neal Stephenson stories is a big factor in me liking them so much. You really get to know the characters, along with an insane amount of detail about their profession or some technical details relevant to their lives.
Termination Shock is a really interesting story. It's also the Stephenson book that I've read the soonest after publishing. I was a little surprised to see references to events from the very recent past. I know they could just have been shoe-horned into the existing story, but still, they fit the world of the book.
I would definitely like to read more about Red, he was the real protagonist of the story for me. He made me think of Roland in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, which is about the biggest compliment I can give to a character.
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 …
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 …
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.
