First published 2009
The rains have stopped. Dr. Charles Ransom watches civilization crumble as radioactive industrial waste forms an unbreachable membrane across the world's oceans. No water evaporates. No clouds form. The relentless sun bakes the earth into a global wasteland. Rivers become dust. Lakes turn to cracked mud. Cities empty as desperate populations migrate toward the last remaining water sources. Ransom witnesses the breakdown of social order as violence erupts among the survivors. Madness spreads as quickly as the drought itself. Communities fracture under the strain of competition for every precious drop. The doctor must navigate this new world where water has become more valuable than gold, where the remnants of humanity fight over what little remains. Ballard's early novel captures the terror of environmental collapse and the fragility of the systems that sustain human life.
Genres: fiction, science-fiction, dystopia, environmental-science, climate-change, apocalyptic
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: resource-scarcity, societal-collapse
240 pages · ebook · Fourth Estate
Content warnings: violence