Not long ago, I read Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry For The Future. This new cli-fi book from Neal Stephenson feels heavily influenced by that one, but maybe they have just been reading the same sources. TERMINATION SHOCK refers to geo-engineering and the possibility that a project to cool the Earth could, if halted, cause a rebound effect that would not be known in advance.
We begin with an interesting escapade in which a young woman who is queen of the Netherlands, is making an unscheduled landing at Waco, Texas, piloting her own jet. Some feral hogs swarm the runway and the plane is a write-off. Saskia, one of her many names, decides to keep moving and accepts aid from Rufus, an ex-army man employed to kill feral hogs like these. The small royal party travels on a boat downriver to aid survivors of a major storm in flooded Houston, and continues to a ranch.
J.R. Schmidt, a wealthy Texan, hosts a conference for dignitaries from Venice, London, and other low-lying cities, and of course Saskia, whose whole country is below sea level. Royal Dutch Shell is a major contributor to sea level rise, and Saskia’s family have always been shareholders. The irony of carbon-funded people supporting a plan to build The Biggest Gun In The World to fire sulphur into the stratosphere can’t be missed. The idea is to mimic a volcano and cool the planet. Also note carbon-intensive private jets and helicopters being standard among the wealthy, while the poor lose their homes.
A secondary storyline follows a young Canadian-Indian man called Laks, who travels to the Punjab to practise martial arts. Cue classic Stephenson imagery as Chinese and Indian people spar for control of the Himalayas. The other travels include the Netherlands with their own geo-engineering, and New Guinea, home to a massive mining installation. However, Saskia is often confined to asking questions and looking queenly. She stands in for the reader. She also allows us to see tech that was hitting the computer screens as Stephenson was writing; deepfakes, in particular.
If you enjoy reading about drones, earthsuits with inbuilt AC for the searing desert heat, and the odd horse, in a catastrophic near-future, TERMINATION SHOCK will keep you reading and learning. However, the book took me several days to finish, as it’s packed with content that needs time to digest, and seldom feels like a thriller despite abundant conflict. I didn’t love the characters but enjoyed following them. Read for the ideas. Or because you read Stephenson regardless. But do read it, and consider what is happening to the world.
Neal Stephenson’s sweeping, prescient new novel transports readers to a near-future 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 – visionary billionaire restaurant chain magnate T. R. Schmidt, Ph.D. – 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?
Ranging from the Texas heartland to the Dutch royal palace in the Hague, from the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas to the sunbaked Chihuahuan Desert, Termination Shock brings together a disparate group of characters from different cultures and continents who grapple with the real-life repercussions of global warming. Ultimately, it asks the question: Might the cure be worse than the disease?
Epic in scope while heartbreakingly human in perspective, 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.
© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy