The Drowned World Book Review

My first introduction to J. G. Ballard’s work was his short story “Billennium,” which I reviewed a while back. I wanted to get into more of his work. Luckily, he wrote several novels throughout the 60s. One such novel was The Drowned World, a fairly short novel that’s part science fiction, part post-apocalyptic. Let’s get into the review.

The story originally appeared as a novella in Science Fiction Adventures. Ballard expanded this story into a novel in 1962. The book’s background involves a massive climate change shift caused by solar radiation. As a result of the world developing fully into a tropical climate, the world literally “drowns,” including major cities like London. People are forced to live primarily in the North and South poles. The story itself follows a team of scientists who return to London, which is mostly a lagoon. The main character, Kerens, arrives to catalogue the flora and fauna of London, but things take a turn when one of his group disappears.

This book actually boasts the title of the first climate fiction story. A huge milestone in sci-fi. So when I started reading, I especially liked the ideas that Ballard introduced. I also enjoyed the beginning of the story, where everything was set up, and I understood the character’s mission in this new world. The ending also packed a hard punch. I think the middle of the story became muddled for me, which surprised me. The writing itself didn’t really excite me as much despite the action that took place. However, things picked up toward the end of the story.

I think this novel went underappreciated back in the day. However, it deserves a spot in the Golden Age, especially for its influence on the climate fiction genre. Ballard’s work doesn’t seem to get talked about as much, in my opinion, so I enjoyed writing a review of his work again. I honestly need to check out his other novels.

I read a lot more of my TBR (what comes from reading multiple books at once, I guess). So it’s on to the next novel next week! Before you leave, just remember that another blog post arrives this week. I also hope to write more interviews, so we’ll see where that goes. Happy reading!

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