Flood (A Novel of the Flood)

I admit I approached this book with some trepidation. It had a certain odour about it, but I was in the mood for an apocalyptic SF dosed romp, and this seemed to be the best the shelves had to offer.
Sigh.
Where do I begin? Mostly, it's all be covered by other reviewers. The two-dimensional, cardboard characters, the unnatural attenion given to the former hostages by the super-wealthy industrialist, the fact they were all hostages together in the first place (convenient), the bizarre and irrational reasons for these characters to zip around the world to investigate/witness/dialogue about-disasters that never seem to generate true panic or desperation. I mean, every single land-based species on the planet is going to be in crisis here - where is the urgency? I had major issues with the "science" myself. Why, after having NEVER been completely covered with water during it's entire history, would the earth spontaneously release all these hidden reserves of water and flood the continents? ***SPOILER*** Apparently, it's Gaia - and she's all mad at us for being messy jerks. Wow. All this extrapolated from some possibly pourous rocks that might be under the asian continent. Really? It's almost as if Baxter had a few visual ideas (Oooh, Mt Everest slowly covered by rising oceans! Oooh, a giant Queen Mary floating off from the Andes!) with no coherent method of tying them together, and no logical way for it to even happen.
There are better books out there. Lots of them, in fact.
I have no intention of reading Ark at this point.

Boooooriiiiiiiinnnng. The synopsis sounded exactly like something I would love - apocalypse by water - thinking Waterworld but better - FUN! But no. This was like reading a book about the 100-years prior to waterworld where everyone is slow and boring and lifeless. I only made it half way and found myself simply not caring about the former-hostages (what a crock that was....unnecessary clutter to the story), or the "missing" child, or the hero scientists. Also, I seriously doubt the plausibility of this whole premise. :- /

Apocalyptic fiction that draws clear characters who seem like the people at work. There is enough real science in it without becoming too much for those of us who can get overwhelmed. I do plan to check out at least one of the documents Mr. Baxter has as a source. Fascinating topic.
Any way - good read.

Given its premise (massive, sudden and sustained floods across the world) this was always going to be a silly book. However, Baxter over-stepped the mark and the end result is disappointing. As several other reviewers have noted, the book's plot is overly dependent on unlikely coincidences and the activities which the major character of Lily becomes involved with are totally unconvincing. Moreover, the basic setup is dubious, as the main characters' background as hostages isn't worked into the plot and the science behind the disaster doesn't strike me as being at all plausible. The set piece disaster sequences are also curiously flat and undramatic as the plot moves on just as they're about to reach their climax.

That said, I enjoyed reading Flood. Despite its silliness, the plot was entertaining and reasonably well paced and contained enough twists and turns to keep my interest. While Lily became tedious (how can one person be so good at everything?) the secondary characters were somewhat more convincing and I managed to (just) suspend disbelief at the book's odder moments. All up, this was an entertaining read, but it could have been a lot better.

I really like authors merging science and fiction. Flood looked very promising in this regard and for the first 100-200 pages I was quite excited about the book. Baxter made the flooding of the world seem realistic, all of a sudden, and describes in detail how a global flood would impact the world as we know it. He did not succeed, however, in two important things : 1) bringing his main characters alive, so the reader gets to care about their faate and 2) after a strong start, I think the plot got completely bogged down and it felt to me that page after page their were just more descriptions of life on a planet under water. If neither the plot, nor the fate of the mian characters inspires, then it becomes quite hard to me to finish a book...

If you want to read drawn out descriptions of water rising this book is for you. We get it. Global sea level rises results in floods. We don't need a description of each road that gets covered in water.

If you want to read about a random group of undeveloped characters with no emotional connections traipsing around the world in helicopters and doing random stuff, then this book is for you.

I tried to like this book - the overall writing wasn't half bad (if a bit choppy) and the sea level rises sets up for a good dystopian backdrop, but the plot wasn't moving and there were too many shallow characters and disjointed story lines to keep track of. And there's a sequel! Oh god!

Many of the reviews here say that one-dimensional characters are to be expected in science fiction. For one thing, I don't believe that's true. But beyond that, this book's characters aren't just one-dimensional. In many cases, they behave in ways that are completely incomprehensible for a human being to behave.

