The world is threatened by dramatic climate change in this highly acclaimed and influential novel, one of the most important early works by the bes...
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reviews
Sep 17, 2011
David
rated it: 
There are serious moments you think this book is really going to kick into gear and then doesn't. Aspects of the book are unclear and at times I wasn't sure what was going on. It is not the easiest or flowing of books, and it is rather unengaging. However, ...
The use of language with regards to time is very good, as the drought is in its first couple of months at the beginning of the book, society rapidly deteriorates, creating a suspended sensation of time, it is merely weeks after the drou More...
The use of language with regards to time is very good, as the drought is in its first couple of months at the beginning of the book, society rapidly deteriorates, creating a suspended sensation of time, it is merely weeks after the drou More...
May 04, 2011
Corey
rated it: 
The last Ballard I read was "The Unlimited Dream Company." That book was amazing. This book was ok-pale in comparison to that.
Ballard's prose is nothing special. His sentence structures never attracted me to his writing and honestly, sometimes his use of similes becomes quite annoying (especially when too many end the paragraphs). What attracts me to his books are simply his stories. The oddness of the way environments can make us behave or the way the environments appear t More...
Ballard's prose is nothing special. His sentence structures never attracted me to his writing and honestly, sometimes his use of similes becomes quite annoying (especially when too many end the paragraphs). What attracts me to his books are simply his stories. The oddness of the way environments can make us behave or the way the environments appear t More...
Aug 06, 2011
Durdles
rated it:
A book to stop you leaving the tap run while cleaning your teeth. Imagine a world where it has stopped raining due to a polluting scum on the surface of the sea that prevents the evaporation part of the water cycle. An unlikely senario but go with it. The country (never revealed but they seem to speak English) gradually dessicates and there is a general emigration to the seaside where desalination plants give hope. A doctor (naturally - many literary heroes are doctors)remains as long as he is a
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Feb 11, 2012
Dan
rated it:
a few suggestive descriptions can't save this one from being a terrible bore. ballard chooses the wrong parameters for his narrative - trying to wedge the pseudo-scientific atmosphere he's known for into the confines of a pulp sci-fi novel. the result is an incoherent mix of existential surrealism and broad twilight zone-isms, minus the infectious glee of the latter. all the characters are either dull or cartoonish. ballard seems as indifferent to them as i was, but insists on stringing them alo
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Mar 29, 2010
Ev
rated it: 
...Like all purgatories, the beach was a waiting ground, the endless stretches of wet salt sucking away from them all but the hardest core of themselves. These tiny nodes of identity glimmered in the light of the limbo, the zone of nothingness that waited for them t0 dissolve and deliquesce like the crystals dried by the sun..."
"...The coastal hills now marked the edges of the desert that stretched in a continuous table across the continent, a waste-land of dust and ruined More...
"...The coastal hills now marked the edges of the desert that stretched in a continuous table across the continent, a waste-land of dust and ruined More...
Jun 15, 2011
Shawn
rated it:
As noted in the review for The Drowned World, another part of the quartet of Ballard's "Elemental Apocalypse" - formerly titled THE BURNING WORLD, this describes a future in which water has grown scarce (yet another possibility for our future, sadly). IIRC, it starts out with the realization of what's going on just beginning to grip the populace of a British suburb, and then at mid-book jumps ahead a number of years to the dessicated, blasted future where rag-tag groups skate across v
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Aug 21, 2009
F.R.
rated it:
I haven’t explored Ballard’s early, more traditional, sci-fi work as much as I should have – but having now read The Drought I will certainly fill that gap in my knowledge. This is a brilliant end of the world story, where our planet runs out of water and mankind does its best to survive. Brilliantly written, this new desert world is brought to life expertly by one of the finest imaginations of the 20th century.
Feb 15, 2011
Paul
rated it:
As with all of Ballard's stuff, it leads to a dreamlike or hallucinatory state. Like being savaged by a dead sheep, to misquote a British politician. I always find that Ballard's books are best read in batches. It's like having flu without the aches and pains.
Apr 14, 2011
Ryan
rated it: 
Not everyday you get to read a dystopian novel that culminates with misshapen children and a delusional drag queen. This was like an alternate universe 'Chinatown.' Hopefully, someone will make a CGI loaded film out of this one day.
Dec 17, 2009
kareem
rated it:
My friend Jon lent this to me when I mentioned I liked dystopic fiction. I don't read much fiction, but a book about a world in which a drought has severely changed living conditions, written by a very under-appreciated science fiction author, has appeal. Interestingly, author J.G. Ballard wrote Crash: A Novel, on which David Cronenberg based the movie of the same name.
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Aug 01, 2009
Erik
rated it:
J.G. Ballard is an exceptionally good writer whose works are not confined to science fiction. This one is a relevant, near future environmental catastrophe novel.
Mar 21, 2010
Stacy
rated it:
Looking for more Ballard--got this one off the bargain shelf at my local bookstore. Any thoughts on what works are considered his "best" would be appreciated.
Nov 26, 2011
Adam
rated it:
The Drought by J. G. Ballard was one of those books that I read because of the brief description. I thought it sounded amazing but knew nothing about the author. Once I got about half-way through, I realized that I was only in it for the apocalyptic portion and didn’t care enough about any of the characters to wish rain upon them. It is a rather short novel (176 pages in the version I read) so it isn’t a major waste of time if you end up not liking it, and I’m not saying you won’t. I personally
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May 10, 2011
David
rated it:
Amazing ecological horror, fantastic environmental apocalypse novel, considering it was written in the mid sixities i think it is right up there with John Brunner's The Sheep Look up. Full review coming.
Mar 18, 2009
Simon
rated it:
Well crafted for mood and atmosphere but not so much for characterisation and plot.
Jun 21, 2011
Early Ballard novel. World turned upside down scenerio. Fall and realingement of society as a result of a drought.
Oct 28, 2010
Leticia
rated it:
it was kind of hard to understand at points but it was good i guess !
Feb 08, 2010
Charles Dee
rated it:
One secret to enjoying this novel is to keep all images of any Kevin Costner movie out of you mind while reading it.
Dec 15, 2007
the dreamlike quality of the action (it seems wrong to even call it action). the introspective withdrawal of the characters. their stilted, almost ritualistic, interactions. ballard's disaster novels are so rarely about disasters, as such. evocative. like reading through heat shimmer.
Feb 03, 2008
Lane
rated it:
i bought this from Shakespeare & Co. during the height of the 2003 European heatwave and read it in a comfortably air-conditioned train-station in the Netherlands. a decent story of dystopia, but it was just not that engaging of a read. i know that Ballard can do better than this...
Dec 09, 2009
Neris
rated it:
This was wonderful. It takes a while to get going but the descriptions of the dying landscapes, the desperation without becoming overly indulgent in "it's the end of the woooorld" stuff, is good. It needs to be read slowly though. It's so remarkably visual. Great book.
Apr 06, 2011
Marcus
rated it:
Good not great. Felt like I lost about 100 pages between parts 1 and 2.
Feb 12, 2012
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