Bellwether is for statisticians the way Ready Player One is for gamers. Enjoyable for anyone remotely interested in fads and human behavior or 80s references. Also entertaining for those of us baffled by ineptitude. (Leave your "How can you let this go on?!" outrage at the door.)Pop culture, chaos theory, and matters of the heart collide in this unique novella from the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of Doomsday Book.
Sandra Foster studies fads--from Barbie dolls to the grunge look--how they start and what they mean, for the HiTek corporation. Bennett O'Reilly studies monkey-group behavior and chaos theory for the same company. When the two are thrust together due to a misdelivered package and a run of seemingly bad luck, they find a joint project in a flock of sheep. What better animal to study both chaos theory and the herd mentality that so often characterizes human behavior? Unfortunately, Sandra and Bennett must endure a series of setbacks, heartbreaks, dead ends, and disasters before they are able to find answers to their questions--with the unintended help of the errant, forgetful, and careless office assistant Flip.