Friday Wish-List

If any of you, the devoted reader, happen to be members of the Science Fiction Book Club you might have run across the sequel to this weeks book in their Featured Selections. That's where I came across it. Inevitably intrigued I set out to find more about Stephen Baxter, whom I've never read, and his book Flood.

I have to tell you, the reviews are a mixed bag. Some people who read the book were fairly negative:

"This book was the most depressing book I have ever read. I breezed through it quickly. This goes from bad to worse. By the end I just wanted to hide under the bed and cry. If you like happy endings don't read this." (from Stephanie at SFBC)

While others give it a thumbs up: 

"Flood is sopping genius. Dive straight in."

Some people just had a problem with the reality of it all:


"[T]his story is just too unbelievable. Since water isn't compressible, the volume needed to cover the top of the highest mountain, cannot be contained inside the earth. As a matter of fact, if you took the volume needed to fill an area from current sea level up to the highest mountain, it would likely equal a very good percentage of the earth's entire volume." (from Richard W at SFBC)

But I myself am not too worried about believability here. I'm good at ignoring that when reading a book.

(I once read a book where a girl was secretly smuggled out of an orphanage under an alias... then her adoptive parents die and 30 years later she somehow figures it all out by finding a box of her possessions in the attic of her childhood home--in India--which she didn't know existed until she opened the door.... I can do unbelievable, but that's besides the point)

My one concern about this book is that I don't know the author, I don't know his style and I don't particularly trust SFBC to send me books that aren't going to be gritty, gory, and/or explicit. Does anyone have any advice? Have you read Stephen Baxter or Flood?


Book: Flood by Stephen Baxter