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La Mère des tempêtes
Un début de guerre nucléaire libère dans l'atmosphère d'immenses volumes de méthane enfoui sous les fonds marins polaires. Or le méthane est un gaz à effet de serre. Il va faire chaud, partout sur la planète déjà torride, l'été prochain, en 2028. Des ouragans gigantesques vont parcourir les océans, se transformer en tornades au-dessus des continents, faire naître des vents supersoniques et soulever des marées de tempête de cent mètres de haut. Et autant de passions humaines, de l'amour à la panique. John Barnes réunit, dans ce somptueux roman-catastrophe, une science approfondie de la météorologie et de l'écologie, un sens aigu du suspense et un talent impressionnant qui lui permet de dresser le tableau d'une planète entière balayée par la mère des tempêtes. Au-delà d'une fiction, Barnes nous prévient de ce qui nous attend, sur une Terre déjà menacée par le réchauffement planétaire.
701 pages, Pocket Book
First published January 1, 1994
33 people are currently reading
1223 people want to read
About the author
John Barnes
259 books198 followersJohn Barnes (born 1957) is an American science fiction author, whose stories often explore questions of individual moral responsibility within a larger social context. Social criticism is woven throughout his plots. The four novels in his Thousand Cultures series pose serious questions about the effects of globalization on isolated societies. Barnes holds a doctorate in theatre and for several years taught in Colorado, where he still lives.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bar...
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bar...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
June 7, 2017
I first read this back in the 90s when it was new and quite speculative, and called it one of my favorites for over a decade.
Massive amounts of methane are released from under the ice, causing the global temperature to rise. Sonic hurricanes form over oceans just warm enough that they never dissipate; looping around, over and over, spawning children that grow just as fast.
Layered over top a cyberpunk existence of VR living (and dying), self driving cars and snippet journalism, it seemed pretty far fetched back then. Yet again and again my mind goes back to this novel, especially the part where the hurricane made it as far as Seattle. And now we have those self driving cars, the rapidly arriving VR and a recent weekend forecast that had us bracing for Typhoon Songda.
Is this a subtle novel? No. Is their near-future our almost-present? Not entirely. But it will absolutely make you think, and just enough is coming true to make it quite timely for a 20+ year old book.
Massive amounts of methane are released from under the ice, causing the global temperature to rise. Sonic hurricanes form over oceans just warm enough that they never dissipate; looping around, over and over, spawning children that grow just as fast.
Layered over top a cyberpunk existence of VR living (and dying), self driving cars and snippet journalism, it seemed pretty far fetched back then. Yet again and again my mind goes back to this novel, especially the part where the hurricane made it as far as Seattle. And now we have those self driving cars, the rapidly arriving VR and a recent weekend forecast that had us bracing for Typhoon Songda.
Is this a subtle novel? No. Is their near-future our almost-present? Not entirely. But it will absolutely make you think, and just enough is coming true to make it quite timely for a 20+ year old book.
October 27, 2012
This book is crazy, disgusting society mixed together with incredibly well-researched meteorology. You wouldn't think that would make a good novel, but I couldn't put it down, and re-read it often.
I've read quite a few of Barnes' novels, and he clearly is very serious about his research. Mother of Storms has (as far as I as a layperson can tell) an incredible level of detail and accuracy in the science. Every plot point is backed up with huge amounts of science info-dump that somehow manages to be both useful and fascinating. He makes the process of hurricane creation in the Pacific into something foreboding, frightening, and exciting.
His people - especially in this particular society - are likeable, flawed, and deeply deranged on some level. These are people who have grown up in a society where random gang rapes are broadcast on a media system called XV, where the viewers can hear, see, and feel everything the person is feeling. This is only mildly creepy to them, but this is also clearly a case of unreliable narrator - you're supposed to see this and be horrified by it, even though the characters are numbed to it. One character, an XV star of a "news" program, has been modified to look more like a Barbie than Barbie, and even though the world loves what she looks like, it's hard to look past things like a surgically implanted mesh that keeps her tummy flat and ligaments added to keep her ridiculously large implants perky. Internally, she's one of the most sympathetic characters - an actress who just happened to make it big and loves to re-read The Hobbit to relax.
This book always makes me think. It helps me reflect on the current state of the world, politically, socially, and especially as relates to climate change. Even how the humanist Singularity vision of uploading human consciousness to computers could happen. It manages to be a very hopeful book, regardless of the dark subject matter.
I've read quite a few of Barnes' novels, and he clearly is very serious about his research. Mother of Storms has (as far as I as a layperson can tell) an incredible level of detail and accuracy in the science. Every plot point is backed up with huge amounts of science info-dump that somehow manages to be both useful and fascinating. He makes the process of hurricane creation in the Pacific into something foreboding, frightening, and exciting.
His people - especially in this particular society - are likeable, flawed, and deeply deranged on some level. These are people who have grown up in a society where random gang rapes are broadcast on a media system called XV, where the viewers can hear, see, and feel everything the person is feeling. This is only mildly creepy to them, but this is also clearly a case of unreliable narrator - you're supposed to see this and be horrified by it, even though the characters are numbed to it. One character, an XV star of a "news" program, has been modified to look more like a Barbie than Barbie, and even though the world loves what she looks like, it's hard to look past things like a surgically implanted mesh that keeps her tummy flat and ligaments added to keep her ridiculously large implants perky. Internally, she's one of the most sympathetic characters - an actress who just happened to make it big and loves to re-read The Hobbit to relax.
This book always makes me think. It helps me reflect on the current state of the world, politically, socially, and especially as relates to climate change. Even how the humanist Singularity vision of uploading human consciousness to computers could happen. It manages to be a very hopeful book, regardless of the dark subject matter.
April 3, 2012
Out of the 3 other end civilization via weather, (Lucifer's Hammer-
Niven/Pournelle, Psychlone-Bear, Heavy Weather-Sterling) this one
takes the cake. Brushing into a handful of peoples lives all who are
connected by jobs, media, or relation they are directly affected by
events surrounding the bombing of the artic by the UN. This bomb
dropping not only knocks out the Siberian threat of war, it releases
a big methane gas pocket stuck under the ice causing heat in the
atmosphere and the worlds biggest hurricane ever, over and over.
Everyone likes to plug in with virtual goggles to Passionet and see
whose fucking who in the story of Synthi Venture. She has balloon t &
a from doctors and bruises all over so the emotions of her hard
sexcapades can be broadcasted across the world thru the jack in her
head. People love to watch her scream and fuck, it's the biggest
seller.
She ties in with the govt because her vacation screw (offline) is
related to a weather tracker, who is in contact with Carla submarine
yacht weather wiz. Carla's ex is in space with a drug that will help
him sleep less, get more done, and break down the barriers in his
mind making him think faster. This ex of hers goes a little over the
top getting things done and takes over machines left in space left
and right using spare metal, junk, rock, comet etc. to make a more
bizzare version of himself.
With Passionet there's also other virtual/emotion reality hot sellers
including rape/snuff porn that is highly illegal but much sought
after. People love the extremes of the net. Especially when reporters
are running around watching some messed up situation and you are
looking thru their eyes, it's hot quick cash for the net
stockholders.
The main star is the hurricane though. As people do their usual
things, prepare for the onslaught: make a sandwich, drink, hide in a
basement or whatever people do in emergencies, the hurricane comes in
smashes everything sucks it out to sea and wipes out the traces of
there ever being a personality connected with the smooth leftovers.
