Termination Shock

I picked up this book at the library because someone suggested reading in on Mastodon because an article was going around about some geoengineering initiative fairly similar to the one described in this book. Anyway, the book starts out with a strong and funny meandering story, involving out of control wild boar and alligator populations in heat- and hurricane-sticken Texas. Another storyline about a British Columbian Sihk out to find his roots in India through martial arts doesn't really pique my interest. The heavy focus that follows on the troubles of billionaire jet-set, monarchs and their entourage then really loses me. However, thanks to Stephenson's artful storytelling, I am able to make it to the end of this rather thick book. Unfortunately, the end is a rather bitter pill to swallow. Mankind as a whole is to blame for global warming because of its ceaseless drive towards progress, but nobody in particular carries the fault, because hey, what'cha gonna do? So onwards and upwards we go. Thanks to some really spot-on engineering, humanity and Planet Earth are saved, like always, by an intrepid band of diligent billionaires and prudent nationalists. Reads like propaganda.

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.