Major life events happen to them... and they just don't react. A character's family implodes, but she's not really bothered. One character destroys everything another holds dear, but rather than a tense confrontation or a new phase in their relationship, we get a sudden flash-forward two years and a quick assurance that the two are now on speaking terms again. Every time a character dies, their family and friends seem to forget them and move on immediately - which is HUGELY detrimental to a plot that literally revolves around lots of people dying. The book essentially asks you to care about the collapse of humanity in all its detail, but not the death of any individual person.

The worst examples happen time and time again to the novel's young women. Baxter writes them as interesting, inquisitive children, but the second they grow into nubile young women, their personality disappears in service of The Plot in increasingly bizarre and sexually disturbing ways. One young woman is held prisoner, tortured and manipulated into marrying a man she doesn't love and having his child for convoluted Plot Reasons - all of it perpetrated by the *good guys*.

In an even more blood-boiling example, a much older man becomes obsessed with a preteen girl; attempts to browbeat her, condescend to her and control her sexual choices throughout the ensuing chapters; and finally murders her lover in front of her and then kidnaps her away from the place she lives - because if he can't have her, no one can. But hey! It's okay because that entire storyline only existed to make a point about the evils of hippies and indigenous rights activists. (Seriously.) We shouldn't be horrified that this girl's life was destroyed by a stalker old enough to be her father, because he's a Good Guy and he's older and smarter than her (knowing whose lovers to murder for their own good is TOTALLY wisdom that comes with age), and anyway she's pretty much over it by the next chapter. Her "revenge" is just refusing to talk to the murderer anymore. The other characters, including her own family, think she should just forgive him because he "cares about her". Sexually. Since she was a preteen. Again, everybody thinks this is TOTALLY NORMAL. In the end, she dies right after he does because the book has no use for her without a man to act as a foil to.

It's worth noting that in their childhood chapters, both of these female characters are explicitly written as clever, capable, tough survivors in their own right. But once they reach marriageable age, the book reduces them to cardboard MacGuffins who run around looking "bewildered" all the time. It's also worth noting that despite the protagonist's supposedly intense bond with both of these women, every time something bad happens to one of them, she either hangs back ambivalently (something she does a lot in the novel) or actively works against them. At no point in the novel does she take another woman's side.

Finally, I just gotta come back to the anti-indigenous rights thing. Stuff happens in this book and then gets forgotten ALL THE TIME, but even after the indigenous rights figurehead character is gone, superfluous digs about him keep popping up throughout the rest of the narrative like irritatingly smug side notes from the author himself. Ugh.

Two stars for the good descriptions, imaginative apocalypse scenario and some good rumination on the nature of human evolution, but the author clearly needs to work on writing people (especially women) as people instead of plot devices or politically-motivated caricatures.

Some good ideas here and interesting science. Was a bit disappointed with all the telling rather than showing. Right when the greatest moment of tension would present itself, the narrative would skip ahead to a future point and then briefly cover the results of the tension.

I enjoy Baxter's books. they have great prose and I like the fact that he, as an author, never seems to speak down to the reader. I would like a little faster action, and a little less repetition of his message. I recommend it and am looking forward to reading "Ark."

Flood

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. As an aficionado of disaster novels, I think this is a welcome addition to the genre. The scenario is this: how would we cope if the water levels started rising - and kept rising, and rising and rising...It follows the adventures of a few scientists as they try to save the world and their family from the rising waters. Sometimes I felt the scientific details of the disaster bogged the book down a bit but this is a minor complaint. I could also argue that all the scientific evidence made the scenario more believable.

the book was interesting for the most part but got slow for long stretches with lots of science that kinda drifted over my head at times.i feel that i know more about plate shifts and underwater seas then i do about the characters. i did like the fact that it told the story over the coarse of so many years and that this flood didn't take place in "movie time." sometimes felt like reading a bio textbook. but it was interesting and very detailed. much of their stay in iceland i had a hard time gettign through.

The main characters are supporting actors and do little to make you care about any of them. You can actually skip years in their lives and pages in the book and not miss much. It is an interesting book but it is more procedural than action. It could easily be shorter. The characters have nothing much going for them so the main story and the reason to read it is in finding out how we cope with the flood and what is the result for humanity.

