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... ( )

Please see review on my blog: Underground Man:

http://undergroundmangeomatt.blogspot... ( )

I have particularly mixed feelings about 'The Drought.' On the one hand, it is an interesting exploration of one person's feelings of abandonment, and his desire for isolation; on the other hand, it's allegedly a story about the end of civilisation that doesn't really go far enough in showing what happens when rational society crumbles. Ballard is at his wordiest, with long expository sections that do a wonderful job of relating the inner world of the main character, Ransom, though such wordiness then makes many of the action scenes seem rough and hard to follow. Overall, a good dystopian story that could have been much better. ( )

This book is set in a near future where it has stopped raining, and so water is at a premium. Civilisation has apparently collapsed and the population of a small town is deserting it to head for the coast. Its quite a bleak book, and has some interesting ideas. However I didn't find the writing that gripping and found the characters too bizarre (even at the start of the crisis) to be sympathetic. ( )

I was a bit disappointed by this one, which I didn't think was as good as High-Rise. While some of the description of the catastrophe was haunting, there are only so many dusty landscapes, dry riverbeds, and remains of boats that one can read about before it gets very samey. And the characters didn't appeal to me at all. ( )