Solarpunk discussion

It’s a big deal when an author so lauded steps into our wheelhouse and we honor him by being among the first to read his tome!

A visionary technothriller about climate change.

Neal Stephenson’s 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?

Audiobook preordered!

Stephenson isn't totally new to ecofic - I have a soft spot for 1988's Zodiac.

Wow, that’s a long one. But it sounds interesting.

I’ve lost track - is this already as one of monthly books? Is it this month? (What day is it? Who’s the prime minister?)

This comes out tomorrow and we start it tomorrow!

My library copy released earlier than I thought it would! I may make a start tonight, this thing is quite a beast.

Also Adam it's currently Febayvember, aka Covid month, which is unceasing and relentless. As for Prime Minister, here's a list so you can pick a favourite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

I think my pick has to be Mia Mottley - she sounds like she'd fit right in here :)

Of course! I should have remembered the old rhyme.

Twelve weeks hath Febayvember
Morgust, Tharch, and Dismember

I love it!

And now its Dismember that's the cruelest month :D

First chapter got me a decent way through the book, and it didn't feel anywhere near as many pages as it was - a great start!

The Dutch have landed in Texas, we've caught up a bit with what seems to be the near future, and I've gained a LOT of boar and boar-hunting knowledge.

I also made it through the first Texas chapters. It can be fun to read about your own backyard, but it was also suffocating. This summer wasn’t as hot as usual but it’s mid November and still in the mid 80s. The author well describes the unrelenting tribulations caused by the collision of heat and generations of bad ideas.

I finished the subsequent Louisiana section - I’m loving the quietly determined and confident Queen and can’t wait to hear what the ax to the roof of the world might be. The COVID App described feels very iPhone, very real. The book reminded me of New York 2140 in all the best ways, we could be on the same timeline!

I’ve started … glad to be along for the ride.

🎉🎉👍🏻

So the last Stephenson book I read was Quicksilver, some years ago, and I am mildly disoriented to see his interest in heterodox Dutch aristocrats is seemingly unabated.

I’ve made it to the meeting in Houston. I’ll pick it up in the next few days to find out what the ax is! Maybe the Queen will get some D!

I've just started listening to the audiobook, 10% in or something like it. So far I think it's an interesting story, but perhaps the back stories are a little too detailed at times.

I’m deep into a Houston BBQ and it’s making me too hungry to continue for the day, lol. I decided to share some casting, hopefully you guys can weigh in or help me out with the rest.

Frederika Mathilde Louisa Saskia - Rebecca Ferguson

Rufus Grant - Will Smith

T.R. Schmidt - Dennis Quaid

Mrs. Schmidt - Christine Baranski

Willem - Adrian Pang

TR - Woody Harrelson

Oh man, proper Texan BBQ is absolutely on my bucket list.

Love Rebecca Ferguson for Saskia! Has anyone seen Doctor Sleep? I thought she was absolutely great (and I had Evan Rachel Wood in my head for her part).

100% on Dennis Quaid for T.R., too (especially given that impish descriptor), but I think I'd sub in Kelly Rowan for Veronica.

For Rufus I'd probably nominate Michael Ealy - I've never gotten over his turn in Almost Human, and I think he could bring the melancholy for Rufus.

Maybe Micheal Miu for Willem? It's depressingly hard finding an older multiracial actor.

For Rufus (I couldn't resist) Alex Pettyfer back in the long haired days.

I love that we have a Sikh character, Laks - there's not many religious groups I think bring positivity into the world but they absolutely do. His was a short chapter but I'm looking forward to seeing more.

The tea meeting between Willem and the Chinese diplomat was the kind of absurd-but-actually-ominous powerplay of superficial politeness and veiled meanings that makes spy stories fun.

Heh, vitamin D. Heterodox Dutch royalty is a pretty niche quirk for an author, but I really like this character, so it's working for him :D

There is a lot of detail in places here, and I can see an author without the name recognition having to trim it. We just got a half page explanation of a one line joke, for example - it's good to have the context, but it's definitely contributing to the size of this thing.

I liked the "we gotta terraform Earth before we get distracted by Mars" - excellent point. Even if in space there are no labour laws and so it's currently more appealing to some.

I've left off for now just after we've been introduced to the industrial farts. I am so intrigued to see where they're going with this!

Adam wrote: "Willem - Adrian Pang

TR - Woody Harrelson"

Nice, I can see both working!

Thanks for the Willem suggestions guys, I was drawing a blank. Pretty much everyone who doesn’t get a “thoughtful” casting turns into a marvel actor in my mind. They are just there and glossy. Like Fena is Gemma Chang though I don’t remember if she was described as classical Dutch or mixed. Ealy is a better choice as he is suppose to be colorfully mixed, and yes, that actor can bring the emotion! Did anyone else see Fabio as the Venetian? I had a short period where I read one of his pirate books and found some “lift”.

I haven’t gotten there yet but a thousand yesses on focusing on earth before Mars, or the moon, or space tourism.

I think you did not mean to name Rufus twice Fiona, lol. Though I already misplaced that “fuckable” young Marvel guys name.

Ah, Jules?

Ahh good catch, yep that was meant to be Jules!

Love the idea of Fabio as the venetian - did you ever see his spot on ANTM? He's actually pretty charming (or acts well, who knows).

Just looked at a bunch of those photos, gorgeous! His covers were my first romance novels. He gets this strangely bad wrap from an American saying show where the winner was dumped in the finale for revealing she had once dated Fabio: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...

Not for nothing but Fabio and I share the same birthday if not year.

