Disappointing and a bit repetitive - Rated 
I was a bit disappointed by this one, which I didn't think was as good as High-Rise. While some of the description of the catastrophe was haunting, there are only so many dusty landscapes, dry riverbeds, and remains of boats that one can read about before it gets very samey. And the characters didn't appeal to me at all.
The Drought - Rated 
JG Ballard's 2nd novel (or 3rd if you count the disowned and out of print `The Wind Out of Time') works as a mirror-image to that of `The Drowned World', with Ballard again exploring the psychological effects of a dystopian future environment, only this time with a severe lack of water rather than a submerged planet. Again, as with `The Drowned World' this is a novel which is fairly light in terms of conventional plot or narrative drive and so can appear rather languid at times, but it is rich with symbolism and startling imagery that will stay with the reader for long afterwards. Not Ballard's best perhaps, but a memorable read nonetheless.
The un-drowned world - Rated
This is a compelling and all-too-real piece of science fiction. Ballard focuses on only a few characters, and sketches the wider events. This makes the portrait of the collapse of society all the more troubling. The descent from civilisation to primitive tribal life on the edge is convincing. A perpetual drought forces people to the edge of the sea, where the competition for water and food is intense. Only a few survive. As ever, Ballard is working at two levels, and this is also the descent into the characters losing their very identities. Most of the survivors live in subjugation. While in "The Drowned World" the characters find their primeval selves, here they risk losing all identity. The end is not the strongest part of the book, but perhaps the problem with Ballard's method is having no where further to go when everything has changed. Well worth the journey.
Ballard Had to Start Somewhere - Rated 
I'm a huge Ballard fan and some of my other reviews of his books lie in other dark corners of the Amazon site but this a very disappointing early effort from arguably our greatest living English writer. It's usual Ballard fayre-the alien planet is Earth, hugely flawed characters, anti-heroes, magnificent imagery. But this book feels too disjointed even for Ballard and there is no continuity between the chapters. I am currently reading 'Terminal Beach' which is a collection of his brilliant short stories and maybe 'Drought' should have stayed that way (ditto 'Crystal World' another relative Ballard stinker). If you want an introduction to the great man's works read 'Cocaine Nights' or 'Empire of the Sun' or especially 'Crash'. This one is definitely for fans only and I thought I was a fan! It was painful to read and even more painful to give up half way through. Avoid.
An early classic from Mr Ballard - Rated
The new budget price edition of 'The Drought' is a welcome addition to the current available oeuvre of J G Ballard. Plus, the cover is very nice (and goes well with the other 60's reissues that have accompanied it: Kerouac's 'Big Sur' & Miller's 'Tropic of Cancer' among them). It is another welcome reissue, following the new editions of 'High Rise', 'Concrete Island', 'The Unlimited Dream Company' etc. that followed the fresh 'Super Cannes'...This novel is Ballard's second proper- the follow-up and geophysical reverse of his debut, 'The Drowned World' (a superb reissue of which is available on the SF Masterworks label). As Ballard's debut, 'The Drought' is a romp between Conrad and Golding- with the SF inflection of enviromental entropy...The first two novels are Ballard's most enjoyable tomes- not as psychollogically sombre or zinc chilled- until 'Empire of the Sun' was written. In this way 'The Drought' & 'Drowned World' are closer to 'Rushing to Paradise' or 'Cocaine Nights'. As ever, Ballard takes a single concept and applies it to his fictional world; water is the equivalent of petrol in 'Mad Max 2:The Road Warrior'...The character's have to adjust to these changes a la Darwin or sink into sand...The Freudian symbolism, as in the debut, suggests Ballard's childhood captured in 'Empire...' and 'A User's Guide to the Millennium' (such as the emptying swimming pool). While the desert void evokes the excellent 'Hardware' and the timeless dream plain of Dali's paintings or Jungian imagery...The ideal introduction to Ballard would include this and its predecessor, along with the fantastic short-story collections, 'The Voices of Time' & 'The Terminal Beach'. The latter, along with personal events, would lead to the dark dissection of the 20th Century, 'The Atrocity Exhibition' and the Urban-Disaster Trilogy ('Crash'; 'Concrete Island'; 'High Rise'). Be warned: Ballard takes a single concept in 'The Drought', as in his later books, and takes it to a logical conclusion. There are not reams of plot- but imagery as rich as Burroughs or 'Heart of Darkness'. An imaginative portrait of ecological shifts- which, of course, will never happen- if you believe Bush Jr. and his oilswilling Campaign funding representatives...This book is years ahead of its time and an example of Ballard at his most SF; an early classic from Mr Ballard.
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