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Stephen Baxter
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Book
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Publisher | Gollancz | ||
ISBN | 9780575084827 | ||
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Reviewer
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Steve
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Synopsis
Next year. Sea levels begin to rise. The change is far more rapid than any climate change predictions; metres a year. Within two years London, only 15 metres above the sea, is drowned. New York follows, the Pope gives his last address from the Vatican, Mecca disappears beneath the waves. Where is all the water coming from? Scientists estimate that the earth was formed with seas 30 times in volume their current levels. Most of that water was burnt off by the sun but some was locked in the earth's mantle. For the tip of Everest to disappear beneath the waters would require the seas to triple their volume. That amount of water is still much less than 1% of the earth's volume. And somehow it is being released. The world is drowning. The biblical flood has returned. And the rate of increase is building all the time. Mankind is on the run, heading for high ground. Nuclear submarines prowl through clouds of corpses rising from drowned cities, populations are decimated and finally the dreadful truth is known. Before 50 years have passed there will be nowhere left to run. FLOOD tells the story of mankind's final years on earth. The stories of a small group of people caught up in the struggle to survive are woven into a tale of unimaginable global disaster. And the hope offered for a unlucky few by a second great ark ...
Review
This book takes the flooding disaster plot and widens it to impact on a global scale. The central characters are hostages at the start of the book, but then their fates are linked with the businessman who rescues them. The story is divided into episodes, over several decades, each separated by several years as the flood worsens and plans have to change. The backdrop changes from London, to America, the Andes and the Himalayas and elsewhere as they seek increasingly crowded sanctuaries.
It wasn't difficult to picture the ‘film-of-the-book', as it did include some of the typical roles you might expect: the hard-headed businessman willing to do whatever it takes to survive; the hardened ex-forces guy (though here a woman) determined to save what family they have; the maverick scientist struggling to convince the establishment... In some ways it could almost be a prequel to Kevin Costner's film Waterworld.
As someone employed by the Environment Agency with some involvement in Flood Warnings I had a personal interest in this plot, over and above my normal sci-fi interest. The cause of the flooding is highly speculative, but is apparently based on theories published in Nature and New Scientist. I wonder if this novel will spark further investigation into the basis for those theories?
The wider societal impacts as greater numbers of people need to move to higher ground was something that probably comes across better in a novel like this. I did find it difficult to sympathise with the characters, despite their drastic situation. It felt almost as though the idea of the flood came first, and they were created to illustrate how it impacted people. Having said that, I would read a sequel - to find out how (or even if) the survivors lasted on a very different world from the one we're used to.
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