This was incredible. Richly developed characters and expert plotting made this a fun read. Thank you NG for the ARC. Highly recommend.

VERDICT: Vast cli-fi highlighting the complexity of our world and its environmental issues.
I had meant to read Neal Stephenson for many years, but all his books are quite long, and only recently did I finally decide to take the plunge when I found his latest novel (896 pages) on Netgalley.
This technothriller Termination Shock is related to climate change, and as I have recently enjoyed other cli-fi (scifi related to climate change) for instance Migrations, I thought this would work. It did.


I don’t think this is particular only to this book by Stephenson, but I got much more then expected!
I ended up on a roller coaster of a world tour:
Texas (and yes wild boars –Moby Pig was one of the fun jokes– are becoming an increasing problem, and not just in Texas),
Louisiana (with indeed rumors at one point about “meth gators”),
London, Venice, The Netherlands, Singapore, Papua, the Punjab, the line of actual control between India and China.
Plus geopolitics, geoengineering, solar engineering, sulfur mining, drones, etc.
I discovered intriguing plans related to possible (?) solutions for climate change.
I learned a lot about martial arts, about the Sikh culture, and I met all kinds of fascinating and weird characters from a Dutch queen to a Canadian sikh.

Put together all the bad news you have heard about these past years on tornadoes, hurricanes, violent storms, rising sea levels, floods, heat records, fires, pandemics, and you have an idea of the world Termination Shock is set in.

A very rich man in Texas is determined to implement his creative idea to reverse global warming, whatever the consequences may be, for his nearby neighbors or on the other side of the planet. But if his so-called solution causes problems, is it reversible?

I like how the author highlighted the complexity of the problem.

They had a century-and-a-half to put carbon into the atmosphere; we have only decades to take it back out.

The vastness of Stevenson’s fresco is impressive. How does he know so much about so many things and cultures?

I also enjoyed all the geeky inventions for instance the “earthsuits: garments that looked much too heavy for such a hot day, because underneath they consisted of networks of cooling tubes against the skin.”
When they are visiting a place “each in their own personal drone: air-conditioned plastic bubble with splayed arms that ramified like fingers, each finger terminated by an electric motor driving a carbon fiber propeller”.

The book starts slowly, the time to introduce all people and places, but the result was very satisfying and I am ready to try another book by this author. Which one would you recommend?

An interesting near-future take on climate change and one possible fix. I found the characters and story engaging. There is no villain. Everyone is just trying to do what they think is right.

Neal Stephenson's latest tome is a terrific story about climate change and whether technology can solve the problem for the planet before it's too late. It's also about geopolitics, bouncing around between Texas, The Netherlands, Venice, the curious Himalayan territory between India and China, and much, much more. Eminently readable, it's also long. Really long. Indeed, that's one of the reasons I'm resistant to picking up a new Stephenson novel. As long as you're ready to devote the time, however, "Termination Shock" offers up a cast of great characters, notably including the Queen of the Netherlands, a larger-than-life Texas gas station magnate, an expert Punjabi stick fighter (and his live streaming pals), and much more, Definitely recommended!

Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson
I had not read any of Mr. Stephenson’s books prior to this one. Although I had heard many good things about his work and comparisons to Kim Stanley Robinson’s books which I have not read either. I had watched on YouTube interviews with both writers so I was looking forward to reading Termination Shock.
I was very disappointed and most likely will not read any of his other books. Why? This book is defined as “speculative climate science fiction.” OK, not really filled with time travel or gadgets that seem unlikely which is a positive to me. The topic, how to stop flooding occurring in lowlands from global warming is an interesting and timely topic. So far so good. First flaw at least to me is do you really 700+ pages to tell this story? Looking in a bookstore I see all his books are in the doorstopper category.
In this book set in the near future, governments are doing too little to alter the trajectory. Along comes a Texan with money, land and an idea to shoot Sulphur filled canisters into the upper atmosphere that burn into sulfur dioxide and reflect the sun thereby lowering the earth temperature. Too much detail goes into describing these projectiles and not enough meaning almost nothing on the ramifications of rapidly altering the climate locally. The butterfly wing affect is real. Also, governments including the US seem at best ignorant or tolerant of this super gun carrying going on in SW Texas.
To fill out the 700 pages. Mr. Stephenson add a motely group of somewhat important/concerned global people. Examples include a sex starved queen of The Netherlands (Saskia), an old Venetian woman viper and her well hung nephew, the mayor of The City of London. Note not the capital city just the square mile. Mysterious characters from China and finally our hero; Rufus former marine- Camanche named Rufus who shoots wild boar that are running rampant in the Southest and a British Columbian Sikh named Laks who to get back to his roots goes the Punjab becomes a stick fighting expert and goes to the border of India/China. Here is partakes in the stick and rock fighting to push the Line of Actual Control a few meters in India’s favor.
OK after 600 pages or so, Laks comes to Texas with a swarm of India developed drones to take out the canon and Rufus, his rifles and a band of Golden Eagles to kill drones defends the canon. Rufus wins I suppose more sulfur canons will go on line and god knows what will happen to the weather but at least Saskia is partially satisfied by the Venetian and Rufus. Although maybe she is the one who will suffer Termination Shock.
The main point of the book slowing or eliminating ocean levels rising without impacting other regions seems lost to me. It is not even clear how a few sulfur clouds over Texas, Venice area and a few other locations would stop the polar caps from melting. If I prevent a few curious people from reading this book I think I have done my job.

https://bookandfilmglobe.com/fiction/book-review-termination-shock/

Neal Stephenson is expansive.

