Termination Shock (2021) by Neal Stephenson

Book Review

Termination Shock (2021)

by Neal Stephenson

   Always excited by a new Neal Stephenson novel.  I've dipped in and out of Stephenson's oeuvre over the decades.  Certainly read Snowcrash (1992) in paperback close to when it came out.  Cryptonomicon (1999) is part of the 1001 Books project.  I read Fall; or Dodge in Hell (2019) just because it sounded interesting, and it was, though also a mess.  And the rest of it- the apps- the collaborations, the three volume Baroque Cycle- I've skipped.  Termination Shock is another conventional novel- maybe he is finally settling down in that regard.  It is a barely science fictional plot about a crazy Texan who decides to fix global warming by himself by shooting sulfur into the air using a huge cannon he has built on his ranch in west Texas.  The very Stephensonian case of characters includes Red, a part-Comanche, part-African American ex-military, former farmer, current feral hog klling specialist, Saskia, the Queen of the Netherlands, Wilhelm, her part-Papuan all gay protocol assistant and Big Fish a Canadian-Sikh twenty something who travels to the Punjab to rediscover his identity only to find himself wound up in a Neal Stephenson plot.

   It should go without saying that there is plenty of exposition by the various characters, making parts of Termination Shock read like a New Yorker article.  The central conceit, that a crazy Texas billionaire could single handedly try to counter global warming by starting up an enormous sulfur cannon seemed so plausible to me that it barely required the suspension of disbelief I commonly associated with science fiction genre work.  Rather it is the behavior of the characters, who often seem like marionettes in a puppet show, where suspension of disbelief is required.   Regardless of weaknesses in the character development, I tore through Termination Shock- couldn't listen to the 27 hour Audiobook fast enough. which should tell you I loved it.