Termination Shock

Termination Shock begins just a few years from now, at a time in which the direct effects of climate change have wreaked havoc across the globe. In some areas, the atmosphere has gotten too hot to support air travel. Feral hogs have taken over parts of Texas. Superstorms sweep across the planet, leaving devastation in their wake. New variations of the Covid virus continue to replicate. Against this backdrop of escalating catastrophe, one man—Texas billionaire T.R. “McHooligan” Schmidt, has come up with an idea, the sort of Big Idea that might, just might, buy the earth a bit of extra time.

Beneath its freight of deadly serious concerns, Termination Shock remains an enthralling, page-turning entertainment. Utilizing a large cast of characters (among them such unlikely bedfellows as Saskia, Queen of the Netherlands and Rufus, former soldier and professional pig hunter) and a plot involving the strategic use of The Biggest Gun in the World, Stephenson has crafted an immense—and immensely urgent—narrative that directly confronts one of the defining problems of our era, and does so with wit, unflagging energy, and a cautious but still discernible optimism.