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Neal Stephenson: Termination Shock (2021) No rating

Termination Shock takes readers on a thrilling, chilling visit to our not-too-distant future – a …

Review of 'Termination Shock' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

The question at the heart of this book is what all the mid-league players (like your regular everyday billionaire or developing country) will do, when the major emitters reach a point of failure at dealing with climate change that becomes intolerable. That's an interesting and worthwhile question to ask (unfortunately).

While KSR dealt with very much the same thing early in Ministry For the Future, and did it in a crisp little 10 pages that I went back and read just now -- such a contrast to the 200+ pages of flab this book takes to even broach the forbidden subject of geoengineering -- Termination Shock does spend more time on the question's political complexities. To KSR, it's a stopgap and so only a point along the way and not to be lingered over, to Stephenson this is an interesting point of conflict to hang a thriller on.

Also a great joke about a six gun in texas, gotta give him that.