Heavy weather
by Bruce Sterling, Gary Tiedemann · first published 1994
50% recommend50% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Near-future SF about a climate-wrecked world of escalating storms, following tornado chasers hunting a rare F6 tornado; readers praise its prescient sense of how technology, economy and society might look.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Bruce Sterling, one of the founding fathers of the cyberpunk genre, now presents a novel of vivid imagination and invention that proves his talent for creating brilliant speculative fiction is sharper than ever. Forty years from now, Earth's climate has been drastically changed by the greenhouse effect. Tornadoes of almost unimaginable force roam the open spaces of Texas. And on their trail are the Storm Troupers: a ragtag band of computer experts and atmospheric scientists who live to hack heavy weather -- to document it and spread the information as far as the digital networks will stretch,
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if you like that, you should definitely check out the tornado chasers' car in Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling.
on “The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk” ↗Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling published around 1994 It's extremely hard sci fi about tornado chasers in the USA around now plus a little bit. Its fun to read and see how much came true and is coming true. Weirdly…
on “What Science Fiction Movie or Novel Is Most Prescient Today?” ↗…everything else) For cyberpunk, Neuromancer and the sprawl trilogy have not aged terribly well. I still like them, but they're from a certain context. Try Greg Egan's Permutation City; Bruce Sterling's Heavy Weather, Islands in the Net, or Holy Fire. Lauren Beukes, Zoo City. There are so, so many ... ;-)
on “Ask HN: Recommend a Good Sci-Fi Book” ↗Bruce Sterling's "Heavy Weather" was a surprisingly accurate prediction of the 2020-2040s for coming out in 1995 at the peak of "the end of history". He called this one re: tuberculosis.
on “We're back: How tuberculosis is set to surge globally once again” ↗I keep meaning to reread Bruce Sterling's Heavy Weather, about a future where the climate is trashed & weather escalates. Amid this, a group of tornado chasers are trying to find the first "F6" class tornado. https://thierstein.net/index.php?view=article&id=355:bruce-s...…
on “Hurricane category 6 could be introduced under new storm severity scale” ↗…start. If anything once it gets going it moves too fast. I'd argue it doesn't spent enough time exploring the world the reader suddenly finds themselves in. If you haven't, check out Bruce Sterling. His "Heavy Weather"[0] might well be up your alley, too. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Weather_(Sterling_novel)
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗…would write more. During the last year, 3 or 4 times I have read news stories about the election or economy and felt a chill go down my back because I recognized stuff from Sterling's "Distraction" and "Heavy Weather", which are years old at this point. If you are doing a startup or business that in any way is involved with the intersection of technology and law enforcement - and with privacy issues and secret supenoes,…
on “Bruce Sterling: The Last Viridian Note” ↗+1 for Distraction, and indeed most of BruceS's works. Incredible, visionary stuff. "Heavy Weather" is probably the book of his that's most similar to Distraction - also very very good.
on “Ask HN: What's your favourite sci-fi/fantasy book?” ↗Reminds me of the Bruce Sterling novel, "Heavy Weather" where the bad guys that work for the government have Rolex-like watches that have explosives in them permanently clamped to their wrists. In the novel, when a force 6 storm goes through, they hang out…
on “Saudi files for 'killer' tracking chip patent” ↗Bruce Sterling talked about delivery drones in his book Heavy Weather (1995), and implied that they were being used for drugs. However, the one he described was ground based - I think it bounced like a kangaroo or pogo stick.
on “Drone carrying drugs crashes near US-Mexico border” ↗It's a socially-networked gui around curl commands! I need to dig up the quotes, but in Bruce Sterling's sci fi book Heavy Weather, he says that no one pays for sotware, except groupwere, which everyone begrudgingly pays out for. I gotta say though I am super unimpressed by the Postman team's ability to prioritize / do the right…
on “Postman raises $225M Series D at $5.6B valuation” ↗Bruce Sterling had a throw-away mention in his 1994 book about tornado chasers Heavy Weather, saying that in this future no one paid for regular software but everyone shelled out (perhaps subscribed even?) to groupware, software that worked together, because it was just too damned much of a pain…
on “Time Till Open Source Alternative” ↗Bruce Sterling's sci-fi novel Heavy Weather (1994, about climate-change tornado chasers looking for 'the big one') had a brief bit that struck me then and had stuck with me hard: All software is basically free, except groupware, which everyone…
on “The Rise of Groupware” ↗Bruce Sterling’s “Heavy Weather” describes (offhandedly) a post-agricultural ecosystem where only herbicide/cold/heat-resistant weeds remain. People then breed genetically-engineered livestock that can convert the weeds into more useful…
on “The Weeds Are Winning” ↗Bruce Sterling: Distraction ...also Heavy Weather
on “Domino's Pizza unveils U.S. infrastructure project filling potholes” ↗