Name: Termination Shock
ISBN: 9780063028050

Neal Stephenson

The #1 New York Times bestselling author returns with a visionary technothriller about climate change. Neal Stephenson's sweeping, prescient new novel transports readers to a near-future world where 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? As only Stephenson can, 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.

A Novel

Termination Shock

Andrew Ross

The #1 New York Times bestselling author returns with a visionary technothriller about climate change. Neal Stephenson’s sweeping, prescient new novel transports readers to a near-future world where 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? As only Stephenson can, 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.

The speculative climate science of it all was an interesting thought experiment, but I had a really hard time with the characters. Took me 

 to read because it was propelling me forward. Found one of the storylines (Laks) far more interesting than the others, but this was relegated to short chapters interspersed throughout. Also did not care for what I would call the "dirty old man" humor and tone that kept popping up. 

Brett Seybert

The speculative climate science of it all was an interesting thought experiment, but I had a really hard time with the characters. Took me forever to read because it was propelling me forward. Found one of the storylines (Laks) far more interesting than the others, but this was relegated to short chapters interspersed throughout. Also did not care for what I would call the "dirty old man" humor and tone that kept popping up. 

Boothby

Legit question for Neal Stephenson: What do I do about the 30-50 feral hogs that stampede over the airport runway within 3-5 mins while the queen of the Netherlands is trying to land.

The premise of Termination Shock is that international politics are so mired in disagreement and bureaucracy that the world's only hope is for one wealthy Texan, TR Schmidt, to decide for the entire planet that we're going to do geoengineering. Yikes. This is a novel with a large cast of characters and plenty of ideas, but which never manages to pull together a coherent through line, or any particular conclusion about geoengineering other than "Welp, it created some problems at first, but I guess we can't stop now. At least someone did something about climate change."

For the most part, characters serve as stand-ins in the narrative for their respective nations or interest groups as Stephenson tries to explore of the legal and international fallout of TR's intervention. I say tries, because the descriptions of international politics seem as simplistic as checkers. There are countless stilted conversations where each person lays out their perspective on geoengineering, but actual character moments are few and far between. And a few of those character moments, say that one sex scene, made me want to shrivel up with secondhand embarrassment.

Instead there are many, many sections that read like overlong Wikipedia entries from the alternate universe of the novel, as if Stephenson just copy-pasted his own world building notes into the novel. Stephenson excels at highly detailed almost schematic descriptions of speculative technology: For example, the description of the sulfur gun was the one most interesting passages of the book. However, not every detail in this world warrants this kind of thick description, and Stephenson does not have the expertise or understanding to handle all the topics that he tries to. Unfortunately the characterization suffers from the same kinds of excesses as Stephenson rolls out characterizations by dumping massive 2-3 page blocks of backstory that are almost never relevant to the story.

Bradford Fults

“One man has a Big Idea for reversing global warming” indeed. One man. One big idea. And it’s not really about reversing global warming so much as it is an admitted band-aid. But then it’s just left there. Alone. While somehow hand-waving at actual solutions and never actually approaching them.

It’s almost like climate change was the pretext for a story about international politics and Texas. Which, okay. But the whole thing just felt weak. Weak jabs at the state of the U.S. as an international mockery. Weak hand waving at real climate change solutions. Weak connection of the concept *in the title of the book* with the plot.

After we get past 200 pages of wild boars, there are some likable characters and some low-level intrigue. There’s some cool barely-future technology, but other than the Big Idea, there’s not much else for us there. It’s just very near future living, with a folksy Texan and a self-assured European queen. And Sikhs. I learned a bunch about Sikh culture and the Punjab which was great. And yet, almost completely unrelated.

And then the actual build-up happens to an exciting showdown and it ends 2 pages from the end of the book. The end turns out to not be an end at all, but a beginning. Blah.

Someone get Neal a great editor. No disrespect intended, but this had the bones of something great, and just stumbled down the hallway bashing into the walls the whole way. Much like his last book, Fall.

I yearn for the halcyon days of The Baroque Cycle, Anathem and Seveneves. Hell, even REAMDE.

Scott Vandehey

I got an advance reader's copy, and greatly enjoyed this. Like all of Neal's books, it's fun to figure out what topics he was diving deep on during research. In the opening pages of this book, we see 30-50 feral hogs, and I laughed out loud. This book slots in with Reamde as less sci-fi and more airport thriller, but it's a rip-roaring read, and I hope we get to see more of Saskia, Rufus, and TR in the future.

James King

Joseph Aleo

Aaron Lewis

Katja Evertz

Eric Jacobsen

The #1 New York Times bestselling author returns with a visionary technothriller about climate change

Termination Shock A Novel

Reviews

Highlights