Rating: 
Summary: A first-class techno-sf thriller.
Review: A sweeping story that never loses the narrative thread. There's a lot going on in Mother of Storms, but it always makes sense, and you don't feel overwhelmed with scene-changing the way you do in many books. It's such a good book that I've found it hard to read his "Timeline Wars" series because it's so much weaker by comparison. If I hadn't read "Mother of Storms" I probably wouldn't mind, but since I have those books seem shallow and uninteresting.
Rating: 
Summary: Cyber-take on the disaster novel
Review: An fairly absorbing disaster novel from a wired perspective... global catastrophe via the Internet, I guess. Interesting in the way the net and the online experience has been incorporated into the everyday lives of the characters. Perhaps the incorporation (or dis-corporation) of certain characters into electronic Net entitities is a bit far-fetched, but it works, for the most part. A fair amount of sex and politics keeps things spiced up, but is not central to the plot. A good read, and a great stimulus to thinking about the future of the net.
Rating:
Summary: The Great Cyberpunk Novel not by Gibson or Stephenson
Review: Calling Mother of Storms a cyberpunk novel is a bit inappropriate, as it is also a fine plain old hard SF novel in the Fred Pohl (Gateway) tradition. This is one of the most memorable novels I've consumed in the 1990s, and probably the first (I read Snow Crash later :) that made me go "hmm." It turned me into a voracious and loyal consumer of John Barnes prose, and I haven't regretted it. But Barnes is a tricky fellow to pin down. He writes in several different styles; heck, he might be several different people. Perhaps it's narrowminded to expect someone to always write the same old same old. I don't mind that he doesn't. Not at all!
Rating: 
Summary: Adolescent eco moralizing
Review: Grotesque eco-fable involving storms, masturbation, big tits, butt plugs and a variety of adolescent fantasies masquerading as mature science fiction. The plot is loosely connected by the Mother of Storms but the high point of too many chapters involves people playing with themselves. As porn it might make a good read.
Rating: 
Summary: An amazingly boring disaster story
Review: I did not like this book very much. The author had an interesting concept, but through his tedious long-winded writing turned what should have been fascinating and thrilling into merely boring. There are many characters in this story, and more than once the author leaves a semi-developed character in limbo...they just sort of get forgotten about and he nevers comes back to them to tie up any loose ends. The few characters that he does stick with through the end of the book aren't very interesting really, unless you enjoy the occasional semi-hardcore porn scenes that a few of them are in. These sex scenes rarely have any bearing on the plot and seem pointless. The science fiction angle of this book is more about cyber technology and the implications of it on humanity than about anything relating to the world devouring storms you might expect from such a titled book. This story could have just as easily been told without any storms at all and because of this, what ends up happening is that the climatological disaster we expect really becomes meaningless to the issues developed in the plot. The overall effect of this book was tedium. Too long, too many undeveloped characters, too many techno gadgets that aren't explained in enough detail...too bad, it could have been a great story.
Rating:
Summary: An amazingly boring disaster story
Review: I did not like this book very much. The author had an interesting concept, but through his tedious long-winded writing turned what should have been fascinating and thrilling into merely boring. There are many characters in this story, and more than once the author leaves a semi-developed character in limbo...they just sort of get forgotten about and he nevers comes back to them to tie up any loose ends. The few characters that he does stick with through the end of the book aren't very interesting really, unless you enjoy the occasional semi-hardcore porn scenes that a few of them are in. These sex scenes rarely have any bearing on the plot and seem pointless. The science fiction angle of this book is more about cyber technology and the implications of it on humanity than about anything relating to the world devouring storms you might expect from such a titled book. This story could have just as easily been told without any storms at all and because of this, what ends up happening is that the climatological disaster we expect really becomes meaningless to the issues developed in the plot. The overall effect of this book was tedium. Too long, too many undeveloped characters, too many techno gadgets that aren't explained in enough detail...too bad, it could have been a great story.
Rating: 
Summary: poor characterization, flat plot, & sexist
Review: I found none of the characters the least bit compelling or sympathetic. The best characterization in the book is of the different hurricanes! This book is definitely not in the same league as some of the "great" SF disaster novels, such as those by Niven & Pournelle in the 70's. Those guys managed to present characters that at least captured my interest enough so I cared about how things turned out for them. The plot is flat and very predictable--I was surprised there weren't some curve balls thrown into the old formulas. This book, moreso even than most modern SF/adventure writing, portrayed women as the playthings of men who were supposedly doing the important stuff, with the exception of two female characters. Because all of the characters were shown in such a shallow way, it was hard to tell if these two were given even shorter shrift than the males, but I think they were. The sex scenes, especially involving the "redeemed" porn star, were completely unerotic, and unnecessary. Don't bother with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Disgusting subplots drown good science fiction
Review: In some ways I liked this book. The stuff about the hurricane was pretty cool. But the endless, tiring subplots about VR child porn and the one orgasm-per-page average got really tiring and downright disgusting. If he had kept the book down below 350 pages and eased up on the endless sexual escapades, I might have liked this book.
Rating:
Summary: Fans of David Brin's "Earth" take note.
Review: In spite of the book's many flaws, fans of David Brin's "Earth" and Bruce Sterlings "Heavy Weather" should buy "Mother of Storms." It's definately a vacation-read, sort of a semi-cyberspace semi-disaster semi-scifi fastpaced interesting Brin-eque book. I found the characters interesting: what a previous reviewer so sarcastically and cynically dismisses as "the redeemed porn star" I thought was actually a compelling portrait of the struggle any actor has. If you think you're about to read something literary, check out Donaldson -- for a good sci-fi read, this is a darn fine book.
Rating:
Summary: Fans of David Brin's "Earth" take note.
Review: In spite of the book's many flaws, fans of David Brin's "Earth" and Bruce Sterlings "Heavy Weather" should buy "Mother of Storms." It's definately a vacation-read, sort of a semi-cyberspace semi-disaster semi-scifi fastpaced interesting Brin-eque book. I found the characters interesting: what a previous reviewer so sarcastically and cynically dismisses as "the redeemed porn star" I thought was actually a compelling portrait of the struggle any actor has. If you think you're about to read something literary, check out Donaldson -- for a good sci-fi read, this is a darn fine book.
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