Little people in the face of a giant shoe coming down over and over
on their intricately refined, then eliminated lives.
Whereas the other weather disaster world shaking science fiction
books before were speculating on something with finite end results,
this one carries over into the next million 'brain years' of what
humanity can do with new toys. Have I said too much. Too bad, read it
anyways.
This book is great, it goes round and round and ends up here, on a
dirt clod with coastal regions wiped free of everything and cities
flooded up to the neck ready to fall?,... to start over?
Welcome the end friend!! Great read although the ending was really
light, I forgive.
Niven/Pournelle, Psychlone-Bear, Heavy Weather-Sterling) this one
takes the cake. Brushing into a handful of peoples lives all who are
connected by jobs, media, or relation they are directly affected by
events surrounding the bombing of the artic by the UN. This bomb
dropping not only knocks out the Siberian threat of war, it releases
a big methane gas pocket stuck under the ice causing heat in the
atmosphere and the worlds biggest hurricane ever, over and over.
Everyone likes to plug in with virtual goggles to Passionet and see
whose fucking who in the story of Synthi Venture. She has balloon t &
a from doctors and bruises all over so the emotions of her hard
sexcapades can be broadcasted across the world thru the jack in her
head. People love to watch her scream and fuck, it's the biggest
seller.
She ties in with the govt because her vacation screw (offline) is
related to a weather tracker, who is in contact with Carla submarine
yacht weather wiz. Carla's ex is in space with a drug that will help
him sleep less, get more done, and break down the barriers in his
mind making him think faster. This ex of hers goes a little over the
top getting things done and takes over machines left in space left
and right using spare metal, junk, rock, comet etc. to make a more
bizzare version of himself.
With Passionet there's also other virtual/emotion reality hot sellers
including rape/snuff porn that is highly illegal but much sought
after. People love the extremes of the net. Especially when reporters
are running around watching some messed up situation and you are
looking thru their eyes, it's hot quick cash for the net
stockholders.
The main star is the hurricane though. As people do their usual
things, prepare for the onslaught: make a sandwich, drink, hide in a
basement or whatever people do in emergencies, the hurricane comes in
smashes everything sucks it out to sea and wipes out the traces of
there ever being a personality connected with the smooth leftovers.
Little people in the face of a giant shoe coming down over and over
on their intricately refined, then eliminated lives.
Whereas the other weather disaster world shaking science fiction
books before were speculating on something with finite end results,
this one carries over into the next million 'brain years' of what
humanity can do with new toys. Have I said too much. Too bad, read it
anyways.
This book is great, it goes round and round and ends up here, on a
dirt clod with coastal regions wiped free of everything and cities
flooded up to the neck ready to fall?,... to start over?
Welcome the end friend!! Great read although the ending was really
light, I forgive.
abandoned
March 25, 2014Six pages in, I get to read about the bloody and violent rape and murder of a minor girl. Nine pages in, a lovely gentleman refers to a woman as, "some upper-level bitch." "It's gotta be some woman," that gives this prince his "shit assignments." Because obviously a man would see his worth, right? On pages 10-14 I get to read about some sex-obsessed guy fantasizing about sex with his girlfriend. During this time he muses with respect to her, "There's a lot of easier ass in the world."
I'm sorry, that's just too much misogyny before breakfast. Especially in a book that's supposedly about really bad weather.
I'm sorry, that's just too much misogyny before breakfast. Especially in a book that's supposedly about really bad weather.
June 11, 2015
Immense. That's the best word I can think of to describe this story.
At first glance, it's the story of an apocalypse -- a nuclear attack accidentally releases enough methane into the air to cause catastrophic global warming and resulting hurricanes.
But it doesn't take much of a peek beneath the surface to see that this story is a classic scifi lover's utopia. Who are we? Where are we going? What is the nature of humanity? I got all this and more as I slowly grew to realize that the apocalypse in this story is more of a motivating factor than a real theme and that what was happening to Louie and Carla was far, far more interesting.
Going back to the "immense" comment -- this story was told in a true omniscient viewpoint, and though this is not usually my preference, I have to say that it was a good choice for a novel set on such a global scale. I even enjoyed some of the tales that would never be told -- viewpoints that were washed away to see.
Then of course, there's what happened to Louie and Carla. I don't want to say too much for the sake of spoilers, but writing about their experiences is an unenviable task for any mere mortal.
I do have the usual concern that this book will be dated. It's set in 2028 (from a 1995 copyright date) and as with many of my favorite classic authors, he predicted a great deal of advancement that has not and certainly will not come to pass in the next 13 years. Not to mention political realities that seem far-fetched (and honestly would have seemed far-fetched in 1995). I often think scifi needs to cast its dates further afield, if for now other reason so that your work won't be dated in your own lifetime. And if it does become dated in 2195, well, it still stands as a testament to what we thought of the future way back when. In the case of Assimov, Heinlein, and other greats whose predictions have come and gone, I think it does stand as a testament to their own times. I'm concerned that this might be less the case here, especially since there has been so much technological advancement since 1995, just in wildly different ways than predicted. I don't know. Perhaps I should wait until 2028 to make this call -- if I'm still around doing reviews then, someone remind me and I'll update this one. :)
My biggest concern with this story was XV, a technology that allows people to broadcast their thoughts. It takes over journalism the way we know it as people want to experience the news rather than simply see it. Setting aside that our understanding of the human brain is so limited, making this unlikely in the near future, let's assume it happens. I'm just not sure that people will really want to stay plugged in to someone else's thoughts and perceptions all the time. You could argue that people don't often think for themselves all the time and really like others to do their thinking for them, but the word "effectively" needs to go in there somewhere -- because people like to think they're unique and thinking for themselves.
Of course, that's just the sort of debatable "criticism" that makes this a thought-provoking read. Scifi should do that, if it's any good -- get you thinking and maybe disagreeing.
If you're a scifi fan, I really recommend this!
At first glance, it's the story of an apocalypse -- a nuclear attack accidentally releases enough methane into the air to cause catastrophic global warming and resulting hurricanes.
But it doesn't take much of a peek beneath the surface to see that this story is a classic scifi lover's utopia. Who are we? Where are we going? What is the nature of humanity? I got all this and more as I slowly grew to realize that the apocalypse in this story is more of a motivating factor than a real theme and that what was happening to Louie and Carla was far, far more interesting.
Going back to the "immense" comment -- this story was told in a true omniscient viewpoint, and though this is not usually my preference, I have to say that it was a good choice for a novel set on such a global scale. I even enjoyed some of the tales that would never be told -- viewpoints that were washed away to see.
Then of course, there's what happened to Louie and Carla. I don't want to say too much for the sake of spoilers, but writing about their experiences is an unenviable task for any mere mortal.
I do have the usual concern that this book will be dated. It's set in 2028 (from a 1995 copyright date) and as with many of my favorite classic authors, he predicted a great deal of advancement that has not and certainly will not come to pass in the next 13 years. Not to mention political realities that seem far-fetched (and honestly would have seemed far-fetched in 1995). I often think scifi needs to cast its dates further afield, if for now other reason so that your work won't be dated in your own lifetime. And if it does become dated in 2195, well, it still stands as a testament to what we thought of the future way back when. In the case of Assimov, Heinlein, and other greats whose predictions have come and gone, I think it does stand as a testament to their own times. I'm concerned that this might be less the case here, especially since there has been so much technological advancement since 1995, just in wildly different ways than predicted. I don't know. Perhaps I should wait until 2028 to make this call -- if I'm still around doing reviews then, someone remind me and I'll update this one. :)
My biggest concern with this story was XV, a technology that allows people to broadcast their thoughts. It takes over journalism the way we know it as people want to experience the news rather than simply see it. Setting aside that our understanding of the human brain is so limited, making this unlikely in the near future, let's assume it happens. I'm just not sure that people will really want to stay plugged in to someone else's thoughts and perceptions all the time. You could argue that people don't often think for themselves all the time and really like others to do their thinking for them, but the word "effectively" needs to go in there somewhere -- because people like to think they're unique and thinking for themselves.
