Not long ago, I read Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry For The Future. This new cli-fi book from Neal Stephenson feels heavily influenced by that one, but maybe they have just been reading the same sources. TERMINATION SHOCK refers to geo-engineering and the possibility that a project to cool the Earth could, if halted, cause a rebound effect that would not be known in advance.

We begin with an interesting escapade in which a young woman who is queen of the Netherlands, is making an unscheduled landing at Waco, Texas, piloting her own jet. Some feral hogs swarm the runway and the plane is a write-off. Saskia, one of her many names, decides to keep moving and accepts aid from Rufus, an ex-army man employed to kill feral hogs like these. The small royal party travels on a boat downriver to aid survivors of a major storm in flooded Houston, and continues to a ranch.

J.R. Schmidt, a wealthy Texan, hosts a conference for dignitaries from Venice, London, and other low-lying cities, and of course Saskia, whose whole country is below sea level. Royal Dutch Shell is a major contributor to sea level rise, and Saskia’s family have always been shareholders. The irony of carbon-funded people supporting a plan to build The Biggest Gun In The World to fire sulphur into the stratosphere can’t be missed. The idea is to mimic a volcano and cool the planet. Also note carbon-intensive private jets and helicopters being standard among the wealthy, while the poor lose their homes.

A secondary storyline follows a young Canadian-Indian man called Laks, who travels to the Punjab to practise martial arts. Cue classic Stephenson imagery as Chinese and Indian people spar for control of the Himalayas. The other travels include the Netherlands with their own geo-engineering, and New Guinea, home to a massive mining installation. However, Saskia is often confined to asking questions and looking queenly. She stands in for the reader. She also allows us to see tech that was hitting the computer screens as Stephenson was writing; deepfakes, in particular.

If you enjoy reading about drones, earthsuits with inbuilt AC for the searing desert heat, and the odd horse, in a catastrophic near-future, TERMINATION SHOCK will keep you reading and learning. However, the book took me several days to finish, as it’s packed with content that needs time to digest, and seldom feels like a thriller despite abundant conflict. I didn’t love the characters but enjoyed following them. Read for the ideas. Or because you read Stephenson regardless. But do read it, and consider what is happening to the world.

Book Summary