The Drowned World

The Drowned World is a 1962 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by British author J.G. Ballard. Set in a future London that has been completely submerged in the ocean due to climate change-induced flooding, it follows a group of scientists who embark on a mission to study its unique, rapidly evolving flora and fauna. The novel is an extension of a shorter story published in Science Fiction Adventures. The novel is one of the first works in the “climate fiction” subgenre of science fiction, which responds to real-world anxieties about the incontrovertible evidence supporting the existence of climate change. Widely considered Ballard’s best work, The Drowned World is a prescient warning about the potential for global warming to make unpredictable changes to earth’s ecosystems.



The novel begins in 2145, an unknown number of years after London is abandoned. The area is now an unrecognizable, steaming stretch of salt water slightly isolated from the sea by a low land bank. A biologist, Dr. Robert Kerans, leads a multidisciplinary scientific survey team to the lagoon. Their mission is at first straightforward and somewhat uninspired: they seek to create a report of the changes in biological activity in the region. After they arrive in flooded London, the team members are troubled by incomprehensible and terrifying dreams.