Publisher: It's about global warming.

Me:  "Don't go full Kim Stanley Robinson.  Don't go full Kim Stanley Robinson."

Publisher: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/profiles/article/87390-neal-stephenson-s-shock-doctrine.html

Me:  Oh no.



Anyways... Neal is certainly off my buy-in-advance list after FODIH.
Up until FODIH, I would have thought this would be a fair look at the engineering of geoengineering.  Kind of a head fake, that Neal would advertise the book as a global warming thing and then bring some reality to the discussion about how geoengineering could fix it if we really wanted to.

But after the mean-spiritedness against Ameristan of FODIH, this preview of the truck-stop owner from Oklahoma pushing geoengineering highly suggests a "those proles are meddling in things they don't understand" line.  Which is okay if it was looked at with the fairness he showed in Cryptonomicon, but I highly suspect will be followed with "and must be punished and laughed at".

I will be very glad to be proven wrong on this.  I will wait for reviews from known decent folks.

Reviews are coming in, advance reader copies are out and there are some regular books in the wild too apparently:
http://knappster.blogspot.com/2021/09/termination-shock-by-neal-stephenson.html

Yeah, he has been moving, or at least showing his preference, left for some time.  I met him in Denver when Reamde came out.  I was at the Great American Beer Fest and missed a session so I could go to his book signing.  Asked him about the trailer that was, and maybe still is on youtube, for Anathem.  He said it was fan made.  Too bad, would be a good movie.

Neal has often kind of "run over here to the left a bit" and then he'd "run a little bit to the right" then he'd "flop around in the middle" a lot.

I thought Zodiac was going to be pure leftist dribble but it was actually an awesomely fun read.

He lost me after Diamond Age.  I have read, Cryptonomicon,  Reamde and Anathem but, apart from some fascinating ideas, the latter two left me cold.  I liked Crypto but I don't think I will ever read it again.

...I will say this:  SnowCrash and Diamond Age bough a lot of forgiveness from me.  Two of my favorite books of all time.

General comments from TJICistan

1/ https://t.co/YmSqzJua3Z

— ? Dogs don't have thumbs (@MorlockP) November 15, 2021

I will periodically re-read the ones I like but I've crossed NS off my must buy list. I didn't care for REAMDE, skipped the DODO thing because the reviews were bad, and ignored Fall because I don't like the Dodge character. This one looks like an overwrought stinker too.

Edit - 700 pages?

His last good work, IMO, was Cryptonomicon.

That is a good and funny twitter thread.

Never read Stephenson's books, but keep hearing about Cryptonomicon here and elsewhere and have to read some of his stuff sometime.

(I thought he wrote American Gods, but realized that was Neal Gaimon, did read a chapter of that book).

I do want to hear how the "Indian-Canadian defends his land with a stick"

Cryptonomicon is very good, but some of the "present-day" stuff about creating a data haven will seem outdated.

Zodiac is a fun read, and short

No Spoiler review and comparison to KSR's latest Ministry for the Future.
https://schicksalgemeinschaft.wordpress.com/2021/12/08/termination-shock-neal-stephenson-2021/

Brilliant author, shilling for the AGW theory, very disappointing.

It's really not very good.  Not his best work by far, in any way.

Review by my .sig author TJIC a.k.a. Morlock Publishing, or two-time Prometheus Award-winning author Travis Corcoran:

1/

Read three books during my flights to and from the recent business trip to Cheyenne, WY.

- Termination Shock by N Stephenson
- Westside by W.M. Akers
- Kiteworld by Keith Roberts

— ? Dogs don't have thumbs (@MorlockP) December 9, 2021

Bump to keep out of archives, I'm about halfway through the book via audiobook.  Excellent reader, it's like a whole cast!  As a Texan I am appreciating the setting of the first part.

Tiny Spoiler:  "Buc-ee's in SPAAAAACE"

I intend to give it a shot, and am due for a good audiobook.
I started off with Cryptonomicon, and flew through that and ended thinking I needed to go every one of this guy's books.
My wife got Quicksilver for me, and damn if I can't finish it. It is just a slog, every bit of the way, for years now. And I generally finish books.

I read Snowcrash earlier this year, and really enjoyed it. However, some points got pretty tedious.

Quicksilver seems to mostly be tedium. I do enjoy the numerous historical asides with inventors and theorists, but would rather have simply read biographies of each at this point.

I finished, very good story overall, enjoyable and thought-provoking.  I really appreciate Neal's writing when he is an observer of people, and subtle sarcasm to everyone's human foibles.  Much more even than the cultural commentary in Fall.

Seems calibrated to me since 3-4 of the major areas are aligned with my life - Texas, western Canada, Sikhs/India.

I will have some spoiler thoughts later.