Termination Shock

Termination Shock has been on my radar even since it was released a few years back. This looked as though it would be another crazy, erudite, complex, and totally fucked-up novel like only Neal Stephenson can write them. Given the various subject matters tackled by the author, many critics claim that had they been written by any other writer, such books would have been train wrecks. But with Neal Stephenson, it's just business as usual.

As a matter of course, I was hoping that he would find a way to work his magic once more, this time with global warming and the rising sea levels and their repercussions around the globe. And yet, even though Termination Shock remains the intelligent, high-octane literary work Stephenson has accustomed us to in the past, this one ended up being on big mess of a book.

Here's the blurb:

New York Times Bestseller

From Neal Stephenson—who coined the term “metaverse” in his 1992 novel Snow Crash—comes a sweeping, prescient new thriller that 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.

As is usually the case with any of the author's works, there are several seemingly unrelated storylines that are somehow brought together as the plot progresses. Several times as you go through the majority of Stephenson's novels, you shake your head, wondering what this is all about. But you trust Neal Stephenson and keep on reading, knowing that it will all make sense in the end. Which it normally does. Not quite with Termination Shock, which has an open-ended sort of ending that brings very little resolution to this mammoth doorstopper. Understandably, as is usually his wont, Stephenson chose to rely on a number of massive info-dumps to familiarize readers with the ins and outs of solar geoengineering, The Dutch monarchy and its powers within the Netherlands, Sikh traditions and martial arts, and the Line of Actual Control between India and China. The author has lots of great ideas and explores lots of fascinating concepts, but the info-dumps were simply too much in Termination Shock. Moreover, Stephenson fails to take all this cool stuff and bring it together into something resembling a coherent and cohesive whole. Which is the reason why I said that it's a big mess of a book. An entertaining mess, mind you, but a mess nonetheless.

Neal Stephenson's novels are habitually populated by a cast of colorful and disparate protagonists. And I have a feeling that it's this superior characterization that cements everything together and prevents Stephenson's many books from being the aforementioned train wrecks they could have been. Whether good or bad, the men and women found in his books are an entertaining and interesting bunch. And with Stephenson's witty sense of humor, they all come alive and leave their mark in various ways. Not so with Termination Shock, I'm sad to report. This is by far the worse and most lackluster cast Stephenson ever came up with. Saskia, the Dutch Queen, never truly comes into her own and sounds American. Laks, the Canadian Sikh snowboarder/martial artist, though the most interesting character to follow throughout the novel, makes no sense because such a teenager/young adult would have been ostracized by his family/community. Still, it was nice to see some Sikh representation in a novel like this. The only two really entertaining protagonists were Rufus, the wild pig hunter who somehow ends up part of this world-spanning conspiracy, and Willem, one of the Dutch Queen's aides.

Termination Shock is a 700+ pages work and, given the info-dumps, it does suffer from pacing issues. And yet, it's not as bad as one would think. Which is probably due to the fact that it's build upon a myriad of different plotlines and that somehow they all gradually come together. Even if they never quite coalesce into a something that can really stand on its own, Neal Stepheson's narrative remains quite evocative and creates an imagery that truly captures the imagination. Whether it's the rugged wilderness of West Texas or the frozen wastes of the Himalayas, the author makes you feel as if you were there.

Everything about solar geoengineering was fascinating and so were the political ramifications that would ensue should such a program be put into motion. Unfortunately, as thought-provoking as such ideas and concepts turned out to be, Neal Stephenson never quite managed to mix all these different ingredients together and come up with the sort of fast-paced and intricately crafted techno-thriller he came up with in the past.

The final verdict: 7/10

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