Of course, that's just the sort of debatable "criticism" that makes this a thought-provoking read. Scifi should do that, if it's any good -- get you thinking and maybe disagreeing.
If you're a scifi fan, I really recommend this!
October 25, 2015
This is the book which introduced me to methane clathrates, and to the importance they could come to have for us all. Darn the luck that in this universe, clathrates are real and thiotimoline and cavorite are fictititous.
The predictions in this book which have aged best are, unfortunately, the ones I would rather had not: the book opens in 2028 with a United Nations raid on an illegal weapons cache which accidentally results in the release of methane from Arctic Ocean clathrates. What we have in 2015 is a United Nations which is as impotent as ever, and the clathrates are giving up their methane without needing any more of a push than our continued burning of fossil fuels.
We don't have full-sensorium television, but Barnes' depiction of television news as ideologically-correct infotainment is far more painfully accurate today than it was in 1994.
We're nowhere near to having minds uploaded to AIs, but the wind speed of hurricanes is indeed increasing. I just hope Barnes was incorrect about the upper limit to wind speed, and that it won't actually be possible for hurricane winds to go faster than sound.
I'm not quite ready to say I'd prefer Barnes' fictional world over our own, but it isn't 2028 yet, and by then, the situation of the characters in this book (or the ones who survive it, anyway) may be entirely enviable compared with our own.
The predictions in this book which have aged best are, unfortunately, the ones I would rather had not: the book opens in 2028 with a United Nations raid on an illegal weapons cache which accidentally results in the release of methane from Arctic Ocean clathrates. What we have in 2015 is a United Nations which is as impotent as ever, and the clathrates are giving up their methane without needing any more of a push than our continued burning of fossil fuels.
We don't have full-sensorium television, but Barnes' depiction of television news as ideologically-correct infotainment is far more painfully accurate today than it was in 1994.
We're nowhere near to having minds uploaded to AIs, but the wind speed of hurricanes is indeed increasing. I just hope Barnes was incorrect about the upper limit to wind speed, and that it won't actually be possible for hurricane winds to go faster than sound.
I'm not quite ready to say I'd prefer Barnes' fictional world over our own, but it isn't 2028 yet, and by then, the situation of the characters in this book (or the ones who survive it, anyway) may be entirely enviable compared with our own.
January 5, 2012
I've had the paperback version since it was released in 1995, and I've re-read it and passed it back and forth to friends so many times in the intervening years, that my copy is quite tattered. This is an excellent read. Well-written characters that you find yourself really rooting for and a fast paced plot that keeps you up til all hours because you just have to find out what happens next. If you like well thought out near-future disaster books with characters you actually care what happens to, and prefer yours to have a satisfying ending that isn't depressing, then pick this one up. You won't be disappointed.
June 14, 2015
A clunky kitchen sink novel about catastrophe, salacious sex, and gritty businessisms contrived only for the sake of getting attention, with no thematic cohesion or style. Lots of bad stuff happens worldwide, but the author isn't able to convey this emotionally or globally. If you want to read a good kitchen sink novel about weather, sex, and grit, skip this and go immediately to River of Gods by Ian McDonald.
February 17, 2017
It took 4 years for me to get through this book. Not a fan. I would only recommend this book to someone I don't like.
September 21, 2020
[Content warning: sexual assault, some explicit sexual language.]
I was deeply disappointed by this book. There's no question it had wide acclaim when it was released. In addition to the Hugo nominee, it was also shortlisted on the Arthur C. Clarke, Locus, and Nebula lists for best novel. But the book is brutal. It's probably lazy to say a book "hasn't aged well," so I'll expand on that a bit. I've noticed something of a trend in novels, especially in the mid 80s through mid 90s, featuring a ton of violence against women. Usually, this is used to establish someone is "really" bad because they commit some heinous act like rape. Barnes takes this to another level. Brutal rape, extremely violent sex, fantasies about rape (one character thinks about how they've fantasized during consensual sex about it being rape instead), getting off to violence intermingled with sex--all these are acts or fantasies that occur about as frequently the science fiction does. These aren't just casual uses of the phrase either, the scenes are often extremely explicit. One violent (consensual-ish) sex scene lasted for several pages, talking about the bruising that happened after, and describing all the acts afterwards as well. All of this was done in excruciating detail. Then, wildly, the characters decide to get to know each other and are nonplussed by their previous sex act.
The novel isn't about any of this, though, it's about a super huge storm touched off by a nuclear explosion and, it seems, a bit of climate change, that builds in detail through the early part of the novel before becoming a major force through the rest as humans--and near humans?--struggle to fight it, or at least endure it. And those parts of the book are absolutely fascinating. Barnes clearly did a ton of research on storms, and it shows. The scenes in which the storm sparks off, seemingly from such innocent winds here, and a bit of methane there, are captivating. It's hard science fiction at its best. And as scientists and some cyborg-like people race to find a solution to the storm, the tension rachets up.
Coupling the two sides of the story, the novel reads: rape-storm-explicit casual sex-storm-fantasy about rape-storm-getting off on violent imagery-storm. I don't think this is an exaggeration as all. There are more than 400 pages of this. It was exhausting. If I were an editor for this, I would have cut basically half the novel out and it would have been a simply fantastic hard sci-fi exploration of a superstorm with some cyberpunk details mixed in. For me, this would have then been at least a 4-star, if not a 5-star read. As it stands, it is a frequently brutal read. I felt dirty after reading it, and I would not consider myself prudish. This was so hugely acclaimed in 1995! Violence against women and sexual violence does not need to be normalized. Full stop.
I was deeply disappointed by this book. There's no question it had wide acclaim when it was released. In addition to the Hugo nominee, it was also shortlisted on the Arthur C. Clarke, Locus, and Nebula lists for best novel. But the book is brutal. It's probably lazy to say a book "hasn't aged well," so I'll expand on that a bit. I've noticed something of a trend in novels, especially in the mid 80s through mid 90s, featuring a ton of violence against women. Usually, this is used to establish someone is "really" bad because they commit some heinous act like rape. Barnes takes this to another level. Brutal rape, extremely violent sex, fantasies about rape (one character thinks about how they've fantasized during consensual sex about it being rape instead), getting off to violence intermingled with sex--all these are acts or fantasies that occur about as frequently the science fiction does. These aren't just casual uses of the phrase either, the scenes are often extremely explicit. One violent (consensual-ish) sex scene lasted for several pages, talking about the bruising that happened after, and describing all the acts afterwards as well. All of this was done in excruciating detail. Then, wildly, the characters decide to get to know each other and are nonplussed by their previous sex act.
The novel isn't about any of this, though, it's about a super huge storm touched off by a nuclear explosion and, it seems, a bit of climate change, that builds in detail through the early part of the novel before becoming a major force through the rest as humans--and near humans?--struggle to fight it, or at least endure it. And those parts of the book are absolutely fascinating. Barnes clearly did a ton of research on storms, and it shows. The scenes in which the storm sparks off, seemingly from such innocent winds here, and a bit of methane there, are captivating. It's hard science fiction at its best. And as scientists and some cyborg-like people race to find a solution to the storm, the tension rachets up.
