I don’t hide how much I love Neal Stephenson’s books. To the point that I have been preordering the previous 3 ones, even before much had been announced regarding their main theme.

So, what about Termination Shock? It focuses on geoengineering. Or rather, what would happen if a rogue company mogul decided to start terraforming earth to fight global warming using sulphur from oil extraction? Add a dash of geopolitics to the mix, strong characters (quite a stark contrast when you are reading Asimov at the same time)

As esoteric as this might seem, this is a topic I had been following a few years ago. Actually since reports in 2011 started noticing that global warming seemed to be slightly slowing down despite China firing its coal powerplants at historical levels. And yes, this is the kind of articles living rent free in my brain form 10+ years now. The main reason being me having worked on freight trains in China whose main mission was to bring 1 million tons of coal daily to Beijing. So guilt might be part of the equation here.

Back to Termination Shock. I had a hard time getting into the book as I did not understand where the story was going. Quite a change from his previous books where the goal and main story line was clear almost from the get go. But, after the first quarter of the book, everything starts to fall in place and we start seeing the implications of all the elements and storylines introduced so far.

One thing which is common with at least one of his previous book (Seveneves) is that the book ends at the beginning of a huge arc. Some would say the main story. To me, this is perfectly fine given the story and the actual focus of the book. Which is not on what happens when Earth get terraformed, but more on the geopolitical implications of getting the process started. Same as Seveneves. Or the Diamond Age (though getting to the Seed was a bit more adventurous than his later books). Process rather than result. Too bad this is also the main complaints readers had with Seveneves.

Final word: I really enjoyed the book but I am not sure it will have the same impact as The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, Seveneves or Anathem.

It was a pleasant read. Not the best. But very pleasant indeed.