The Drowned World

Set in the year 2145 in a post-apocalyptic and unrecognisable London, ‘The Drowned World’ is a setting of tropical temperatures, flooding and accelerated evolution. Ballard’s story follows the biologist Dr Robert Kerans and his struggles against the devolutionary impulses of the environment. As part of a scientific survey unit sent to map the flora and fauna in the boiling lagoon, the tranquility and banality of their role is soon upset by the onset of strange dreams which increasingly plague the survivors’ minds. Amidst talk of the army and scientific team moving north away, Hardman, the only other commissioned member of the unit, a “burly, intelligent but somewhat phlegmatic man of about 30”, flees the lagoon and instead heads south, a search team unable to find his whereabouts.