I think he took a lot of flak as a symbol of romance novels that was more intended for them - from what I've seen, he's a pretty nice guy (with fantastic hair).

Very cool on the birthday sharing! I share mine with Barbara Streisand and Shirley MacLaine, so bringing much less great hair energy but plenty of spicy grandma vibes. Time will tell if I can age as gracefully!

Nice, spicy grandma vibes!

SNAPAROUND!

Monica Bellucci is definitely sexy aunt Cornelia!

I wonder how this odd Fellowship of the Sikh thread will weave into the story.

If you are curious about the Venetian Flood defense system: https://youtu.be/b9_QDqpXCE0

Snaparound! It’s strange politics afoot!

Lena wrote: "If you are curious about the Venetian Flood defense system: https://youtu.be/b9_QDqpXCE0"

That was great, thank you! I can see the point of the characters in the book though - humans and their systems are fallible, and as many workarounds as we present, the actual solution would be to stop the ocean levels rising.

I am so intrigued to see where Laks' storyline is heading!

Absolutely fascinated by the fact that the Line of Actual Control is a real thing, as is the lack of shots fired there (so far). There have been clashes, even deaths, but no shots fired since 1975.

Snaparound!

Ok, your turn to find a video on that. I will watch it gladly tomorrow because I was lost during that section - it was videogamy.

I tried to find one, but there's absolutely nothing from China on it, and mostly non-English videos from the Indian side - very little has made it out of the area and into Western media.

This article was a good one though: https://www.thehindu.com/news/interna...

And this one addresses the lack of ballistic warfare: https://www.google.com/amp/s/indianex...

I think that latter fact is what Neal Stephenson has then extrapolated into his near future setting as much more conflict, but minus the guns.

There were sticks-and-stones clashes at the LAC in 2020-21 - including casualties. The escalation into “performative war” is one pretty plausible trajectory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2...

Pangong Tso does look weird and stunning

http://www.thelandofsnows.com/pangong...

That does look gorgeous, and completely agree that the escalation seems a pretty natural one. Neal Stephenson's got a pretty good track record with predictions too, I understand - really need to get around to Snow Crash.

Just got hit with the deep fake, that might be the creepiest and most dangerous non-lethal thing in tech today. I stopped at 8 Months Later, it was too sudden.

I have been reading a little everyday. I’m around 70% in and and a little worried about India’s new Universal Soldier program.

I ended up gulping this one down. I enjoyed it more than it quite deserves, I think, just because it overlaps with my own preoccupations. But I did really enjoy it. Will hold off other comments until more have finished.

…we have insurance. And when you have spent as much as I have cumulative on insurance nothing brings greater satisfaction than to lay a horrific claim on your insurer.

Omg I laughed! So freaking true.

Finished! I wish the action scenes had lasted as long as the innuendo explanations but i loved it. I wish I had a kindle copy for all the quotes I laughed at or thought were on the money. Stephenson read much like KSR only sexier with less rant.

“It was one of those insane statistics about America that had once made the United States seem like an omnipotent hyperpower and now made it seem like a beached whale.”

All of those!

Adam wrote: "“It was one of those insane statistics about America that had once made the United States seem like an omnipotent hyperpower and now made it seem like a beached whale.”"

I just read that passage yesterday -- had a late start because I just moved to Cedar Creek on a rural property outside of Austin. Talk about interesting timing -- my septic inspector warned me about fire ants being attracted to the frequencies of the electronics of air conditioners and the septic system. And I learned my neighbor had killed several wild boar in the past few years, including one that's 450 lbs. As usual, Stephenson has done his research.

He's been one of my favorite authors since Snow Crash and especially The Diamond Age. Starting with Cryptonomicon, he's had a tendency to get lost in the weeds of all his detailed research, and wouldn't mind if he had a more aggressive editor. So far though it's moving at a pretty decent pace along the lines of Reamde. Either way the books are always rewarding, looking forward to digging in during my time off!

Woohoo another Texan that gets the strange pain! Welcome!

"..,truck stop/gas stations designed around the slogan “Never Less Than a Hundred!” meaning—as every motorist in Texas understood—that the smallest T.R. Mick’s Mobility Center had a hundred fuel pumps."

This sounds like Buc-ee's. A friend was just telling me about them, but haven't been yet. Sounds like I need to check out the one in Bastrop.

"Rufus: low drag and, the more she saw of him, extraordinarily high lift. But it would never cross the poor man’s mind in a million years and so she would have to slip a Xanax into his Shiner Bock and then throw herself at him."

Regarding Saskia coldly assessing dateability of the men in her circle in aeronautic terms of "drag/lift" is so Stephenson. His characters attempt valiantly to behave like normal humans, but really just want to info dump everything they know about various esoteric topics. It's kind of endearing.

Finished! And it really did pull everything together in the end - watching the pieces fall into place was super satisfying.

I do definitely agree that there could have been much more in the way of editing - what was given attention to was sometimes more than I needed, or less (view spoiler)[in the case of certain Dutch monarchy shuffles, which happened entirely off-page (hide spoiler)]. There was a lot of sadness to that ending too, but it's one of those books that'll get people talking, and honestly that's the most important thing.

Thank you so much for an awesome discussion too, it's been a really good one!

Woohoo, glad you liked it! You’re right, it should get people talking. I do stand with the wild Texan, better to get a move on and try something.

This sounds like Buc-ee's. You are right Fast! If you are unfamiliar with this Texas chain here is one of the many videos on the subject: https://youtu.be/a6vYriKICNU
I have that red oversized travel mug in my cupboard.