I knew this was not going to go well when one character said to another that it stood to reason that floodwater would not rise higher than the old (pre-Roman) shoreline. The author had earlier said that sea levels had risen one metre between 2010 and 2016, on top of the measured rise between 1900 and 2010 (around 20cm) and any earlier changes. He was also describing a storm surge at the time which had over-topped the 20.1m high Thames Barrier. Instead of pointing out that the position of the beach two millennia earlier was as relevant and reasonable as the proverbial banana in the circumstances, our character goes sploshing off down the Strand. I have to say I finished this book wondering what the message was? If it was to make people aware of the dangers of global warming it didn't touch on what had actually happened to bring about this world with any clarity. If it was that tragedy brings out the worst in humans then it did a good job but it didn't go deep enough. We do our part, but God does the hardest. He never expects us to carry the weight of what it means to believe Him / above all our doubts. Trust often feels like the hard thing … in the midst of the hard thing. But I have to also remind myself that God has a habit of doing holy things in the midst of the hard things.” (p. 118-119) A small group of hostages are rescued after years of captivity and find themselves in an unrecognizable world where the oceans are slowly taking over.

Two stars seems rather harsh for a book that I was able to finish, but going by the good reads guidelines "it was okay". So two stars it is. Most of this occurs off-handedly, like it's a normal, every day occurrence. How about something a little more than one line blurted out at the end of a chapter? My favorite involved the group that trekked all the way from Nebraska to the Andes in hopes of finding refuge. After years of effort, one of the main characters asks for entrance into the city, but is denied. When told of this, a companion responds, "Well, you tried." The water is a minor inconvenience, puddles really, a chance to wear wellies. Although everyone in the city could feel the difference, life ‘carried on in its usual rhythm‘. ‘ After all, it was just a bit of water‘. The book also pointed out that “nature” could mete out punishment far in excess of anything humans could inflict on themselves. We’re relative pikers at creating Extinction Level Events.The book suffers from "too much stuff" plain and simple. There is so much time spent on world building and explaining the new (and sometimes wrong) geography that the book never is gripping. It's dull and lifeless, and it is worsened by the characters that are never give any development or detailed personalities. There are brief moments of grief and human moments, but it's overshadowed by the fact that the book is written almost like a text book with a jarring amount of chapter breaks and time skips. Characters die and it isn't mentioned for chapters, and when it is brought up it's 3 years later and no one is remotely sad over it anymore. One of the main character practically serves as an incubator to stir up drama and plot that will drive the next book. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but it's the only way I can explain it. Another plot takes place in Peru, and offers the hard symbolism of the entire human race as the former Incan empire. What a devastating and epic novel. Flood is the story of planetary catastrophe, of a titular flood that subsumes human civilization. The flood comes gradually at first. All the animals ignore the obvious and go about their busy lives, disjointed from one another and preoccupied by their own problems. Eventually, the flood water reaches a height that they can no longer ignore and they have to work together to save their city.

The pacing was fast, choppy even at times and the narrative quite disjointed. the ending came with a large dose of skepticism on my part as it was unbelievable and unsatisfactory.When it was written, the world’s major anxiety was nuclear weapons: The possibility that the United States and the Soviet Union (with a much smaller role played by China) would annihilate humanity with a massive exchange of explosions and radiation was a pervasive nightmare. Lucifer's Hammer was a clear response to this anxiety. It allowed the authors the chance to explore many of the likely consequences of nuclear war without triggering the enmity of either the “peace-nik” or “warmonger” crowds. Curiously, it wasn’t until several years later that the “nuclear winter” hypothesis made a cometary impact an even more appropriate stand-in for a massive nuclear exchange. Zoe, left behind in the confusion, survives there as best she can. Alone and desperate among marauding gangs, she manages to dig a derelict boat out of the mud and escape to Eels Island. But Eels Island, whose raggle-taggle inhabitants are dominated by the strange boy Dooby, is full of dangers too. Illustrated in muted colours with a vibrant pantone blue for the water there is much humour in the illustrations and text, with many laugh out loud images before everyone realises that something must be done. The solution is simple when everyone works together. But it's not explicitly sad. Characters do not mourn, usually. They are numb, exhausted, very emotionally controlled. We see more destruction than death. There are moments of human horror - notably a brutal Tibetan enclave - but Flood concerns itself more with ecological devastation. I'm not sure what to make of this, if it's a sign of realism with people being too worn out and overwhelmed to emote, or a limitation of Baxter's writing range.

