He coined the word ‘Metaverse’, advised Jeff Bezos’s spaceflight company Blue Origin, and imagined the birth of cryptocurrency back in 1999. Now the legendary speculative fiction author turns his attention to the climate crisis.
‘Sometimes when you’re reading Neal Stephenson, he doesn’t just seem like one of the best novelists writing in English right now; he seems like the only one.’ – TIME magazine
Many speculative novelists attempt to predict the future: few inspire an entire generation of entrepreneurs and scientists to turn their vision into a reality. When Neal Stephenson wrote his seminal masterpiece Crash in 1991 the digital age had barely begun, but soon its vision of a persistent online world where anything is possible became a Silicon Valley manifesto.
With fans including Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, and Peter Thiel, no living fiction author has more influence among the elite technologists shaping our world. His ideas inspired Google Earth, Second Life and the Xbox, and Mark Zuckerberg renamed Facebook after Stephenson’s concept of the Metaverse, dedicating his company to the mission of creating a future inspired by Stephenson’s speculative vision.
Now this legendary author and thinker turns his attention to the climate crisis. His sweeping, prescient new novel transports readers to a near-future world where the greenhouse effect has inexorably resulted in a whirling-dervish troposphere of superstorms, rising sea levels, global flooding, merciless heat waves, and virulent, deadly pandemics.
One man has a Big Idea for reversing global warming, a master plan perhaps best described as “elemental.” But will it work? And just as important, what are the consequences for the planet and all of humanity should it be applied?
In conversation with comedian and broadcaster Robin Ince, Neal Stephenson will sound a clarion alarm, ponder potential climate solutions and dire risks, and share his insights into the future of life on earth.
Praise for Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock:
‘Stephenson’s reputation as a sci-fi titan is deserved’ Sunday Times
‘His most visionary, and timely, book yet’ Chicago Review of Books
‘Absorbing speculative fiction’ Guardian
‘Brilliantly entertaining… at science fiction’s cutting edge’ SFX
‘Ingenious and sometimes prophetic’ Telegraph
