Book: Termination Shock. Takes place largely in near-future Houston. Author Neal Stephenson captures it perfectly.

As a native Houstonian I’m not used to seeing Houston used as a setting in any medium. When it is, it is either:

A. just a name of a generic place where characters happen to be (the sitcom “Reba”)

B. used out of sheer necessity to the plot, but totally undeveloped as a setting (Terms of endearment, Charlie Wilson’s War) or

C. Mentioned casually as an acceptable place to drop a nuke (Independence Day)

I don’t know how Neal Stephenson does his research for writing but I felt like he truly “got” Houston (and, more broadly, Texas). The parts of this book that take place in Houston were absolutely fascinating to me.