It’s not just that his new novel Termination Shock is 720 pages long, it’s that it needs to be that length to encompass his prodigious vision. In fact, it needs to be even longer, because though the novel ties up certain important plot points, it leaves other vital elements hanging.
...

I agree with most of the reviews. I found this very boring and only got to 470 pages. So glad I didn’t waste any additional time.

DNF. Not Neal Stephenson's best. Lots of mixed political messages and odd mentions of current culture, especially regarding technology, that didn't flow.

I never felt like there was any movement forward in the book. Not my cup of tea so I stopped reading.

Excellent climate sci-fi, set in the near future. Interwoven stories from vastly different global socioeconomic viewpoints keep it flowing quickly. Global climate politics are not just policy wonk discussions here, but twisty plot points. This was a “late night” read, keeping me up late to finish.

I tried. I really did. But when you're 36% into a 700+ page book and nothing has happened, you give up hope, you know? While I liked a couple of the characters, making the "bad guy" an "other" (seriously, who still does that?) was a bridge too far. I won't be finishing it, so I won't review it on any sites either. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to try it out, though.

I'm adding this because the algorithm wants more characters even though I am only giving feedback, not actually reviewing the book.

I think I've read every book Neil Stephenson has written, and they tend to fall into two camps: Amazing books that stick with me for decades or ponderous works that I struggle to complete. Termination Shock falls firmly in the first camp.
I'm not saying the book is perfect.
- The writing feels a little predictable ... there's only one possible way Big Fish's story arc could intersect with the others, so Stephenson telegraphs the ending within the first quarter of the book.
- The writing feels a little derivative ... it's GREAT to see more ecopunk stories, but it feels a little like Stephenson is writing in Bacigalupi's world, rather than building his own.
- The politics and science feel a little hand-waved ... this is surprising, because the end notes include a TON of resources. It's clear Stephenson did his research, but we're left wondering [SPOILER BELOW] and why acid rain is not seen as a major secondary problem
But those are all truly minor quibbles. The book is really REALLY good. I look forward to recommending it often, and reading it at least once more.


* SPOILER: ... we're left wondering why the Netherlands put up with China's attack on the Maeslantkering

Neal Stephenson fans will enjoy this book. I am one of those fans, and I enjoyed it for the ideas and imaginative predictions about near-future tech and geopolitical scenarios. I also enjoyed Stephenson’s dry sense of humor.

On the other hand, the characters were weakly drawn, in a way that is, unfortunately, familiar from other Stephenson novels. All of the main characters are, at times, thrust into life-threatening situations, yet they are never portrayed as experiencing real, gut-wrenching fear. They are somehow able to maintain ironic detachment. Maybe one or two characters should have been a bit more shaken up.

It was interesting to draw comparisons between this novel and “The Ministry for the Future.” If anything, that novel (by Kim Stanley Robinson) is even heavier on the info dumps, yet the emotional impact events have on the characters feels much more real. That said, I applaud Stephenson for taking on “climate fiction.” We need many more novels and books like this one as we try to imagine a positive way forward for the years to come.

There's a problem when reading e-books: endings can sneak up on you. That happened to me last night, when I got my own termination shock. Wait, it's over? Already??

I enjoyed the heck out of this novel. A bit reminiscent of REAMDE, it pulls together some fascinating characters from different walks of life and travels the globe. In this case, the first voyage brings the Queen of the Netherlands to Waco, Texas, where the plane she is personally piloting has an unusually bumpy landing thanks to the sudden eruption of a herd of feral hogs (those scary beasts of Twitter meme-fame) onto the runway. They're being pursued by Red, an African-American/Native man who is pursuing the biggest one like Captain Ahab looking for his white whale. After dispatching the massive beast, Red and a contingent of the Cajun Navy (thanks to rising seas, their travels take them to places like Waco) he helps the royal group travel to meet the larger-than-life Texan who owns a fleet of giant truck stops and has come up with a plan to save the world from global warming.

Meanwhile, a Canadian Sikh who has traveled to India is finding his way into the world of a particularly acrobatic martial art by hanging out at gudwaras and practicing gatka there. He falls in with a Uyghar refugee, two Sikh football hooligans from England, and a New Zealand documentary maker. They eventually travel to the disputed border with China, where a tense diplomacy is played out by men armed only with sticks, rocks, and competing YouTube videos. Both storylines are vividly presented and half the fun is trying to work out how they'll converge, as they eventually do.

The Texan's plan involves shooting an element (one that was considered just a dirty part of crude oil) into the stratosphere with a battery of Texas-sized guns. Of course, a change in climate will advantage some (including the Netherlands, hence the queen's presence) and disadvantage others, which puts the whole scheme into the center of a geopolitical struggle which involves high technology, social media, and ... sticks.

Some of my terminal shock was due to electronic files not having the weight of pages being gradually moved from right to left, signaling the approaching conclusion. But it also seemed surprisingly abrupt, leaving big questions unresolved (though it has bang-up action scenes and plenty of tension). I think I hoped for something more nuanced about what happens next, since the narrative is about competing ideas about how to deal with the climate emergency. There is a gesture toward a future (and I'm SO glad the author didn't indulged in an apocalyptic every-man-for-himself dystopian hellscape/libertarian fantasy of human behavior) but I wanted a slightly smoother landing. Maybe that's the point, though - we have no idea what the future holds, but we have a pretty good idea of what happens if we ignore it as we have for decades.

It will make you think, and you'll be tremendously entertained while doing it.