That was one of the longest reads i had in the recent years as i started this book in October last year (~10 months). It is a huge novel, of course. But main reason for long read time was that it was so tedious and boring. Usually, i don’t throw away books if i don’t like something and try to complete no matter what. And this one was not even close to some of the worst books i have read. But it was not great. I liked his “Seveneves” (although last 1/4th of the book was underwhelming), i remember reading it at night not being able to put it away. Didn’t happen with Termination Shock. Usually i would read books during breaks at work or waiting for a lunch, sometimes during commute to work and back. This is on average probably 15 minutes a day. And i didn’t have a desire to read it more, so year, 10 months it is. After some time i got used to the style and pace of it and to the characters and eventually liked some of them. But man, in the beginning it was rough. It is a big book and so often not much interesting things are happening. People are driving/going somewhere and it seems like you are actually going along with them by the amount of pages you have to read. Then they are also talking about some politics that are often too vague and cryptic. Why do we have to learn about every political figure presented in this book, about their looks and hobbies? Why so many side stories about history of some families when it doesn’t add much to the story? It feels like every event or story in this book can be trimmed a lot or skipped altogether to make it a more engaging book overall. Story itself is somewhat interesting. What would happen if we try to alter the climate on a bigger scale actively. But it only covers a few years and it is not something like “in a few decades Earth turned into Ice Age planet”. It is more grounded and realistic, i guess. But it is also boring. The ending was also open ended and vague. So, in conclusion, a few interesting ideas and lets say interesting imagining on climate state in the near future (books finished in 2021), a few likable characters and too long of a book. 5/10