Flood

by Stephen Baxter

Overview

Four hostages are rescued from a group of religious extremists in Barcelona. After five years of being held captive together, they make a vow to always watch out for one another. But they never expected this. The world they have returned to has been transformed-by water. And the water is rising.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780575084827
Publisher:	Gollancz, Victor Limited
Publication date:	07/28/2009
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	1,009,319
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Stephen Baxter was born in Liverpool, England, in 1957. He holds degrees in mathematics, from Cambridge University; engineering, from Southampton University; and business administration, from Henley Management College. He’s a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society.

His first professionally published short story appeared in 1987. He has been a full-time author since 1995 and is currently Vice-President of the British Science Fiction Association.

His science fiction novels have been published in the UK, the US, and in many other countries including Germany, Japan, France. His books have won several awards including the Philip K Dick Award, the John Campbell Memorial Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, the Kurd Lasswitz Award (Germany) and the Seiun Award (Japan) and have been nominated for several others, including the Arthur C Clarke Award, the Hugo Award and Locus awards. He has also published over 100 sf short stories, several of which have won prizes. He can be found at stephen-baxter.com.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A largely old-fashioned disaster tale presented with spectacle and efficient pacing."
-Locus

"A gripping near-future allegory of global warming."
-BBC Focus

"Bold, compassionate, exhilarating, wrenching stuff."
-Niall Harrison, Internet Review of Science Fiction

Editorial Reviews

While Baxter doesn't spend a lot of time on individual psychology, he deftly captures the way people as a group delude themselves into thinking that things are going to be okay, even when clearly they are not. In that sense, the story is horrifyingly believable.
—The Washington Post

Sara Sklaroff

In an engrossing, daring and occasionally overambitious novel, Baxter (Weaver) narrates the final 42 years of dry land on earth. Four political hostages are freed in Barcelona in 2016, and their stories through the years show the attempts to save the planet even as rapidly rising ocean levels wipe out major cities. USAF Capt. Lily Brooke works with billionaire Nathan Lammockson to build a haven, while oceanographer Thandie Jones attempts to determine the causes of the flooding. Baxter skips ahead years at a time, often eliding major conflict resolutions, character development and deaths; this choice disrupts the storytelling but smartly underscores the isolation in which the characters often operate. Readers who push through will be rewarded with a fascinating apocalyptic vision-but little resolution-a nice setup for a sequel. (May)

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Publishers Weekly

Four hostages freed after five years of captivity by a Spanish extremist group vow to keep in touch. But with the oceans steadily rising and governments, corporations, and determined individuals battling for a solution, the hostages find themselves caught in currents of intrigue and politics. The best-selling author of the "Time's Tapestry" series takes a familiar doomsday scenario and gives it an unexpected twist of mythical proportions. The first of two books, this sf horror thriller presents hard science and theoretical plausibilities in a visceral and immediate style. A new postapocalyptic sf classic that should appeal to fans of disaster fiction and Kim Stanley Robinson's eco-trilogy (e.g., Forty Signs of Rain).

—Jackie Cassada

Library Journal

"A largely old-fashioned disaster tale presented with spectacle and efficient pacing."
-Locus

"A gripping near-future allegory of global warming."
-BBC Focus

"Bold, compassionate, exhilarating, wrenching stuff."
-Niall Harrison, Internet Review of Science Fiction

From the Publisher