| Italic Title: | (see above) --> |
| Mother of Storms | |
| Author: | John Barnes |
| Cover Artist: | Bob Eggleton |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Science fiction |
| Publisher: | Tor |
| Pub Date: | July 1994 |
| Media Type: | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages: | 432 |
| Isbn: | 0-312-85560-5 |
Mother of Storms is a 1994 science fiction novel by American writer John Barnes. It was nominated for three major science fiction awards.[1]
In the early 21st century, the Earth suffers from a giant hurricane spawned by the release of clathrate compounds, as the result of a nuclear explosion. The hurricane spawns hundreds of progeny, which kill at least 1 billion people by the novel's end. Two massively computer-augmented human intelligences (both of whom witness their organic bodies die) race to corral a comet from beyond Pluto's orbit. They use the ice from the comet to reduce the Earth's surface temperatures, and quell the mother of storms.
The novel is written in the present tense, and jumps between the viewpoints of many characters, some of whom recur while others appear only once or twice.
The clathrate gun hypothesis is the basis for the origin of the hurricane.