Coupling the two sides of the story, the novel reads: rape-storm-explicit casual sex-storm-fantasy about rape-storm-getting off on violent imagery-storm. I don't think this is an exaggeration as all. There are more than 400 pages of this. It was exhausting. If I were an editor for this, I would have cut basically half the novel out and it would have been a simply fantastic hard sci-fi exploration of a superstorm with some cyberpunk details mixed in. For me, this would have then been at least a 4-star, if not a 5-star read. As it stands, it is a frequently brutal read. I felt dirty after reading it, and I would not consider myself prudish. This was so hugely acclaimed in 1995! Violence against women and sexual violence does not need to be normalized. Full stop.
June 17, 2010
So, you're in the mood for some apocalyptic meteorology! Do I have a book for you. An accidental nuclear strike in the Arctic has released millions of tons of methane into the environment, melting the ice of the North Pole and disrupting ocean currents. This causes 200 mph hurricanes which wipe entire Pacific islands down to bare rock and kill millions of people, while a listless population sits glued to their virtual-reality goggles.
It is just... great/awful. Grawful? The content is incredibly interesting, although Barnes really makes you experience the brunt of the years of research he apparently did on his pet topic of disaster climatology. The writing, however, is abysmal. The author keeps introducing tertiary characters out of nowhere, spends several pages writing about them, and then kills them off to prove that one of the protagonists was right about something. It's kind of laughable, but I couldn't stop reading.
I will agree with other reviewers, however, that certain subplots could have been dropped and others spun off into whole other books of their own, especially the Accelerando-esque Carla and Louie storyline.
In terms of his undoubtedly diligent research and sheer informational volume, Barnes almost reminds me of Neal Stephenson... well, that and his sexism. He's just not nearly as good of a writer. Still, this book kept humming along, and I won't deny it was a very engaging read.
It is just... great/awful. Grawful? The content is incredibly interesting, although Barnes really makes you experience the brunt of the years of research he apparently did on his pet topic of disaster climatology. The writing, however, is abysmal. The author keeps introducing tertiary characters out of nowhere, spends several pages writing about them, and then kills them off to prove that one of the protagonists was right about something. It's kind of laughable, but I couldn't stop reading.
I will agree with other reviewers, however, that certain subplots could have been dropped and others spun off into whole other books of their own, especially the Accelerando-esque Carla and Louie storyline.
In terms of his undoubtedly diligent research and sheer informational volume, Barnes almost reminds me of Neal Stephenson... well, that and his sexism. He's just not nearly as good of a writer. Still, this book kept humming along, and I won't deny it was a very engaging read.
May 8, 2019
It's a speculative thriller with hard science meteorology about climate disaster...
I read this at the beach, which was a good way to enhance the experience. The world-building is ace; there are a lot of shifting characters and it takes a bit to find your footing, but once it gets rolling I had no problems following along and did have problems putting it down. The story lost a few points with the very 1990s-naive optimism rose-colored ending, but I get it, we used to believe technology could still save us.
I read this at the beach, which was a good way to enhance the experience. The world-building is ace; there are a lot of shifting characters and it takes a bit to find your footing, but once it gets rolling I had no problems following along and did have problems putting it down. The story lost a few points with the very 1990s-naive optimism rose-colored ending, but I get it, we used to believe technology could still save us.
March 14, 2012
This was a pretty interesting read until the author tried to give us a recipe for saving the world now that Armageddon had been avoided (and, whew, just in the nick of time, we'd already lost billions!) I also liked his view of where the world was heading but I could have done with a lot less contemplation of the navel from outer space.
January 26, 2013
A great novel. When I picked up this book, little was I expecting a man-made disaster novel. However, as always, I was stunned silent by the plot of this masterpiece. Most good books I go through in about 2-3 days. It took me almost all of the summer of 2012 to read it, because I didn't want to rush it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 28, 2019
Not at all what I was expecting - far too much techno-babble for me, gave up after a couple of chapters.
May 23, 2021
The apocalyptic meteorology was well done, the violence and gore seemed gratuitous in places.
Not really climate fiction, more like a horror story with climate thrown in.
Not really climate fiction, more like a horror story with climate thrown in.
October 8, 2008
Ce roman raconte donc comment, en 2028, suite à une attaque des forces de l’ONU contre un dictateur sibérien, des quantités incroyables de méthane ont été relâchées dans l’atmosphère, provoquant la création de cyclones surpuissants à la pelle, ainsi que la destruction de nombreuses villes/nations/personnes, et tout un tas de situations dramatiques propres à réveiller la fibre héroïque qui someille en chacun de nous.
Bon, j’ai un avis plutôt mitigé sur le bouquin. En effet, il y a de très bonnes choses, mais également un bon paquet de poncifs, et même parfois de fautes dans le récit qui me semblent franchement pénibles dans un roman qui se veut d’une certaine ampleur. Parmi les bonnes choses, je citerai Louie et Carla, qui un peu comme dans l’énigme de l’univers, se retrouvent incarnés dans un esprit plus grand, de leur volonté ou non, et qui en deviennent des plus qu’humains, mais moins que dieux, ce qui leur donne une situation de grands frère que personnellement, j’envie assez. Ce qui est tout à fait normal, puisqu’ils se retrouvent à la place de l’humain qui a atteint le rêve de l’immortalité, associé à une certaine forme d’omnipotence. Car c’est bien de cela qu’il s’agit, dans un monde dirigé par l’informatique, que peut faire un pur esprit vivant dans un réseau informatique ? Beaucoup plus qu’un être de chair et de sang.
L’autre chose intéressante, c’est bien sûr le côté scientifique assez pointu, qui fait toujours pour moi une part assez importante du récit. Ca m’aide à pardonner beaucoup, et je suis ici servi, dans la vision futuriste, par de nombreux aspects assez intéressants. Qu’il s’agisse des voitures qui se conduisent elles-mêmes, et sont en fait de véritables mobile-homes, qu’il s’agisse également des ziplines, des avions automatiques, en bref de tous les moyens de transport, il y a une vraie vision (de laquelle, comme d’habitude, internet ne joue qu’un rôle très marginal). Cependant, ces quelques qualités ne suffisent pas à compenser une très piètre écriture qui gâche toute la vision. Je trouve ainsi déplorable cette habitude, probablement inspirée par Brunner (qui maitrise parfaitement ce style, lui), de couper le récit en nombreux fragments réputés parallèles, mais hélas fort peu connexes(1). Un autre défaut est cette tendance à vouloir que le futur soit forcément dirigé par une sexualité omniprésente, qui dirige toutes les activités et transforme les acteurs en porno-stars. Je trouve ça franchement déprimant, de se dire qu’avec une civilisation pouvant remonter assez loin, la seule chose qui puisse intéresser les gens est l’exposition grossière et franchement pénible de sexes érigés, tels les piliers de la renommée. En même temps, tout cela vient de la XV, un autre des poncifs du genre qu’est la réalité partagée, mais qui donne ici lieu à quelques initiatves intéressantes : les porno-trash clandestins, dignes des snuff movies, et les reporters ne transmettant aucune information, mais des tonnes de sensations brutes, qui divertissent pas mal. Enfin, j’en ai franchement plus qu’assez de voir ce que l’émergence de l’Europe peut amener comme fantasmes chez les arriérés d’outre-atlantique : on y retrouve systématiquement la même idée totalitaire d’une europe regroupant le stalinisme le plus pur avec des idées dignes d’un Hitler. Projettent-ils donc les idées véhiculées de manière toujours implicite par leur non-mélange ?
