Of the 5 Stephen Baxter novels I have read so far, Flood is the most enjoyable. Being a disaster adventure tale about a flood of more-than-Biblical proportions, it starts out with an urgent description of the effects of what at first seem to be climate change and global warming that made me hold my breath. The first say 10 (relatively short) chapters are also the novel’s best, as the urgency soon dissipates when the scope of the disaster becomes just a tad too much. Add to that the fact that the only 2 characters I found interesting at all (Gary and Michael) remained largely in the background. It lost me completely with the eventual introduction of race-targeted bio-weapons into the plot line. Hmm.
But all in all there were moments I did enjoy the novel. The opening chapters and the small vignette chapters with Kristie’s diary entries interspersed throughout the novel do stand out. Of the latter, particularly chapters 36 and 51 are pure gems. It seems my favorite bits from Flood are those where it reminds me of great masterpieces of British SF: Ballard’s The Drowned World for the scenes of London submerging, and Bruner’s Stand on Zanzibar for Kristie’s diary.
A worthy but not essential read.