“Termination Shock” by Neal Stephenson – Mother Earth's Final Straw

 

Short Summary

Neal Stephenson seems quite keen on warning us about the potential doom we're bringing on ourselves, at least if his latest novel, Termination Shock, is anything to go by. In it, he tells a story spanning multiple continents and following people of different cultures as they all have to contend with the many ravages brought on by global warming. Meanwhile, a visionary billionaire comes up with a solution to reverse the process, but its consequences might be too much for humanity to bear.

Neal Stephenson Summons Nature's Wrath

Scientists and influential figures have been trying to drill into our heads the need to take care of our planet for decades now, and the recent shifts in global climate are only proving them right. Authors have even joined the fray, with “disaster fiction” and “cli-fi” (climate fiction) having become prominent genres in recent years, presenting interesting visions of our potential future, as Neal Stephenson does in his latest novel, Termination Shock.

The story takes place in a near future where global warming has wrought havoc on our planet, giving way to super storms, rising sea levels, global flooding, lethal heat waves and deadly pandemics, bringing many governments to their knees, included the United States. Few people are actually capable of doing anything about it, but a certain visionary billionaire does have an idea.

In one thread of the story, we are introduced to T.R. Schmidt, a restaurant chain magnate with a great master plan to reverse global warming. It's ready to be set in motion, and for the occasion he gathered in Houston a group of representatives from across the entire world. His guests also include the Queen of the Netherlands as well as her cohort who were forced to make an emergency landing in Waco.

While the political climate of a mostly-fallen United States greatly facilitates the implementation of Schmidt's project, there are still those who are quite invested in seeing him fail in his ambition, unprepared to pay the required price for humanity's survival.

On the other side of the world, a Canadian Sikh by the name of Laks is travelling to help assist with oxygen centers in Punjab, and ends up staying there to learn stick fighting techniques. With the threat of a Chinese invasion looming large, he chooses to try and defend his homeland along with a ragtag group of determined fighters.

The Inevitable Consequence in Termination Shock

In a certain sense, it feels to me like many authors tend to treat climate fiction as if it was a sub-genre of horror. They try to terrify us with the fate awaiting our civilization, driving home the idea we've gone too far beyond the point of no return and will be forced to deal with the consequences, even if it's generations down the line.

While this element dose feel present to a certain extent in Termination Shock, I found Neal Stephenson took a more neutral and rational approach than most of his peers tend to. First of all, he sticks within the realm of realism, depicting the potential consequences of global warming which are in agreement with our own models. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say the author and I are in agreement about the needlessness of inventing fantastical repercussions: reality is frightening enough as it is.

Second, Stephenson doesn't relish in gratuitous descriptions of desolation and suffering, nor does he ever rely on them to drive home the point of just how badly off humanity is. Instead, he tends to use well-researched descriptions of the various phenomenon dominating the Earth, and for the most part, allows us to extrapolate by ourselves what they entail for regular people.

In my opinion, this is one of the novel's greatest strengths: it pushes the reader to think and imagine, forcing them to visualize and interpret the consequences of global warming in their own, relatable ways, making the issue hit much closer to home. As a result, I found myself thinking about the central theme of book even when I wasn't reading it.

Finally, I'd like to talk about the third element which pulls this novel away from the “horror-based” approach, and it's the fact Neal Stephenson also injects some tangible hope into the story, just as plausible as the problems faced by the characters. Schmidt's proposal could be realized, appearing within the realms of our current capabilities. While in reality there probably is no unilateral, one-step solution to the entire problem, he does leave a light for humanity to follow.

The Unstable Future of Mankind

As expected, Mother Nature does ultimately feel like a central character in Termination Shock, with pretty much all of the events and characters' decisions being informed by her increasingly-violent manifestations. Thankfully, Neal Stephenson doesn't forget it's the living and sentient characters who move the story along, and ensures we get closely acquainted with all of them.

While I wouldn't say the cast of main characters is overly large, there are quite a few people to keep track of across multiple narratives. The setup takes a bit of time before coming to completion, with Stephenson developing each and every one with more attention than many writers devote to their main characters.

Though I do think he could have gone a little easier in regards to less important characters, the overall result is a realistic and relatable group of people who feel like they belong in the world they live in. I never had any trouble understanding their motivations or thought processes, regardless of whether or not I agreed with them.

Once the setup was completed, the story actually ended up progressing a little more slowly than I had anticipated, especially compared with Seveneves, the last novel of his I had read. It was a worrying signal at first, but over the chapters I came to appreciate the pacing for allowing me to digest all the ideas Neal Stephenson was bringing into play and the potential future he was depicting for mankind.

Rest assured, there are definitely some riveting action sequences and surprising plot twists to keep you hooked at key moments, but personally-speaking, what really caught my attention above everything else was the author's vision for what awaits us. No matter how we slice it, the long-term survival of our species seems less and less likely, and few are the paths leading us to true stability and prosperity... nevertheless, we can't afford to stop trying.

The Final Verdict

Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson is an excellent science-fiction novel centred on climate change, telling an exciting multi-narrative story set in a plausibly-disconcerting future. It might take its time in some places, but the extremely well-developed characters and profoundly-researched ideas more than justify this approach.

If you're in search of a disaster fiction novel tackling the concept of global warming and humanity's impending future through the calm and intellectual lens of modern-day research, then I highly recommend you check this novel out.

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Neal Stephenson Personal site Neal Stephenson is an American writer and game designer whose many novels have touched on science-fiction, cyberpunk and historical fiction. Some of his better-known novels include Snow Crash, which earned him a nomination for the Clarke Award, and Cryptonomicon, which won him the Locus SF Award and the 2013 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award.