Bruce Sterling's Hurricane: Been There, Done That

With the beginning of hurricane season this year, I thought about Bruce Sterling's speculative fiction novel Heavy Weather, and its vision of the decay of infrastructure and ethics in the face of the relentless hammering of chaotic weather patterns.

The recent Hurricane Katrina aftermath images from the Gulf Coast and particularly New Orleans looked as if they were straight from his book. The reports of roving thugs looting and visiting their violence on others were eerily familiar.

Sterling comments on his blog: "My darkest sci-fi disaster scenario looks a little milder and more realistic every day."