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The Drowned World
 
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The Drowned World (Paperback)

by J.G. Ballard (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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JOHN SUTHERLAND, SUNDAY TIMES

'There are those (I am among them) who would back Ballard as Britain's number one living novelist' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


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A debut novel, set in London in the near future. The capital city has been flooded and transformed into a tropical location where social aberrations only serve as an indicator of the level of corruption of the modern mentality.
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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3 star:    (0)
2 star:
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3.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The world ends, not with a bang, but a gurgle, Dec 2 2002
By Michael Battaglia - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Drowned World (Paperback)
The cover of my version has a lizard sitting quite happily on some poor guy's face, which is the only part of his body sticking out of the water. For some reason, I really like it. This would be considered atypical SF if it came out today, I can't even imagine the reaction back in the sixties when this was first published, especially to an audience that had been raised on an audience of big guns and fast spaceships and heroes who solved problems by punching aliens in the face. Ballard's novel isn't about saving the world, in fact, the world is well past that point by the time the book opens and it's only going to get worse, all the people left can do is figure out how to live with the changes. As you can probably surmise from the title, climatic changes and the melting of the polar ice caps have caused the water levels in the world to rise, putting most cities under water and turning the world nearly into one big tropical ocean. This change is more than just cosmetic since it's apparently resurrecting racial memories buried deep within the collective unconscious, thus people start having weird dreams about times when the world used to be like this. Action packed? Not really. Hallucinogenic? At times. Different? You bet. Ballard succeeds mostly on the strength of his ability to convey this flooded, humid world in all its declining glory. The protagonists wander about almost aimlessly, not even sure why they do what they do. The "villains" of the piece provide a nice counterpoint to all the gloomy stuff but in the end serve as little more than a distraction, albeit a strangely entertaining one. In the end it doesn't cohere as nicely as the slightly better (in my opinion) "The Crystal World" where Ballard's prose is more finely polished in all its hazy glory, while the protagonist can be more easily identified with by the reader. The stuff with the pirates that take up most of the middle of the book is fun, but serves as little more than a backdrop and a soggy world just doesn't have that eerie outerworldy quality of a planet slowly turning to crystal. Also, the whole "racial memory" thing, while you could probably write a book on it, isn't really dealt with in any sort of detail here, it sort of pops up again when it's convenient. Still, for a debut this is a heck of a lot better than anything I could do and it's safe to say Ballard got a lot better real fast. Even then, this is a fine book well worth your time, because whatever Ballard does, he does better than just about anyone else.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Back in print..., Oct 15 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Drowned World (Paperback)
This is one of my favorite Ballard novels and it's certianly got the hothouse waterworld-meets-heart-of-darkness atmosphere going to stir up that primordial fear in your gut. You can feel the sufficating swamp gas in the air like you are in a giant pressure cooker! (actually the waterworld comparison is pretty cheap on my part because it was an incredibly silly movie and has little in common with this book other than taking place in the future where the world is virtually covered with water...but you get the idea). Ballard has the uncanny ability to burrough under your skin with somewhat hypnotic prose. Definitely a mood piece and not your typical sci-fi. Don't order from Amazon.com though beacuse 20 dollars too expensive for a 190 page paperback and you'll get it a lot quicker (about 5 days total) from Amozon.co.uk (since it is unfortunately only published in the UK). One of my three favorite Ballard novels.
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2.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed this once., Sep 23 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Drowned World (Paperback)
I enjoyed this once, as a student, then I grew up. Some books, the magic lasts forever. This doesn't.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Back In Print!
Thank God it's back in print! Great book. At times Ballard's language is a little tedious but it's somewhat hallucinatory imagery is also what makes this book as great as it is... Read more
Published on Jul 11 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars Towards a psychology of the Sun
Ballard's first novel is a prefigurement of the dark themes that color much of his subsequent work: cataclysm, entropy, devolution, obsession...redemption. Read more
Published on Feb 19 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars Science Fiction about Inner Space
This book shows Ballard's mastery of Science Fiction without the usual trappings of spaceships, laser pistols, or cyberdecks. Read more
Published on April 29 1997

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