You've got to warm to a flood disaster plot that doesn't stop until the tip of Everest has vanished beneath the waves..

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2703 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

LOCUS
'FLOOD has an increasing sense of gravitas, and even, by the end, a genuine weight of mourning. It's actually a novel that gains in power as it goes along, and as it becomes increasingly apparent that no miracle technofixes are in sight. A largely old fashioned disaster tale presented with spectacle and efficient pacing'

Review
"Baxter's vision of a drowning earth is compelling." (Lisa Tuttle THE TIMES )

"A central narrative that's as relentless as a Panzer sweeping across lowland France in 1940. Amid huge events, the author still finds time for the intimate, the human-sized." (Jonathan Wright SFX )

"He retains that uniquely easy way of dramatizing scientific possibilities into an engaging survivial narrative, while throwing in some satirical barbs." (STARBURST )

'FLOOD has an increasing sense of gravitas, and even, by the end, a genuine weight of mourning. It's actually a novel that gains in power as it goes along, and as it becomes increasingly apparent that no miracle technofixes are in sight. A largely old fashioned disaster tale presented with spectacle and efficient pacing' (LOCUS )

"Covering events from the UK to the US, from Australia to Tibet, this is a comprehensive disaster novel that has a very global feel. Perhaps mostly this book is an homage to human survivability - we endure should be our motto. [It] deserves to sit high on the blockbuster shelves." (SFFWORLD )

"For once a modern SF book where the central science doesn't need the reader to have memorised advanced quantum theory beforehand. Flood is a superbly enjoyable SF novel, although those living close to the sea may feel a bit nervous after reading it. And before anyone asks, yes, it's better than Waterworld. (THE WERTZONE )

"Bold, compassionate, exhilarating, wrenching stuff." (Niall Harrison INTERNET REVIEW OF SF )

"A gripping near-future allegory of global warming. At times, Baxter's narrative is as relentless as the inexorable waters, but that, you suspect, is his idea Deeply scary." (Jonathan Wright BBC FOCUS )

"There is a degree of optimism throughout that belies any biblical doom; the world may be changed irrevocably, but there can still be a place for humanity." (Paul cocburn INTERZONE )

"The ever readable Baxter has a page-flipper in Flood. It will make you fidget in your beach chair this summer. It is not just a literary come-uppance for climate change deniers; it will give everyone pause to think." (John C. Snider SCI FI DIMENSIONS )

"Baxter never loses sight in the bigger picture of the effect of the flood on the lives of individuals, societies and nations. The cast might be extensive, but the lives of the major players are skilfully interwoven with the plight of the planet. The sequel, Ark, will continue this enthralling story." (Eric Brown GUARDIAN )

THE WERTZONE
"For once a modern SF book where the central science doesn't need the reader to have memorised advanced quantum theory beforehand. Flood is a superbly enjoyable SF novel, although those living close to the sea may feel a bit nervous after reading it. And before anyone asks, yes, it's better than Waterworld.

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Customer Reviews

Requiem For a Drowned World (4.5 Stars ****)
This book begins in 2016 with the story of five hostages held in Barcelona, where it's raining heavily and won't stop. They're rescued by a team sent by Nathan Lomockson - a technocrat and very rich man - but not before one of them is brutally killed. The remaining four pledge to look out for each other from then on. Lomockson himself takes a lifelong interest in each of them, and their fates thereafter are tied in with his. The ensuing events in the novel take place over a span of around sixty years.

The narrative moves forward by chronological increments as the world's water level increases, and continues to rise. The episodic structure suits the book perfectly - it's a neat narrative trick. Baxter provides us with a series of snapshots of important events and details the human reaction to each stage of the increase.

Nathan sets himself up as a would-be saviour of the world. He appears at pivotal points throughout the story as the sea levels rise higher and higher, and we see the impact of important events on his and/or one or more of the former hostages. Although a hard-boiled, nuts and bots SF writer, Stephen Baxter realises that his book would be nothing if the reader weren't allowed to engage emotionally with the characters.

And even though the characterisation isn't as strong as your average mainstream writer's, it's still good enough to carry the story of the watery death of an entire planet.

If you remember back to your schooldays (a harder and harder job for some of us!) the hydrologic cycle taught us that there is not one extra drop of water now than there was at the time of creation. So where is the extra water coming from? Melting icecaps? That would only be responsible for a limited increase. The author comes up with a fairly plausible reason for the scenario - and guess what? - we're responsible! But I'll say no more about this aspect, as I don't want to spoil the book for readers.

This is a big fat tome but I galloped through it very quickly. There are a lot of evocative scenes that resonate in the mind long after the book is finished, and it reminded me of why I fell in love with SF in the first place some thirty years ago. I for one am greatly looking forward to the follow-up `Ark', due out next year.

Damp and worrying
For some reason the end of the world is rarely terrifying. From even the nastiest plagues, the most ferocious wars, the most apocalyptic asteroid strikes or alien invasions there is usually hope - hope of recovery, of rebuilding, a glimmer of light at the end of a long dark tunnel.
The brilliant thing about Flood is the sheer lack of hope. For once you lose the land you lose everything. Any terrestrial species, however brilliant, is doomed from the moment the waves lap around the highest mountains. Baxter at his hard sci-fi best here, providing a plausible mechanism for an implausible catastrophe. The episodic treatment works well and the characters, although a tad cliched (the grizzled old astronaut, a brace of plucky hardbody female scientists, several annoying teenagers) are engaging enough to carry the story along.

Washed away
Upon opening the envelope that this arrived it I loved the bit of marketing from the publisher, they'd put it in a zip lock bag. Yet apart from this piece of fun what did the book entail and how did it deliver?

In short this tale ended up a cross between Flood (the UK TV drama which also has a similar beginning) and Waterworld where death sails the seven seas (or rather the one sea with jutting bits of land) and mankind is forced to survive by wits and science cunning. Not only is the tale well written but its something of a "this is going to happen" feel about it rather than "it might happen" and this tale is perhaps something that should be used as a wake up call to mankind now unless we all learn to grow gills or sail like Sinbad. Well written although the Spartan style of description by Baxter does the reader a favour in my own opinion as there is nothing as vivid as the imagination for painting in the colours and of course imagining that devastation to mankind with the loss of so much land. A great piece of literature and as usual a style all of his own.