(1) notamment dans le cas de ce que j’appelerais des témoins de la destruction, qui ne sont là que pour mourir
Bon, j’ai un avis plutôt mitigé sur le bouquin. En effet, il y a de très bonnes choses, mais également un bon paquet de poncifs, et même parfois de fautes dans le récit qui me semblent franchement pénibles dans un roman qui se veut d’une certaine ampleur. Parmi les bonnes choses, je citerai Louie et Carla, qui un peu comme dans l’énigme de l’univers, se retrouvent incarnés dans un esprit plus grand, de leur volonté ou non, et qui en deviennent des plus qu’humains, mais moins que dieux, ce qui leur donne une situation de grands frère que personnellement, j’envie assez. Ce qui est tout à fait normal, puisqu’ils se retrouvent à la place de l’humain qui a atteint le rêve de l’immortalité, associé à une certaine forme d’omnipotence. Car c’est bien de cela qu’il s’agit, dans un monde dirigé par l’informatique, que peut faire un pur esprit vivant dans un réseau informatique ? Beaucoup plus qu’un être de chair et de sang.
L’autre chose intéressante, c’est bien sûr le côté scientifique assez pointu, qui fait toujours pour moi une part assez importante du récit. Ca m’aide à pardonner beaucoup, et je suis ici servi, dans la vision futuriste, par de nombreux aspects assez intéressants. Qu’il s’agisse des voitures qui se conduisent elles-mêmes, et sont en fait de véritables mobile-homes, qu’il s’agisse également des ziplines, des avions automatiques, en bref de tous les moyens de transport, il y a une vraie vision (de laquelle, comme d’habitude, internet ne joue qu’un rôle très marginal). Cependant, ces quelques qualités ne suffisent pas à compenser une très piètre écriture qui gâche toute la vision. Je trouve ainsi déplorable cette habitude, probablement inspirée par Brunner (qui maitrise parfaitement ce style, lui), de couper le récit en nombreux fragments réputés parallèles, mais hélas fort peu connexes(1). Un autre défaut est cette tendance à vouloir que le futur soit forcément dirigé par une sexualité omniprésente, qui dirige toutes les activités et transforme les acteurs en porno-stars. Je trouve ça franchement déprimant, de se dire qu’avec une civilisation pouvant remonter assez loin, la seule chose qui puisse intéresser les gens est l’exposition grossière et franchement pénible de sexes érigés, tels les piliers de la renommée. En même temps, tout cela vient de la XV, un autre des poncifs du genre qu’est la réalité partagée, mais qui donne ici lieu à quelques initiatves intéressantes : les porno-trash clandestins, dignes des snuff movies, et les reporters ne transmettant aucune information, mais des tonnes de sensations brutes, qui divertissent pas mal. Enfin, j’en ai franchement plus qu’assez de voir ce que l’émergence de l’Europe peut amener comme fantasmes chez les arriérés d’outre-atlantique : on y retrouve systématiquement la même idée totalitaire d’une europe regroupant le stalinisme le plus pur avec des idées dignes d’un Hitler. Projettent-ils donc les idées véhiculées de manière toujours implicite par leur non-mélange ?
(1) notamment dans le cas de ce que j’appelerais des témoins de la destruction, qui ne sont là que pour mourir
August 28, 2014
Barnes is not one of those authors who finds a particular niche within the genre and fills it with novels of a similar style and content. His work includes the Galactic Human Society of ‘A Million Open Doors’ and ‘Earth Made of Glass’, the parallel universes of ‘Finity’ and here, a near-future disaster novel in which a small nuclear explosion in the Arctic releases a huge amount of methane trapped in the polar ice.
The consequence of this is that Hurricanes, of a size and ferocity never before seen, begin to form and head off to terrorise the world.
The background to Barnes’ novel is just as fascinating as he has created a near-future world in which the US is no longer a superpower, the dominant force being the UN. Europe appears to have devolved into some kind of Nazi Federation which has exiled ‘Afropeans’ – European black people – to the rest of the world, but mainly America. The popular form of entertainment which has supplanted ‘flat’ TV is XV, a form of direct sensory experience recorded on wedges.
The action follows various groups of people who are all connected in some way. Di Callare is a meteorological specialist who becomes a government advisor when the crisis erupts. His young brother Jesse gets caught up in the turmoil in Mexico where he meets a vacationing XV porn star, Synthi Venture. Berlina Jamieson, an exiled Afropean, suddenly finds a market for her retro ‘flat’ style of news reporting.
Out in space, Louie Tynan, an American astronaut, is commandeered to report on the hurricanes from his unique vantage point and finds himself infected with a nanovirus which begins to ‘improve’ him, following which he starts to evolve in unexpected and intriguing ways.
The unfortunately named Randy Householder is the distraught father of a teenage girl who was raped and murdered in order to make a snuff XV recording. Randy is determined to find the man who commissioned the recording and discovers that his investigations are taking him rather high up the political ladder.
This is then, no mere disaster novel. In fact, the sequences where the monster hurricanes destroy cities and countries are not that frequent, but are brilliantly, thrillingly written and conceived. Barnes employs the disaster to bring the various story threads together quite convincingly and one never thinks, as is the case with lesser authors, that the coincidences and connections between the characters are too improbable.
Like the hurricane itself, ‘Mother of Storms’ begins slowly and gathers pace to finally rattle along breathlessly to its conclusion.
Arguably Barnes' best novel.
The consequence of this is that Hurricanes, of a size and ferocity never before seen, begin to form and head off to terrorise the world.
The background to Barnes’ novel is just as fascinating as he has created a near-future world in which the US is no longer a superpower, the dominant force being the UN. Europe appears to have devolved into some kind of Nazi Federation which has exiled ‘Afropeans’ – European black people – to the rest of the world, but mainly America. The popular form of entertainment which has supplanted ‘flat’ TV is XV, a form of direct sensory experience recorded on wedges.
The action follows various groups of people who are all connected in some way. Di Callare is a meteorological specialist who becomes a government advisor when the crisis erupts. His young brother Jesse gets caught up in the turmoil in Mexico where he meets a vacationing XV porn star, Synthi Venture. Berlina Jamieson, an exiled Afropean, suddenly finds a market for her retro ‘flat’ style of news reporting.
Out in space, Louie Tynan, an American astronaut, is commandeered to report on the hurricanes from his unique vantage point and finds himself infected with a nanovirus which begins to ‘improve’ him, following which he starts to evolve in unexpected and intriguing ways.
The unfortunately named Randy Householder is the distraught father of a teenage girl who was raped and murdered in order to make a snuff XV recording. Randy is determined to find the man who commissioned the recording and discovers that his investigations are taking him rather high up the political ladder.
This is then, no mere disaster novel. In fact, the sequences where the monster hurricanes destroy cities and countries are not that frequent, but are brilliantly, thrillingly written and conceived. Barnes employs the disaster to bring the various story threads together quite convincingly and one never thinks, as is the case with lesser authors, that the coincidences and connections between the characters are too improbable.
Like the hurricane itself, ‘Mother of Storms’ begins slowly and gathers pace to finally rattle along breathlessly to its conclusion.
Arguably Barnes' best novel.
