George Turner
Drowning Towers (1988)
Author: George Turner
Genre: Science Fiction
Plot Summary:
Set in the mid-2100's, this Arthur C. Clark award winning book, portrays life in Melbourne, Australia, after major global warming has occurred, and much of the city is covered with water from the melting polar ice cap. (While Melbourne is the specific location of the book, it is suggested that the rest of the world is also experiencing the same problems.) It is now eternal summer. Due to technological advances, there are few actual jobs, and 90% of the city's inhabitants are unemployed, housed in huge towers of concrete in hideous living conditions. The population is divided into two parts: the "swills" (unemployed and warehoused) and the "sweets" ( the 10% with jobs, living protected lives above the water line). This is the story of one family, the Conways - for most of the book, a mother and two teenaged sons, the father having comitted suicide early on due to losing his job. The descent of these previous "sweets" into the "fringe" ( two blocks away from the Swill enclaves) and their battles to survive make up the story. Aided by "Billy" a Swill tower boss, they barely survive and learn much about the "non-sweet" life. Politics of the progressively dying city (and world) is central in this saga. Many forces attempt to forestall what looks like the inevitable total destruction, and in some respects, many old enemies work together for the common goal of survival. The first half of the book concerns itself with the two boys and their mother, trying to cope with the real situation, and the second half concerns itself with attempts at solutions. Intrigue, violence, love and conciliation are equally prevalent in this cautionary work.
Geographical Setting: Melbourne Australia
Time Period: mid-2100's, plus a preface and epilogue from the viewpoints of a scientist and a playwright of some future time. Also there is a present day (1988) postscript by the author.
Appeal Characteristics:
The author is able to take the reader into the not unimaginable future with reasonable ease. The "greenhouse" effect, which many now fear, is full blown in this book. The details are at times revolting and violent, but add to the autheticity of the tale. Positive aspects are the humanity that does assert itself in all the characters. The book is divided into first person accounts from the six main characters. THere are no true villains here. The relationships among the characters are complicated, but quite believable.
Read-alikes: Laura Mixon's Proxies is another global warming cautionary tale with more technological complexities; John Barnes' Mother of Storms is a weather disaster thriller; Mona Clee's Overshoot deals with global warming in the same time period--and is a parable for the future; Adam Celaya's Earth: the New Frontier addresses an atomic winter that causes disparate groups to unite; Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain is the first book in a trilogy concerning scientists trying to deal with an impending global warming disaster.
Red Flags: Extreme violence; some sex; some profanity; detailed descriptions of complete squalor.
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