#17. THE DROWNED WORLD By J G Ballard

Published : 1962
Pages : 175
Overall Mark : 7/10

In the 21st century, fluctuations in solar radiation have caused the ice-caps to melt and the seas to rise. Global temperatures have climbed, and civilization has retreated to the Arctic and Antarctic circles. London is a city now inundated by a primeval swamp, to which an expedition travels to record the flora and fauna of this new Triassic Age.

J. G. BALLARD (1930-)
Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, China. After Pearl Harbor, his family were interned i na Japanese priosn camp, an experience which inspired his most famous novel Empire Of The Sun. After coming to Britain for the first time in 1946 he studied medicine at Cambridge. The Drowned World was his first major novel.

VERDICT
This is a fascinating novel, on a par with Lord Of The Flies in it's ability to give us a terrible scenario that somehow feels right for the people involved. Although many of the characters are flat and lifeless, the character of Strangman has enough character to make up for this, and his manic egomaniacal ways soon have us thinking whether or not he is in fact in the right in his assertions.