Books › Termination Shock
Termination Shock
736 pages
A sprawling, sweltering geopolitical thriller that wrestles with the terrifying, awe-inspiring hubris of trying to hack the planet's climate.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like sitting in a sweltering room with a brilliant, slightly eccentric polymath who is explaining exactly how the world might end and how a rogue billionaire might try to save it. The narrative unfolds at a steady, deliberate pace, taking its time to build a sprawling, deeply researched geopolitical chessboard before setting the pieces in motion. It is dense with technical detail, digressive in its worldbuilding, and laced with a wry, pragmatic humor that cuts through the apocalyptic dread. You are immersed in a tense, awe-inspiring atmosphere where the heat is palpable and the stakes are planetary. It will absolutely delight readers who crave hard science, complex global logistics, and the messy, unintended consequences of radical techno-solutionism.
- Mood
- sweltering
- tense
- awe-inspiring
- Tone
- wry
- analytical
- pragmatic
- sprawling
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- rogue techno-solutionism · unintended consequences · geopolitical friction · human adaptability
- The writing
- Highly detailed and intellectually dense, blending deep technical explanations with dry, observational humor and sprawling digressions.
- The arc
- Begins with a sweltering sense of apocalyptic dread and shifts into a tense, fascinated observation of a radical, chaotic global experiment.
- Who it's for
- Fans of hard sci-fi and geopolitical thrillers who enjoy deep-dive worldbuilding, technical infodumps, and sprawling, multi-POV chess games.
Content notes
- climate anxiety
- pandemic references
- animal death
- gun violence
About the book
A billionaire has an idea for reversing global warming, but will it work? And what will the consequences for the planet be? A disparate group of characters from around the globe fight to solve the problem of global warming, but some of their ideas may be worse than climate change itself.
The greenhouse effect has resulted in a whirling-dervish troposphere of superstorms, rising sea levels, global flooding, and deadly pandemics. Visionary billionaire restaurant chain magnate T. R. Schmidt, Ph.D., has a master plan for reversing global warming. He brings together a disparate group of people from different cultures and continents who grapple with the real-life repercussions of global warming. Ultimately, they must face the question: Might the cure be worse than the disease? -- adapted from jacket
Source title: Termination Shock: A Novel
Description from Open Library.
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