Good subject matter but plodding plot.

The premise was a great one, addressing ideas on climate change, how it could be managed and what the impact across the globe might be.
However, the plot plodded along, with some sections overly long and tedious. The final sections were better paced and more enjoyable.
The narration was adequate, with general delivery quite good but accents poor.
I'm a big fan of Neil Stephenson, but this is not one of his better books.

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Timely. Want to see this made into a TV show

Human climate change is possibly the most important issue facing us. But what if we could do something about it?
That's the premise of the book, which weaves together an incredibly diverse set of characters into a compelling narrative.
It's an important topic but it's told in a witty and engaging way. It has two of the funniest sex scenes since The First Law.

The narration on the audio book has a problem. While the narrator can deliver convincing American characters, the book is filled with Indian, Dutch, English and Scottish character. And this narrator just can't do them.
The Netherlands accent got mangled into Swedish.
The Scottish accent was worse than Christope Lambert in Highlander.
And while British South Asian accents are certainly hard, Van Dyke cockney doesn't cut it. Sorry Edoardo, I think a British narrator would have had an easier time with this material.

Despite that, I enjoyed it a great deal. It's more grounded and less whacky than a lot of other Stephenson books. The thesis is an important one. I'd can imagine this treated as an HBO style TV show.

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Fun story with some good concepts

I enjoyed the near future sci-fi setting of this story, and think the author did a pretty good job of trying to come up with believable changes and developments in the near future.

The story itself was fun, although seemed to get a bit unfocused after the first third of the book. The ending didn't really resolve that much either beyond some character plots. The characters are decent and I enjoyed following each of their stories though.

Overall a good listen, with a fun story in an interesting setting. The story felt a little bit muddled at times to me and has the feeling of being a first book in a trilogy rather than the stand-alone story that it is (at least I think it is...), but it has enough redeeming qualities that I didn't mind too much.

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Great story -shame about the accents

Up there with REAMDE, Cryptonomicon, interface and cobweb in terms of accessible thriller writing. It’s smart, we’ll paced and you get your by-the-hour moneysworth on the audio version. Just a shame about the otherwise great narrator’s awful foreign accents.

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Nailed it.

Neal has the incredible ability to setup a situation and then write the actual moment so tightly, with such an elan, that you read right past it. It is one of the great pleasures in life to have to reread a Neal Stephenson passage. You just can’t believe what you’ve read and the sharp edge of people’s lives. In this novel, he manages a good ending, that got to me. Well done sir. Well done indeed.

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1 person found this helpful

Very much on point

bang up to date with some fabulous subtle and not so subtle digs at contemporary politics, especially in the US. Typical Stephenson though with the ending feeling like it's tacked on the end of a brilliant road journey of a book. none the worse for it though

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interesting story some flaws, bad voice actor

The voice actor can't do accents at all and the story requires a lot of different accents.

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Termination Schlep

Termination Schlock

On the positive side, Neal Stephenson must be congratulated for the astonishing achievement of packing a two hundred-page book into a mere seven hundred.

On the other hand, "Termination Shock" is a prime example of why good writers need good editors to produce good books. You don't read Neal Stephenson for his ability to churn out taught, fast-moving thrillers. And the man is notoriously unable to end a story properly; generally coming to a sudden, grinding halt in the same manner as American stand-up comedians finishing a set. His fans read him for the pleasure of long, occasionally rambling stories which include enough detail, ideas and food for thought to be entertaining, whilst the plot itself stares out of the window for a while with its mouth open.

As his best, the "Baroque Cycle" books, starting with "Quicksilver" are a fantastically good way of passing the time and with the outstanding narration of Simon Prebble demand attention paid to every word.

But "Termination Shock" is one of those titles where the listener's attention can wander for minutes at a time and, upon returning, nothing has been missed. Time and again, tedious description of nothing in particular crops up, lending naught to the story, either in joyful detail of Something Interesting or simple exposition. As for the story itself this time? Meh. Good ingredients badly over-cooked.

Plenty of red pencil from the hand of a skilled editor would probably have brought this book to heel. But perhaps Stephenson is too big an author now for publishers to treat as a professional. Once a writer is hailed as "visionary," their work inevitably suffers when nobody dares say, "lose half of it."

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10 people found this helpful

Enjoyable diversion...

This story - even more than some other Neal Stephenson creations - wanders about a lot. It's one of the things I generally enjoy about Stephenson - side alleys, dead ends (which usually relate though), lots of titbits of information alongside the story. This is quite a slow burn - a lot does not happen and does not happen fast. However if you like a detailed and somewhat surreal romp - this is for you. The "science" is interesting though I have no idea how realistic it is. The technology is near future believable - as is the climate stricken world.

If you like technology, environmental concerns, Dutch royalty, wild pigs, border disputes, small jets and raptors - amongst many other things - this could well be 22 hours of enjoyable listening for you too.

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4 people found this helpful

I just finished Termination Shock, enjoyed it.

First half is great, but didn't think it developed enough in the second half. The political analysis was disappointingly shallow. It does cover some import, current issues in climate. We need more climate fiction.

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