A pretty good start to a new series from Baxter
He writes interesting books around the lives of his characters without descending into soaps
The scifi backbone of this book still maintains an interesting storyline without being unbelievable

I really loved the premise of Stephen Baxter's "Flood" -- sea level rise gone to an extreme. The "relentless" narrative is praised on the book cover but was the most frustrating part of the book. The first half of the book glossed over the effects of the flooding on society treating major events in a paragraph. I so wished Baxter had expanded on these areas. Instead much of the narrative is spent on dry detailed descriptions of flooding of the cities, which is useless to people who don't live in London or New York. Fortunately, the latter part of the book improves. As another reviewer said, Baxter seems to find his groove here and salvages the book near the end.

In this novel, undercrust seabeds start leaking into the oceans, causing the rise. But this has very little to do with the plot itself. Which is sort of the problem. The main characters are four people who were held hostage for four years by a Spanish Al-Qaeda faction. This is a profound character development that's totally glossed over in the story. I would have rather found out how these characters deal with four years in captivity than what I got instead. And they seem none the worse for wear for it.

What being a hostage has to do with the world flooding, I don't know, but they're rescued by some CEO of UltraTech who treats them like his personal pets, and acts as a deus ex machina through the story. He's the only one who can get the world out of the chaos by building generational ships, island cities, and helicoptering out when the going gets tough. Also one of the hostages has a baby conceived by terrorist rape and there's some sort of conflict to get her back. And the baby grows up to be an ungrateful bitch anyway. See what all that content has to do with the world flooding? No? Not surprised.

Here we have a background that has nothing to do with the foreground. In fact, I don't think I can tell you a single actual event or sequence that happened in the novel. There's so many characters scattered across the story and so much time that passes. It's like the words nibble away at the plot instead of taking satisfying bites.

Stephen Baxter has written an excellent "end of civilisation" book. Unlike a movie, this takes place over a long period of many years, which makes it that much more realistic and frightening.

It reminded me, in many ways, of John Barne's "Mother of Storms". It had that grandeosity about it.

The #blurbs that praise the book's relentless narrative drive are right on target. Unfortunately, the characters don't really grab me -- an awkward mix of British-market Britons and not very convincing Americans. Although the scientific premise is interesting--lots of water emerging from the mantle--the treatment of the scientific reaction felt off target. My view is that when presented with the opportunity to obtain huge masses of new data, scientists are typically delighted.

Before I began reading this book I was concerned it may be another "the sky is warming, the sky is warming!", greenhouse gas caused disaster novel. One cannot judge a book by its cover however, and I decided to push through. I was pleasantly surprised at the different concept Baxter uses to flood the earth. The book opens in Barcelona where we meet several of the main characters who will we follow through their adventures to survive. I never really understood exactly why these people are hostages. Their backgrounds are rather random from a hostage-takers point of view. Shortly after the introduction of the hostages a rich, visionary mogul appears on the scene with an inexplicable interest in them. Ostensibly its a publicity stunt, but he continues to take an interest in them despite outliving their usefulness to him which seems completely out of character. As others have said, the characters here are rather 2-dimensional and incongruously placed. For instance, one of the main characters is a USAF chopper pilot, suddenly she's piloting submarines, and part of the inner circle to the rich mogul. She is allowed a dizzying array of privileges with no real explanation. The backdrop of the global flood is interesting but the descriptions contained here read rather like a topography lesson than a human tragedy. London and the surrounding areas of Britain are listed off, a litany of locations largely unfamiliar to anyone who hasn't spent much time in the area. The same goes for scenes in New York. Much of the story describes the lead up to climactic events then cuts away from the scene to resume a couple of years later. The result keeps the reader on edge but never really satisfies. Overall I thought the first 60% of the book was very disjoint and frustrating whereas the second half of the book picked up speed and kept me interested. I think I will probably read the sequel to try to get some closure. Flood is ok, but not great.

Once again, Steven Baxter gives us one of those creative time-progression stories that he is so famous for. I could not put it down ! Unlike other Al Gore based global-warming hysteria novels and movies (Inconvenient Truth/The Coming Global Superstorm/The Day After Tomorrow), Baxter concedes that climate change is well beyond our control and really has nothing at all to do with mankind's stewardship of the planet. Rather than some collective 'Humans Suck' attitude, Baxter focuses on the individual bravery of those facing an ever-shrinking land mass over the course of decades. Like all of his novels, humans adapts through forced evolution, whether on the ocean or in space. I can't wait for the sequel !

