The Drought - J.G. Ballard Book Review

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"The Drought"
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Review Summaries

"For ten years, drought conditions around the planet have been worsening. Dr. Charles Ransom, separated from his wife Judith, has been hanging on in the mountain community of Hamilton as the lake and river dry up and people flee for the ocean. Eventually he joins the exodus, while a few religious and other crazies stay and fight among one another. For another 10 years, people fight and steal from one another at ocean's edge, where the government has set up compounds of water distillation plants, but there's not enough for everyone, salt dunes pile up, and near anarchy reigns. When a wild animal from an inland zoo shows up, there's a wild hope that water has turned up somewhere along the way, and Ransom and a small band of others make their way back up the riverbed to Hamilton, there to make a last stand. This is the third of Ballard's four early (1960s) end-of-the-world-scenario novels, originally titled _The Burning World_."
David Loftus, Resident J.G. Ballard Scholar

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Overall Review

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 20%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 30%

Tone of book - depressing/sad
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Explore/1st contact/ enviro story Yes
Plotlets: - surviving a post environmental/nuclear disaster - surviving natural elements on planet
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - doctor
Age: - 40's-50's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - natural phenomena
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - throughout most of the book.

Setting
Terrain - Desert - Water - Mountains
Earth setting: - near future (later in 21st century)
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only) - none/very little science jargon needed
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - actual description of sex
How much dialogue? - significantly more descript than dialog

Most similar books by Gordonator ranking
The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
The Wind From Nowhere by J.G. Ballard
Thinning the Herd by David L. Fraley
Snowfall by Mitchell Smith
Ashes, ashes by René Barjavel

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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