THE DROWNED WORLD marked j. G. Ballard's emergence as a major writer, one of the most original of our time. Technically brilliant, dazzingly inventive, Ballard uses fantasy to reflect the aberrations of contemporary society and to penetrate its labyrinthine passages. This early novel by the author of CRASH and EMPIRE OF THE SUN is at once a fast-paced narrative, a stunning evocation of a flooded, tropical London of the near future and a speculative foray into the workings of the unconscious mind.