August 11, 2013
Geweldig! Eindelijk het boek uit!
Om te beginnen had je de teleurstelling dat er een vleug cyberpunk in het boek zit (XV, DATARODENTS, BLA BLA BLA), en dan ook nog eens dat de storm naar mijn smaak veel te veel op de achtergrond wordt gedrukt door de schrijver. En er zijn geen hoofdstukken die het verhaal fatsoenlijk opdelen. En waarom is iedere paragraaf maar een pagina of 2? Met iedere keer een andere situatie en hoofdpersoon (leest heel chaotisch)? Waarom is er zoveel doelloos gezever? Waarom zitten er zoveel elementen in die er niet toe doen? Waarom duurt het zo lang voor er enigszins iets gebeurd waarvoor je het boek hebt gekocht? Waarom is er op een gegeven moment een switch naar sci-fi (wat overigens beter was dan de rest van het boek) Waarom is het einde zo kut?
Waarom heb ik mijn geld hieraan verspild?
Ik had zo een hoge verwachtingen van dit boek... ik keek ernaar uit om een heerlijk disaster boek te lezen (denk Twister, The Day After Tomorrow of zelfs de film 2012) ipv daarvan krijg ik...dit chaotisch stuk vod wat beter dienst zou hebben gedaan als wc papier.
Ik ben de slechtste niet. Ik snap dat een klein gedeelte van mijn haat komt door mijn (niet onrealistische) verwachtingen, dus ik geef het wel 2 hele sterren ipv maar 1.
Ik ga denk ik de beschrijving nog maar 10 keer lezen om daarbij te bedenken wat het had kunnen zijn. De verloren mogelijkheden... Verspilde potentie...
*snif
:+
Om te beginnen had je de teleurstelling dat er een vleug cyberpunk in het boek zit (XV, DATARODENTS, BLA BLA BLA), en dan ook nog eens dat de storm naar mijn smaak veel te veel op de achtergrond wordt gedrukt door de schrijver. En er zijn geen hoofdstukken die het verhaal fatsoenlijk opdelen. En waarom is iedere paragraaf maar een pagina of 2? Met iedere keer een andere situatie en hoofdpersoon (leest heel chaotisch)? Waarom is er zoveel doelloos gezever? Waarom zitten er zoveel elementen in die er niet toe doen? Waarom duurt het zo lang voor er enigszins iets gebeurd waarvoor je het boek hebt gekocht? Waarom is er op een gegeven moment een switch naar sci-fi (wat overigens beter was dan de rest van het boek) Waarom is het einde zo kut?
Waarom heb ik mijn geld hieraan verspild?
Ik had zo een hoge verwachtingen van dit boek... ik keek ernaar uit om een heerlijk disaster boek te lezen (denk Twister, The Day After Tomorrow of zelfs de film 2012) ipv daarvan krijg ik...dit chaotisch stuk vod wat beter dienst zou hebben gedaan als wc papier.
Ik ben de slechtste niet. Ik snap dat een klein gedeelte van mijn haat komt door mijn (niet onrealistische) verwachtingen, dus ik geef het wel 2 hele sterren ipv maar 1.
Ik ga denk ik de beschrijving nog maar 10 keer lezen om daarbij te bedenken wat het had kunnen zijn. De verloren mogelijkheden... Verspilde potentie...
*snif
:+
January 2, 2025
I read this 30 years ago and decided to reread it. It turned out I was right in assuming that the book is still very relevant today. Since the story is taking place in 2028, it can be read as a prediction of what is happening today. In a lot of places, the author was surprisingly close to the truth. Of course, we have (not yet) collapsed clathrate hydrates at the bottom of the oceans by ill-advised use of atomic bombs, leading to a very sudden increase of the atmospheric temperature, but it seems that this was not even necessary, and that just burning a lot of fossil fuels has brought us almost to the point where the events that are described in this book could start any day now. However, there are also a lot of small predictions that are quite close to the mark, for example the way that society might change due to new forms of mass media. The technical details are quite different, but the effects are similar enough. As a convinced european, I found it rather chilling that in the book's alternate history, the political climate in Europe led to a mass eviction of all "afropeans" in the early 21st century. 30 years ago, I felt this was pure nonsense, but now I really hope that such a horror scenario can still be avoided. Apart from all this, I found the book very well written with very interesting characters. The end seemed a little rushed after all the build-up, but for me, this is still an exceptionally good book.
November 12, 2017
This was written in 1994:
"Buildings as tall as forty stories are going over, but the World Trade Center seems to be holding firm." (p.393)
"... and the beautiful Earth is being crapped up by an excess of people--lovely as individuals, towns and cultures, but hideous in such profusion." (p.367)
This is a remarkable book, written by someone with a vaster amount of science understanding than I have. I had trouble following the "funnels" of Louie Tynan's ship, but I could get the gist of it. What I did get out of it is the understanding of methane clathrate and what can happen when (not if) our oceans heat up enough to release it from its ice bed. I hope this doesn't happen before my death (~2028-30), but I worry terribly about what will happen to my two daughters when any of the horrible things that can happen because of our"fucking ourselves away from the table" do happen and begin destroying this planet and every Flora and fauna along with it.
"Buildings as tall as forty stories are going over, but the World Trade Center seems to be holding firm." (p.393)
"... and the beautiful Earth is being crapped up by an excess of people--lovely as individuals, towns and cultures, but hideous in such profusion." (p.367)
This is a remarkable book, written by someone with a vaster amount of science understanding than I have. I had trouble following the "funnels" of Louie Tynan's ship, but I could get the gist of it. What I did get out of it is the understanding of methane clathrate and what can happen when (not if) our oceans heat up enough to release it from its ice bed. I hope this doesn't happen before my death (~2028-30), but I worry terribly about what will happen to my two daughters when any of the horrible things that can happen because of our"fucking ourselves away from the table" do happen and begin destroying this planet and every Flora and fauna along with it.
December 13, 2018
The science/sci-fi aspects of the book centering on the hurricanes and the 'net were interesting and engaging, and I enjoyed being along for the ride despite the rather convenient wrap-up at the end. However, the book suffers from the all too common trope of proving the bad moral character of men through their terrible treatment of women, often centering on extreme sexual violence toward young girls. This takes up an entire side plot that adds nothing to the world or the character development, and as the book progresses, it becomes more and more of a drag on the novel's central idea. I would be unlikely to try another John Barnes work.
September 16, 2022
What a terrible book.
For a 90s fanatsy, it certainly entertains technology and social issues that are relevant today. Self driving cars, climate change and environmentalists, VR (kinda) and wage slaves, the decline of world powers as well as re-emerging of xenophoia...
If only Barnes had enough time to make this book half as long, it might have been worth it. The sexual violence subplot and the steady mention throughout about rape and porn is almost absurd. Maybe that should have been the topic of the book, but somehow the blurb is only about the hurricanes and last 1/10th of the book. The whole book long(!) spiel of horrible rape porn turns out to be totally irrelevant.
For a 90s fanatsy, it certainly entertains technology and social issues that are relevant today. Self driving cars, climate change and environmentalists, VR (kinda) and wage slaves, the decline of world powers as well as re-emerging of xenophoia...
If only Barnes had enough time to make this book half as long, it might have been worth it. The sexual violence subplot and the steady mention throughout about rape and porn is almost absurd. Maybe that should have been the topic of the book, but somehow the blurb is only about the hurricanes and last 1/10th of the book. The whole book long(!) spiel of horrible rape porn turns out to be totally irrelevant.