Great book, kept me riveted the whole time. The book keeps up the pace of unending doom that is fascinating to read. I would have given it 5 stars but there are a couple of improbable encounters between characters but overall I recommend this book.

I was hoping for something interesting. This book was pure boredom. The characters seemed superficial and artificial. The descriptions of the floods are repetitive. I stopped reading one quarter through the book, looked at the end and saw nothing redeeming there either. A few-pages essay or short story might have been better.

Just finished reading "Flood", which I had to track down on the store.UK, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I could not put this book down. Baxter's story about the end of the world via a global flooding of an unforseen origin is gripping because he creates something most science fiction novels lack -intriguing, believable characters. We see the world end through their eyes and genuinely care about their fates. Coupled with some imagery that sticks in your mind (a submerisble tour of underwater London, a battle in the Andes as the last shreds of Earth slip away)and a relentless pace, "Flood" is the best science fiction I've read in many years.

I'm really trying to like this book...honestly, I am. It's a nice simple read, nothing too crazy. On that note, I must ask...Where in the world was this author's editor/publisher??? I am by no means an English major, but even I can see all of the missed commas, colon's, semi-colon's, etc...and just plain bad grammar. Now why do I even mention this??? Because it detracts from what I would other wise consider a good book. It's really that bad...the worst by far is when the author decides to say "noughties" instead of nineties. At first I thought this was yet another mistake, but I've seen this done about 10 times now and I'm only on page 142. Is this perhaps a European thing??? Not trying to sound like an idiot there, but I really have no earthly idea why someone would say/spell that. It isn't related to just one character speaking this way...they all say this when referring to the past in the 90's. It's really rather stupid. Other than this rant, I would of given the book 4 stars. It's not a bad read at all so far...It's just that the language skills used in this book are repulsive...

For a book titled "Flood" I found this story very "dry" (Pun intended). This story takes place over 20 plus years and at times feels like it. Had set it aside for a couple of days and almost did not finish it. I kept thinking that this was a dull mix of the end of the movie "2012" and a prequel for "Water World". Have not decided if I will move on to the squeal "Ark". As a side note without spoilers, the source of water idea is not new, creationist have suggested this regarding Noah's flood for many years.

I initially thought this book would be great, but I became steadily more disappointed. The author seems to spend a lot of effort developing the story, but minimal effort on developing deep characters that the reader can connect with. The "science" behind the book was interesting, but certainly not the characters themselves.

I initially thought this book would be great, but I became steadily more disappointed. The author seems to spend a lot of effort developing the story, but minimal effort on developing deep characters that the reader can connect with. The "science" behind the book was interesting, but certainly not the characters themselves.

This book was very disappointing. I gave up two thirds of the way through and I very rarely fail to finish a book. The story just plods on and on, no development, no raising of tension no climax in sight - nothing to keep me reading. Trite, stereotypical characters. Actually, it was pretty depressing too. Not entertaining at all.

I was excited when I first started reading Stephen Baxter's Flood. Finally, here was a book about sea levels rising that wasn't depending on global warming as the plot device. Mr. Baxter's device was scientifically plausible at first, but the waters never stopped rising. Can you imagine flood waters covering over Mt. Everest? It seemed that Mr. Baxter turned on the faucet and left the house with the water running....too bad. Now, anyone interested in watching "Waterworld?"

Usually like Baxter but not at this price:

Hard cover: $10
Paperback: $8

-----> Kindle ebook: $15

WTF!!!!!!!!!!

one less Baxter book sold/bought by FORMER Baxter reader. Hope the publisher and author are proud now.

Usually I enjoy Stephen Baxter, but I tossed this book back in the library bin after the first chapter. A female character was held with others in a hostage situation in Spain. When they were released it was mentioned that the baby that was with her was the product of rape. One of the male characters expressed disbelief that the woman would want a rape baby and I agreed. A female character, a pilot, became angry and went on about it not mattering who the father is. I guess this is our "post feminist" world where "empowered" women are gleeful over a rape baby. Maybe Sarah Palin was the ghost writer