Review: Termination Shock

Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I said it in an update and I’ll say it again: the most speculative fiction part of this book is that they’ve been through multiple rounds of COVID and people are still wearing masks and using apps to be considerate to others.

I’ve been reading Neal Stephenson since the last 90s when first read The Diamond Age and then Snow Crash. Stephenson (who might still be, but was at least at one point member of a group called something like the Long Time Society) blends his most enduring elements in this book: a long view of history, skewering of the excesses of American culture, science fiction that is often just a little bit further in the future, and characters that are clearly the modern descendants of golden age science fiction characters. To tackle the last point first, one of the notable qualities of those SFF protagonists in the 1930s and 40s is their competence and their use of logic to reason their way through issues. It makes those old books a bit stiff to read in modern times, but Stephenson adapts the idea well to our modern sensibilities.

Like many of Stephenson’s books, the focus is on the characters. Some SF (which I also enjoy) is more about the tech or the setting, but for Stephenson, usually those are just the settings to insert his unique characters. There’s sci-fi stuff happening around them, but it’s ALMOST incidental to the point. Another thing he does often is to have disparate characters who eventually come together in the narrative (think Hiro and YT in Snow Crash). In this book, based on the characters he starts off with, it’s really tough to see how they’re all going to intersect. Intersect they do and it also seems that Stephenson has gotten better about not having abrupt endings to his books.

Overall, it’s a good book that makes the reader think through some of the consequences of both action and inaction around climate change. It’s also somewhat prescient about getting the reader to think of what happens when the rich take advantage of a deregulated area to take unilateral action. But those are all happening in the background of a pretty fun narrative involving 3 sets of characters who have riveting adventures throughout the globe. Strongly recommend.

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• Science-Fiction