(not sure if this would be GD-fodder, but it’s about a book, so I put it here)
Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling is a near-future cyberpunky book , about an outfit of stormchasers (think Twister meets William Gibson), and is set in an America made almost Mad-Maxian post-apocalyptic by the effects of out-of-control weather. The whole piece really lets you know that the protagonists live in a world profoundly shaped by runaway weather - from clothes to law, technology to societal structure, everything is slightly skewed from the normal near-future picture.
I want to know if anyone else has read it, and if so, has recent weather events reminded you of the book, the way they have for me? Do you think a hurricane of the scale of an “F6” (A safir-simpson 6, if you will) would be possible? Likely, even?
Do you think the societal changes Gibson envisions are plausible? I’m not saying inevitable, but possible?
I really liked the book, even if the ending is a bit of a let-down.
Well, first of all, it was a tornado that went F6 at the end of the book.
Secondly, it seemed to me like the movie Twister was a direct ripoff of the book, point by point for the plot, except for the whole Force Six armageddon deal.
Thirdly, I remember enjoying the book, but for the life of me can’t remember the speculative sociological points. Perhaps you can refresh us.
Finally, the atmospheric science at the end I found extremely suspect… it seemed extraordinarly unlikely that that sort of condition could be permanent, much less stable for longer than a hour or so. But it made for the necessary dramatic tension, I guess.
But if you liked that novel, I suggest you try reading Zodiac, another “eco thriller” and Distraction. Both very entertaining. And even better are his short stories collected in A Good Old Fashioned Future.
John Barnes’ Mother of Storms is a disaster novel about global hurricanes with supersonic* windspeeds that come close to destroying humanity.
I found the book to be too dull to read so I can’t remember how plausible the science was, although Barnes is certainly well known for his hard sf books. But you’ll never read a book with bigger hurricanes on earth. This is the limit.
Amazon quotes the review from Publishers Weekly, which contain this priceless bit of illiteracy:
I haven’t read Heavy Weather either, although I’m a big fan of Sterling’s and consider him to be the best writer of true science fiction working today.
The notion of weather being so bad that refugee camps are set up in the US, where some affected people are so dependent on the govt. that they wear govt. issue paper clothes and eat govt. issue granola. The breakdown of law (Texas Rangers basically a law unto themselves). Cutting edge science being done by maverick scientists and spread via the 'net in organised blogs. The whole “structure hitting” thing, the cases of “storm junkies” who like being in refugee camps - all of that.
Mars has planet-wide sandstorms that completely rearrange some surface features, Jupiter’s Red Spot has been permanent for as long as we know…I think it takes very little additional energy to push a sytem to a new equilibrium, chaos being what it is. I’m sure it’d take more than we already have put in, but Sterling is postulating a future where current trends WRT global warming have continued, not the status quo.
Just wanted to chip in that I’ve read this too (but yonks ago so the plot is a bit hazy). I like the odd bits of technology he throws in, like the car(?) with self-adjusting tyres, and the little aircraft they fly into the tornadoes.
I have a copy sitting on a shelf, maybe I’ll re-read it at some point. But I have a whole bunch of Neal Stephenson to catch up with first.
Second what bughunter says about Zodiac and Confusion. IIRC Zodiac is set in the present and is pretty realistic on the science. Confusion initially (to me) seemed to be a political novel it took a while for the SF aspect to kick in.
BTW did you know Gibson and Sterling co-wrote The Difference Engine? Another cracking read.
S. Clanger. Who also has a copy of Involution Ocean
This, I knew, and I will track it down now that the VicFic/steampunk bug has bit with Tim Powers’ Anubis Gates and The Stress of Her Regard, and Mieville’s Bas Lag stuff. Must have more Steampunk!
Well, let’s say that it sounds plausible enough to make it a fun read. But like most Stephenson, he gets hold of an interesting idea and pushes it to an extreme without regard for, oh, basic concepts like conservation of energy.
In other words, Zodiac is a great read, just don’t trust his understanding of biochemistry and what’s possible.