February 25, 2025
Overall, this book had a pretty interesting concept and decent execution, but there were some issues with pacing during the middle that slowed me down quite a bit. After I pushed through, the climax of the book was well-constructed, somewhat unexpected, and more complex than I had previously given the plot credit for. The quality of the ending certainly brought the score back up after the doldrums in the middle.
Mother of Storms is my first book by John Barnes, an author I wasn't very familiar with to this point. While the book's plot remains primarily focused on several key characters, this book's setting and scope grow to encompass our whole solar system and then some. We get to know an Earth not dissimilar from our current planet, with an imagined geopolitical landscape that only vaguely resembles ours. The characters we meet and get to know slowly become crucial figures in the global and interstellar catastrophe that makes up the bulk of this book. Somebody asked me just today "Mother of Storms; let me guess, it's about.. a storm?" Indeed, this book features a worst-case scenario triggered by politics and shortsightedness that results in the worst hurricane season one could imagine, and the prospect of years more of these brutal conditions. I came to realize, however, that there are several characters who could arguably be considered the Mother of Storms as well at various points. I liked this tie into the title by the author, and liked this even more considering I don't think the title was ever used verbatim in narrative or dialogue throughout the book. This indicates a subtlety by the author that shows at other times in this novel as well, especially in the small details given to the characters and world to emphasize their reality. There are some pretty uncomfortable passages where characters we like do and think some horrible things, and likewise some folks with absolutely deplorable motives doing some wonderful and selfless things. Barnes made it very clear that, to him, humanity is primarily living in the grey areas of morality. He somehow manages to unite this very realistic lens with a sense of optimism about humanity's resilience and goodness. I'm still untangling for myself exactly how he did this, but suffice it to say it felt masterful and subtle, two keywords I would be happy to assign to this author in my first read of his work.
The middle of the book sees our characters dealing with the very worst meteorology has to offer. Whole countries are affected to devastating results I won't ruin for the reader in this review, so I'll try to keep my criticism of the middle portion somewhat vague to avoid spoilage. Firstly, this part of the book moved very slowly with respect to the rest of the book. I had a hard time wanting to pick it up because of this, but also because of another issue I had with this section. The sheer volume of passages where we meet a character just to have him or her (or many, many folks at once) die suddenly, sometimes on the same page we meet. I think I understand this writing mechanic, but I would have to ask Barnes to be sure. I think the idea here is to overwhelm the reader with the scope of death and destruction, horrifying him and driving home the scale of this tragedy. It works, right up until it doesn't. I'm sure there are exceptions, but many of us share a threshold where, if horrible things just keep happening in perpetuity, the shock value starts to diminish, although the visceral horror may remain. It feels almost like a curse word used too often, losing potency over time. This is what I began to feel when I would meet a new character at points in the story that were too late for him or her to get a dedicated story arc. I knew this character was going to die horribly, and the impact had been lost. I think another reason for the horror, which extends to graphic sexual abuse in some cases, was to show us that while Barnes may hold an optimistic view of humanity, he sees a dark underbelly that feels just as human to him. He includes these horrific events as a way to portray to the reader that this is the kind of content his version of our future global culture wants and will watch or pay for. I really hope this vision of the darker aspects of humanity miss the mark, but sometimes it seems like he may have something here, unfortunately. This darkness led both to the realism I picked up on from this book, and the corresponding grittiness.
I had several other very minor issues, for example: Haynes Lamborghini is a silly character name, and "how is it two characters are having a deep conversation in a van by themselves when it's been explained a page before that they don't speak the same language and require a translator?"
In the end, the book went to a destination I didn't expect. It's not so much that there is a twist as a gradual re-aiming of the plot's arrow. At no point is there a big shift where we suddenly expect a different outcome. At the same time, when I got to the end I felt I had been deftly steered there from an expected plot that would've been interesting, but less exceptional than what Barnes presented us with. I hesitate to get into this in any depth at all because it was my favorite aspect of the book and it deserves to be experienced with no expectations. I will just add that as the scope expands, so did my interest in this book. Finally, I am happy to recommend this book to fans of dystopian futures, sci-fi, and even perhaps some of you who lean more towards the cyberpunk settings.
Mother of Storms is my first book by John Barnes, an author I wasn't very familiar with to this point. While the book's plot remains primarily focused on several key characters, this book's setting and scope grow to encompass our whole solar system and then some. We get to know an Earth not dissimilar from our current planet, with an imagined geopolitical landscape that only vaguely resembles ours. The characters we meet and get to know slowly become crucial figures in the global and interstellar catastrophe that makes up the bulk of this book. Somebody asked me just today "Mother of Storms; let me guess, it's about.. a storm?" Indeed, this book features a worst-case scenario triggered by politics and shortsightedness that results in the worst hurricane season one could imagine, and the prospect of years more of these brutal conditions. I came to realize, however, that there are several characters who could arguably be considered the Mother of Storms as well at various points. I liked this tie into the title by the author, and liked this even more considering I don't think the title was ever used verbatim in narrative or dialogue throughout the book. This indicates a subtlety by the author that shows at other times in this novel as well, especially in the small details given to the characters and world to emphasize their reality. There are some pretty uncomfortable passages where characters we like do and think some horrible things, and likewise some folks with absolutely deplorable motives doing some wonderful and selfless things. Barnes made it very clear that, to him, humanity is primarily living in the grey areas of morality. He somehow manages to unite this very realistic lens with a sense of optimism about humanity's resilience and goodness. I'm still untangling for myself exactly how he did this, but suffice it to say it felt masterful and subtle, two keywords I would be happy to assign to this author in my first read of his work.
The middle of the book sees our characters dealing with the very worst meteorology has to offer. Whole countries are affected to devastating results I won't ruin for the reader in this review, so I'll try to keep my criticism of the middle portion somewhat vague to avoid spoilage. Firstly, this part of the book moved very slowly with respect to the rest of the book. I had a hard time wanting to pick it up because of this, but also because of another issue I had with this section. The sheer volume of passages where we meet a character just to have him or her (or many, many folks at once) die suddenly, sometimes on the same page we meet. I think I understand this writing mechanic, but I would have to ask Barnes to be sure. I think the idea here is to overwhelm the reader with the scope of death and destruction, horrifying him and driving home the scale of this tragedy. It works, right up until it doesn't. I'm sure there are exceptions, but many of us share a threshold where, if horrible things just keep happening in perpetuity, the shock value starts to diminish, although the visceral horror may remain. It feels almost like a curse word used too often, losing potency over time. This is what I began to feel when I would meet a new character at points in the story that were too late for him or her to get a dedicated story arc. I knew this character was going to die horribly, and the impact had been lost. I think another reason for the horror, which extends to graphic sexual abuse in some cases, was to show us that while Barnes may hold an optimistic view of humanity, he sees a dark underbelly that feels just as human to him. He includes these horrific events as a way to portray to the reader that this is the kind of content his version of our future global culture wants and will watch or pay for. I really hope this vision of the darker aspects of humanity miss the mark, but sometimes it seems like he may have something here, unfortunately. This darkness led both to the realism I picked up on from this book, and the corresponding grittiness.
I had several other very minor issues, for example: Haynes Lamborghini is a silly character name, and "how is it two characters are having a deep conversation in a van by themselves when it's been explained a page before that they don't speak the same language and require a translator?"
