4 minute read
TERMINATION SHOCK by Neal Stephenson
termination shock
BLUE-SKINNED GODS
Sindu, SJ Soho (336 pp.) $26.00 | Nov. 2, 2021 978-1-641-29242-9
A blue-skinned boy is believed to be a god. Sindu’s third book begins with a bit of what might or might not be divinity. Kalki is born with blue skin, prompting his family and Tamil Nadu villagers to believe that he is the latest—and last—human avatar of Vishnu, the Hindu god. In other words, Kalki, who is 10 when the novel begins, is himself a god. His father builds an ashram around him, and the faithful come from near and far for healing sessions, rituals, and ceremonies. Almost immediately, however, Kalki has reason to doubt that he is what his father says he is. Sindu’s excavations of Kalki’s internal struggles are detailed, nuanced, and rich. “My divinity had been as real as flowers, or the sun, or my own skin,” Kalki thinks. “And when that godhood broke”— when his faith finally gives way—“reality itself had shattered to pieces around me.” Throughout the book, Sindu’s prose has a textured intricacy that never becomes florid. Occasionally, though, she does slip into a slightly didactic tone when explaining Hindu practices; her assumption seems to be that her audience is entirely Western. These contextualizing passages, though not entirely necessary, don’t significantly flaw the book. A larger flaw emerges, however, when Kalki, now 22, arrives in New York. For someone who has never left his ashram—never mind his country—Kalki seems remarkably unfazed by the drinking, smoking, and partying he soon becomes subject to. No, he doesn’t know how to read a subway map, but his reactions to the wider world never feel quite believable. Still, these are minor quibbles for a novel that so admirably skates between insight and pathos, acuity, and poignancy.
Remarkably moving in its explorations of faith, doubt, and what it might mean to be a charlatan.
TERMINATION SHOCK
Stephenson, Neal Morrow/HarperCollins (736 pp.) $27.99 | Nov. 16, 2021 978-0-06-302805-0
In the all-too-near future, when unlikely weather events and natural disasters aren’t so unlikely anymore, an eccentric and wealthy Texan makes a move against climate change. Saskia, better known as the Queen of the Netherlands, crashes her plane on an airstrip in Waco, Texas, when wild pigs overtake the runway as she’s landing. Saskia’s visit to America isn’t exactly official, so she and her team enlist Rufus, who happens to be on the runway hunting the vicious boar that killed his young daughter, to help them get to Houston to meet T.R. Schmidt. While America as a nation is “a clown show,” Schmidt has the money to do as he pleases, and what he pleases to do is construct a massive gun that can shoot sulfur into the atmosphere and help ameliorate the effects of global warming. He’s invited people like Saskia, some Venetian aristocrats, and representatives of Singapore and other places that have the most to lose from a rising sea level to see what he’s been working on. When Schmidt starts up his gun and it actually works, a huge global debate emerges. Is Schmidt’s geoengineering scheme the best step to take? What will happen to global weather patterns with all this sulfur in the air? Will other countries choose to build their own guns or try to put a stop to Schmidt’s actions? Stephenson’s latest novel clocks in at more than 700 pages, and as usual they practically turn themselves as the multiple storylines twist together. This book is the rare climate thriller that’s realistic about political stonewalling in the face of disaster yet unafraid to imagine a possible future where people might actually come together and try to save civilization.
The kind of climate-change fiction we all need.
TRASHLANDS
Stine, Alison Harlequin MIRA (384 pp.) $27.99 | Oct. 26, 2021 978-0-778-31127-0
A trash scavenger and a strip club dancer form an alliance of necessity in a post-apocalyptic junkyard. Trashlands is both a massive garbage dump where Coral collects plastic— which has replaced cash as currency— and a strip club where Foxy performs on stage and sells tattoos to men whose names are inked on her body. Coral’s plastic makes its way to Dickensian factories where enslaved children remanufacture it into bricks, which are used to replace buildings damaged by severe sea-level rise and flooding. One of the workers is Coral’s moody son, Shanghai, whom she’s desperate to locate and buy out of the factory. Trashlands’ proprietor, Rattlesnake Master, operates the place as a predatory company store and is determined to showcase Coral on his stage. Recollections of how Coral and others came to be trapped in Trashlands are interwoven with episodes of their challenging day-to-day lives. A love match between Mr. Fall, Coral’s father figure, and Summer, a club dancer who lives in a food truck, provides a mature perspective. Coincidental meetings, a random act of violence, and unresolved plot points make the ending less satisfying than the rest of Stine’s engrossing story.
A nicely balanced blend of dystopian tragedy, love, and hope.
