2028 AD, Earth. Finalist for the 1995 Hugo Award. Dedicated to Kara Dalkey.
"In the middle of the Pacific, a gigantic hurricane accidentally triggered by nuclear explosions spawns dozens more in its wake.
"A world linked by a virtual-reality network experiences the devastation first hand, witnessing the death of civilization as we know it and the violent birth of an emerging global consciousness.
"Vast in scope, yet intimate in personal detail, Mother of Storms is a visionary fusion of cutting-edge cyberspace fiction and heart-stopping storytelling in the grand tradition, filled with passion, tragedy, and the triumph of the human spirit". [jacket blurb, US pbk, 1995]
"A great big romp of a quasi-cyberpunk novel... It delivers!" -- (in Wired ).
"A startling future filled with danger, challenge, and ultimately, hope". --David Brin.
"Despite the tropes of virtual reality, a version of 'sim-stim', telepresence robots, and replicating 'mobots', anyone expecting a 'cyberpunk' novel will be disappointed. John Barnes tells his tale of near-future apocalyptics in a straightforward and traditional writing style, quite devoid of poetry or linguistic pyrotechnics. Notably absent, too, are the legions of disenfranchised people who must greatly outnumber the 'working' population in any postindustrial society. Such a sanitized view harks back to a more old-fashioned type of science fiction. You will, however, learn more about the formation of storms than you ever wanted to know.
"Very readable, but hardly ground-breaking. Although others will disagree". --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , 1995).