In the end, the book went to a destination I didn't expect. It's not so much that there is a twist as a gradual re-aiming of the plot's arrow. At no point is there a big shift where we suddenly expect a different outcome. At the same time, when I got to the end I felt I had been deftly steered there from an expected plot that would've been interesting, but less exceptional than what Barnes presented us with. I hesitate to get into this in any depth at all because it was my favorite aspect of the book and it deserves to be experienced with no expectations. I will just add that as the scope expands, so did my interest in this book. Finally, I am happy to recommend this book to fans of dystopian futures, sci-fi, and even perhaps some of you who lean more towards the cyberpunk settings.
January 18, 2024
Fun read, and I think I would have loved it back in 1994 when it was published, but the whole idea of creating an ultimate AI by altering the human brain makes the saving of the earth seem kind of weak- a la Deus ex Machine.
December 11, 2017
Eight years since I last read this? Time for a re-read.
December 7, 2011
One of my favorite near future scifi books of all time. Love the way Barnes thinks!
July 15, 2021
This was a quick read -- got this Monday, and finished it today (Wednesday). The story is convoluted and sprawling, but Barnes ties things into each other well so that by the end all the strings are pulled together to the center.
There are heroes and villains, unexpected turns of events, massive failures and surprising rescues. It ends on a high note, and we are left satisfied that all will be well.
A few things stood out that are not to my taste, and while perhaps it is what people want to see in books, I wince at them:
1. There is a lot of sexual violence, implied or stated, and mostly against women. It's hard to read that.
2. It feels as if all the main characters are white. There are several who are ethnically diverse, but they read as white people with pasted-on diversity tags.
There are many fun things about the book as well. It's set in the near future—Earth of 2038, which is quite advanced compared to Earth of 1994 or so when the book was written. To readers in 2021, some of it seems quaint and laughable—the rise of cryptography and encryption in messaging would take away a major plot element of the book, for example—and there are aspects that seem completely unrealistic even in the world of 1994, such as the easy acceptance of America of fleeing "Afropeans," descendants of mixed parents growing up in Europe. who are expelled by Europe gripped by ethnonationalism. (Has there ever been a time when any white-majority nation welcomed strangers and aliens who were not themselves white?)
For scope and size, it's impressive, but it is dated now. My paperback copy (used) was faded and yellowy-brown, and the cover looked like an unfocused print of the hardcover, as if even the publisher didn't think it would be around long.
If you like sci-fi from the 90s, this is probably a good example and you might enjoy it.
There are heroes and villains, unexpected turns of events, massive failures and surprising rescues. It ends on a high note, and we are left satisfied that all will be well.
A few things stood out that are not to my taste, and while perhaps it is what people want to see in books, I wince at them:
1. There is a lot of sexual violence, implied or stated, and mostly against women. It's hard to read that.
2. It feels as if all the main characters are white. There are several who are ethnically diverse, but they read as white people with pasted-on diversity tags.
There are many fun things about the book as well. It's set in the near future—Earth of 2038, which is quite advanced compared to Earth of 1994 or so when the book was written. To readers in 2021, some of it seems quaint and laughable—the rise of cryptography and encryption in messaging would take away a major plot element of the book, for example—and there are aspects that seem completely unrealistic even in the world of 1994, such as the easy acceptance of America of fleeing "Afropeans," descendants of mixed parents growing up in Europe. who are expelled by Europe gripped by ethnonationalism. (Has there ever been a time when any white-majority nation welcomed strangers and aliens who were not themselves white?)
For scope and size, it's impressive, but it is dated now. My paperback copy (used) was faded and yellowy-brown, and the cover looked like an unfocused print of the hardcover, as if even the publisher didn't think it would be around long.
If you like sci-fi from the 90s, this is probably a good example and you might enjoy it.
March 7, 2022
Big budget SF disaster novel of considerable intelligence.
It's the relatively near future, on an Earth where a kind of super internet is in everybody's heads and where literal vicarious existence is the norm. A nuclear strike accidentally releases vast plumes of methane, warming an already too-warm Earth. Energies mount, and hurricanes form orders of magnitude greater and longer-lived than anything seen before, scouring the oceans and coasts, generating devastating tsunami and flooding.
Barnes pulls few punches with MoS, showing off an almost despairing talent for conveying the very worst of humanity often triumphing over its best. But even with rather graphic scenes of sex and violence (and sometimes with the two combined), he retains an honesty, and never becomes gratuitous even when it might appear otherwise. He's simply telling it how it is: that folk are grey and not black and/ or white, that those we look up are consumed by the worst perversions, that those we look down upon are loyal and loving family men. His world is complex, just like the real one, and inhabited by complex characters.
On an SF level, there's plenty to enjoy: the science is deep, satisfying, and interesting - info-dumps are obvious, but never have you rolling your eyes at the fact. And ideas abound, not least of which is the willing transcendence of two main characters into something arguably divine.
It can get a bit glossy at times: there is a little too much emphasis on the way way people look (especially if they're female), and sometimes Catastrophe does lean toward the Cosy; but these are MoS only real faults.
Other than this, I've only read A Million Open Doors by Barnes. I aim to rectify the lack.
It's the relatively near future, on an Earth where a kind of super internet is in everybody's heads and where literal vicarious existence is the norm. A nuclear strike accidentally releases vast plumes of methane, warming an already too-warm Earth. Energies mount, and hurricanes form orders of magnitude greater and longer-lived than anything seen before, scouring the oceans and coasts, generating devastating tsunami and flooding.
Barnes pulls few punches with MoS, showing off an almost despairing talent for conveying the very worst of humanity often triumphing over its best. But even with rather graphic scenes of sex and violence (and sometimes with the two combined), he retains an honesty, and never becomes gratuitous even when it might appear otherwise. He's simply telling it how it is: that folk are grey and not black and/ or white, that those we look up are consumed by the worst perversions, that those we look down upon are loyal and loving family men. His world is complex, just like the real one, and inhabited by complex characters.
On an SF level, there's plenty to enjoy: the science is deep, satisfying, and interesting - info-dumps are obvious, but never have you rolling your eyes at the fact. And ideas abound, not least of which is the willing transcendence of two main characters into something arguably divine.
It can get a bit glossy at times: there is a little too much emphasis on the way way people look (especially if they're female), and sometimes Catastrophe does lean toward the Cosy; but these are MoS only real faults.
Other than this, I've only read A Million Open Doors by Barnes. I aim to rectify the lack.
March 20, 2024
It’s 2028 and Alaska is independent as is Siberia but the Siberians want the old protectorate back. During a punitive mission the U.S. bombs part of the area, accidently releasing billions of tons of methane through shattered clathrates. Thus begins a monumental disaster. Through the sudden warming of the oceans a titanic hurricane called Clem forms, that looks likely to be a permanent fixture of the sea, and spawning offspring cyclones of similar or greater strength. Ultimately the winds become so strong that entire regions are scoured to bedrock, flooded or riven by violent anarchy. Sometimes all three at once. As in all good disaster stories there are a number of subplots threading through the mayhem: a father desperate for revenge on the monster who commissioned the torture porn of his teen daughter; a meteorologist and her ex-lover astronaut who are slowly becoming uploaded and godlike, into the worldwide grid known as XV; a reporter ditched by her network who goes freelance and reports the ‘truth’; and a reality XV star who has become jaded and meets a young engineer in Mexico when the disasters start. John Barnes juggles the multiple threads well and we get to know his characters. The meteorology is valid (to a point) and the book is a real page-turner. There are a few scenes of sexual violence so use your own judgement, but I found it an enjoyable experience overall.
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