This is by far my favorite Sterling book. Unlike his earlier Mechist-Shaper story cycle, this book still seems all-too-possible. Plus, I want that Jumping Jeep with the Smart Wheels. How awesome was THAT thing?! Daaaamn.At times the clunky prose intrudes, as do some of the obvious "As you know Bob" moments, but overall this is solid stuff, and still feels like it could happen.

I liked the basic concept of a futuristic storm-chasing team in the quest to intercept and record a tornado of an apocalyptic magnitude (an F-6 ... yes, the book is old enough that it predates the Enhanced Fujita scaled or EF for measuring a twister's intensity by the destruction left behind, and no, there's no such thing as an F-6 OR an EF-6).However, there was just far too much talking that was less than relevant to that brilliant concept. There was some interesting perspective on climate chan...

2022 re-read, & even better than I had recalled. Classic Sterling Cyberpunk, with good science and spectacularly good characterizations. I found a copy on my shelves, ex-Seattle library. From a library book-sale, maybe? Here's Rick the Code Geek, talking to Jane the financier (who's out of money). She's hoping to tap into her brother's inheritance,Rick: "It's funny what men and women argue about . . . . from what I see, it's three basic things, sex, money and committment. Right?Jane said nothing...

I'm somewhat torn over Bruce Sterling. Most of his books that I have read are from the late Eighties/early Nineties. The reader is usually introduced to a group of characters with an occupation that is out of the norm, in this case storm chasers/"weather hackers". I always find this aspect of the story very intriguing, with the technical details of the occupation being brought to the forefront to show the ways that these folks might view life differently than the rest of us. It's the endings tha...

Heavy Weather is Twister in book form - pure and simple. In some ways the parallels are amazing. The book and the movie came out within two years of each other (can't remember which came first. Both works depict a storm chasing group in the midwest whose lead protagonist is trying to prove a theory. Both even depict...flying cows!Sterling is one of the best known "cyberpunk" authors, but its important to realize that this book is not cyberpunk in any real sense. It is more "post-apocalyptic" in

Actual rating is 2.5.I liked this book at first.It looked like a book about The Adventure of semi-professionals' & science enthusiasts' group. Everyday life at camp against half-ruined world, usual people, usual desires. Calm-to-extreme routine and F-6 storm somewhere in future.It felt somehow new - smooth plot, not so outstanding characters, no hard intrigue, but every aspect was well-balanced creating a pleasant picture. Then the F-6 came. And it still clicked with everything else. What didn't...

Fun Bruce Sterling novel about post-apocalyptic group of dubious scientists chasing tornadoes in Texas and Oklahoma, in search of the ultimate tornado that would be so big that it would be permanent and open a vortex into space. Somewhat of a sci-fi comedy as well.

Given the extreme weather conditions we have experienced in 2012, this novel from one of the creators of cyberpunk, feels almost ripped from the headlines. And yet, it was published 18 years ago. This is a book about extreme climate change and the the meteorology of North American plains. Weatherpunk? The basic set-up is a band of tornado chasers who operate in 2031 West Texas, a land of declining economics, declining civil order, and declining human survivability. At one point, I did some resea...

This is a cautionary near-future sci-fi story of the impact of global warming on weather patterns. We are already seeing the beginning of increased storms, tornados, hurricanes, and tsunamis (or Heavy Weather). In 2030, the time period of the story, the majority of the U.S. government's budget goes toward disaster relief. Thousands are homeless, the U.S. economy has collapsed, entire geographic areas are abandoned, and some wildlife species die off while others grow out of control. The story fol...

Maybe a lot closer to a 3, but sex scenes in books are boring enough as it is, and I'm pretty sure adding an anti-condom homily did nothing to improve the situation.

4 and a half stars, but damn this is good

Good premise, but the author tries way too hard to be edgy and high tech. His overstretch technical lingo left me feeling annoyed more than impressed more often than not. Beware the story that aims to preach its post-human excess "this is what Global Warming will do to us" message before it attempts to develop solid characters or plot lines. If you want to scare people with this type of material, write non-fiction. Reality is terrifying enough without embellishment.

This was a top notch science fiction novel. More than a hint of cyberpunk and fully dystopian, it is a complex story which is extremely rich in subject matter, descriptions, science and general literary standard. When I first picked it up I thought it might be a fast read, but there is so much detail in it and the descriptions are so intricate and absorbing that it turned out to be anything BUT a fast read - in the best possible way.We start in a dodgy private clinic in Mexico. Alex Unger has ad...

Didn't finish the book. I thought I would like it because of the weather theme but it was hard to follow between the virtual and actual weather scenes, and I didn't really develop any interest in the characters.

Third reading of Heavy Weather. I love the descriptions of the tornado chases, they give a visceral thrill to a weather-geek like me (just wish there had been more discussion/description of the F6 tornado and just more about the weather full stop). The political fallout of climate change induced "Heavy weather" are well explored, and considering this book was written in 1993, some of the tech and environmental stuff predicted by Sterling for 2030 are looking pretty likely. The downside of the bo...

review of Bruce Sterling's Heavy Weather by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - October 24, 2017 [See the full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/... ]I keep picking on Cyberpunk writing in much the same way I pick on Surrealist writing. At the same time that I like it in theory I'm annoyed by it in praxis. What was the last cyberpunk novel I read & reviewed? Weeellll, that depends on how one defines Cyberpunk, obviously. Is Cyberpunk any story in wch societally fringe & rebellious chara...

Heavy Weather looks like an adaptation of the movie Twister on the surface: giant tornadoes, obsessed scientists, even that one scene with the flying cow, but it's actually a smart dark mirror that seriously asks and answers the question "What would it be like to live through the worst of anthropocentric climate change?"In the year 2031, Alex Unger is dying in a private Mexican hospital when his sister Janey breaks him out and takes him for one last fling chasing tornadoes in blasted West Texas,...

I read Heavy Weather back when it came out in the 90's about Category 5 tornados long b4 it was popular to conceive of dust bowel like extreme weather droughts in the SW part of the US caused by Climate Change. Sterling is from that part of the country.I don't know the severity of the May 2013 tornado in Oklahoma, maybe a C4-5 and 2 miles wide somewhat like the unbelievable size of hurricane Sandy.Bruce Sterling's book was my fictional intro to the future of AGW. His descriptions of coming extre...

Initially, I thought Bruce Sterling was trying to pull a classic PKD trick with his odd syntax. Then I realized by pp12 that Bruce is just not a terribly good writer. I muscled my way through this one. It was not without its moments: Published in 1994, Sterling envisioned the likes of YouTube, Napster and other tech achievements that were at least a few years away at that point. He did, unfortunately, expect the fax machine to somehow survive in the world of 2031, but earns half marks for antici...

A good novel. I'm not a fan of long-chapter books, but it kept up a good pace nevertheless. I'm impressed with the small bit of near-future Earth Bruce Sterling presents, especially the "heavy weather" the Storm Troupe chases. Everything seemed very real...and frightening. I enjoyed the culture of the Storm Troupe, not because I'd want to live it, but because I felt like I understood why THEY would choose to live it. The end was a bit weird in terms of how some of the characters came to their re...