Review — Termination Shock

Every so often I swing back over into fiction. Usually it’s something Neal Stephenson or William Gibson writes that gets me interested. Well Stephenson got me again with his latest book ‘Termination Shock.’ In typical Stephenson style, it’s long winded and leaves something to be desired.

The book is about climate change the what may happen if private citizens or companies take matters into their own hands. In this case someone builds the world’s biggest gun to shoot sulfur into the atmosphere. Basically taking a massive step in geoengineering. This is essentially what a volcano does when it erupts. But of course launching sulfur into the atmosphere in Texas can effect weather patterns in India and those countries may not take to kindly to it.

Stephenson’s overall outline and tale is good but it’s just long winded. You run into some interesting parts here and there but too often the book gets bogged down in overly detailing something that it ruins the pace of the novel. I’d recommend Stephenson’s earlier works like ‘Snow Crash’ or ‘Cryptonomicon’ before I recommend ‘Termination Shock’.