Stephen Baxter is a prolific author, and it shows in a number of his works - they are very Clarkian, taking an interesting idea (in this case a vast planet drowning flood) and following it to it's conclusion. Flooded is an allegory of community responsibility. Not only is Mariajo Ilustrajo’s storytelling deft and attention grabbing, but the way she sequences the story, with huge landscape images against comic style intimate commentary, is assured. Altogether, Flooded is an exceptional, confident and necessary picture book that we recommend to readers of all ages. Remember, the ark wasn't built in a day. And this incredible thing God is building in you won't happen in a day either.” (p. 113) Outstanding Picture book. Gorgeous colors used in such a way that surely depict nature's rage in a way kids can understand and assimilate. The story presents the process any family could pass if there is an emergency in their home towns. The family on this story will try to save their home but at the end it only will depend on nature's course. The floods in south Yorkshire and Derbyshire may not be on the same scale, but people living there may also feel they have been abandoned. And the time may come when the cities of Britain are as threatened by floodwater as New Orleans was during Katrina. Clare Morrall’s When the Floods Came is a precise, disturbing vision of a flooded Birmingham, which serves as a companion piece to JG Ballard’s reimagining of London as a tropical lagoon in The Drowned World. In Morrall’s dystopia, the capital of the flood-diminished country has moved to Brighton, and disease has wiped out most of the population. Those who are left depend on Washington and Beijing for food and medicine. The opportunities for preventing these visions of the future coming true are reducing; but they are not yet gone.As the water continues to rise and humans try to find a way to explain or beat the flood, chaos takes over every corner of the world. And countries start to disappear. I was horrified when I read about what happens to Sydney. :( Kun vesi alkaa nousta enemmän kuin tiedemiehet suostuvat ymmärtämään ja hallitukset yrittävät rauhoitella kansalaisiaan pääsevät päähenkilömme rikkaan visionäristin suojeluksessa kokemaan jotain mistä muut eivät voi uneksiakaan. Kirjassa seurataan nelikon elämää n. 40 vuoden aikajänteellä tulvan valtaaman maapallon myllerryksissä. Mahtavan avartavia ajatuksia nousi dystopiaa rakastavaan mieleeni ihmisen ahdingosta kun nouseva vesi valtaa merkittävässä määrin ihmiskunnan elämiseen soveltuvaa maapinta-alaa. As with many of his books the typical cast of scientists are generally unreflective and fail to present a plausible inner life in response to what is going on around them.

What’s more important than the storm itself is what happens when the worst of it clears. When we witness communities come together to help one another rebuild their homes and businesses, schools and hospitals. Cleaning up the community, shaping up the community, striving to make it better than it was before. That’s a powerful message to send to children.First of all, a vast majority of this book is masses of expository text: One character bringing another up to speed on a third, the narrator describing the science behind some phenomenon, or, my bête noir, maps drawn with words. Do I really need to be told everything? Can nothing be left to the imagination? I think we often confuse 'in charge of and 'in control of.' God has and always will be sovereign over everything … But God is not controlling us in the steps we decide to take … Think about God like a coach. The coach has the team's plan … He gives them instructions. But ultimately it is up to the team to decide if they will follow the plan …” (p. 137) This mixture of irrelevance, error and confusion continues throughout the book. It is about rising sea levels, but from hydrothermal plumes rather than global warming; at least I think it is, although it is mainly about some people meeting each other in various disaster areas over a period of years. This illustrations were part of my children´s picture book: Flooded, which I did for my last project at my MA, at Anglia Ruskin University.