The Weathermakers

by Ben Bova

Signet / New American Library, 1973. First paperback edition, reprints the 1967 hardcover edition. This is a novel in the author's Kinsman series, which also includes Kinsman (1979), and Millennium (1976).

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

175 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Ben Bova was born on November 8, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1953, while attending Temple University, he married Rosa Cucinotta, they had a son and a daughter. He would later divorce Rosa in 1974. In that same year he married Barbara Berson Rose.

Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.

Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.

In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.

In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".

Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.

Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.

Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.

Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).

Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".

http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel, although never directly marketed as a YA novel, definitely is one. Nevertheless, it is still reasonably enjoyable. Set in the future by fifty or perhaps a hundred years, the protagonist is a wealthy business tycoon's son that gets placed in charge of the company's weather control division. There he meets a young scientist obsessed with controlling weather through cloud seeding and satellite lasers. The problem he decides to take on is stopping hurricanes coming out of the West Indies from hitting the U.S. There are political and personal obstacles to overcome and Bova does a good job of building suspense for these.

My only real problem with the novel, aside from feeling like I'm not its intended audience since I'm no longer adequately young, is that I'm not that interested in the weather. I've noticed many people of Bova's generation find weather endlessly fascinating. Many watch the weather channel all day. Me? I don’t care. I’m going to be inside somewhere regardless.

Incidentally, ISFDB does some rather confusing things with this story. First they list the novel version as the second installment of the Kinsman series. I’ve read the first, a delightful short story titled “Test in Orbit” that appeared in the September 1965 issue of Analog. It featured protagonist Captain Kinsman dueling a Russian cosmonaut on an unidentified satellite. “Test in Orbit” is certainly the earliest written entry of the series, but I see no reason to consider The Weathermakers as in the series. None of the characters overlap, and the situations, setting, and tone are completely different. I believe The Weathermakers is a standalone.

Also confusing the issue is that Ben Bova published a short story version of “The Weathermakers” for the December 1966 issue of Analog. The novel came out in January 1967. This causes ISFDB to speculate that the short story, or novelette version, is the following: “Excerpt from the novel of the same name published soon afterward, as noted in its first appearance. Some sources (including Tuck) give the novel as an expansion of this novelette.” Having read both versions it is clear to me that Bova wrote the novel in 1966. The novel was due to come out in January 1967, but Bova decided to make more money off the idea first, so he rewrote the novel as a short story for slightly earlier publication in Analog. The short story is taken mostly from the last quarter of the novel. The characters and some background information gets added in as needed for the short story to make sense. Half the short story version is thus a rewrite in order to present the situation and the characters. The other half of the short story version comes verbatim almost word for word from the soon-to-be-published book. The short story version is based on the novel, an unusual inversion of normal practice by pulp writers.

This novel, Bova’s third after The Star Conquerors (1959) and Star Watchman (1962), reveals a schism. Bova is writing novels for a YA audience, but short stories for a more mature audience. It’s clearly a still primitive Bova who wrote this novel. For people who like studying weather, climate, or environmental science, and who have tolerance for a YA approach, this novel is highly recommended.

[Braden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great reading experience, but not necessarily because the book was so good. I bought a copy of this book at the library's store while visiting my grandma around Christmas time for $1, and it's such a cool looking book. The cover is really cool, and it's this old paper that smells just like the Narnia books my family had when I was a kid. I don't know why these things spoke so much to me, but honestly that's 70% of why I enjoyed it.

As for the plot/style/writing of the book, I really enjoyed the author's vision of what the future would look like (written in the 60's) and the technology that came with it. There were a few things that were well-predicted: pocket cell phones with video calls and cloud seeding. Others were kind of funny: manned military satellites, needing to use a switchboard to make your phone calls, commercial rocket flights to get across the country.

All told, it was a fun, entertaining story. Recommend!

Age range: 13+
If you can handle the scientific jargon, you can read this book. Nothing inappropriate.

[Enrico · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sort of a sad story -- no rocket ship travel for us -- no weather prediction 4 weeks in advance, and
weather changing. It seems to me that this was not really spot on -- science wise.

[John Loyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thornton Aerospace has some dredging operations off of Hawaii that have been put behind schedule because of storms. Jerry Thorn is sent to the Weather bureau in Boston to ask them to modify the weather. Of course, that’s impossible, what they can do is give them forecasts immediately as they’re prepared. But hold on a minute, Jerry meets Ted who is tinkering with ideas of how this can be done. It starts by using his model to get a much more detailed, further out and reliable forecast.

Ted tests a weather modification idea, it works, but it also gets him fired. Jerry has the idea of starting a weather prediction company. His dad and uncles kick in the money to get it started and put Jerry in charge. They’ll fund it for a year predicting the company will fold. It’s now up to Jerry to see that it doesn’t.

There’s intrigue with Rossman, the head of the Weather Bureau, having a chip on his shoulder when it comes to Ted, because of that with Jerry’s company, Aeolus. Rossman is trying to block all their efforts at weather control. Once we get to the weather control being real, the military jumps in wanting to take over. Starting with security checks and kicking out a couple of Ted’s closest colleagues because they aren’t Americans.

Mildly interesting intrigue. The premise of weather control sounds great, but also sounds like it has drawbacks. It seems like Aeolus could have taken out patents on their ideas and licensed it rather than having to fight to keep their business from being usurped. 3.4 stars, because I couldn’t fully get behind the premise.

[David Lankshear · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great work, involving not just the cutting edge of climate science for its day, but a well rounded knowledge of scientific process, historical curiosities, and general knowledge. If only the world had listened in time!

[Robert (NurseBob) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty standard soft sci-fi story that follows the typical arc: young genius with a dream overcomes bureaucratic roadblocks just in the nick of time...and of course there's a girl involved. But I like Ben Bova's easy reading style and the story is short enough to keep your attention.

[Elena Vishnevskaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Перечитываю второй раз.
Моя книга 1981 года издания.
Рекомендую как лёгкое чтение.

[Robertj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't mess with mother Nature

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was really good, about a future where humans are gaining control of the weather. And misusing the knowledge, of course.

[Fred Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I realized I had read this book about 10 years ago.

Bova likes to write stories about the environment and this is one of his good ones

Recommended book, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Author