From the inside of the dust jacket:  “Four hostages are rescued from a group of religious extremists in Barcelona.  After five years of being held captive together, they make a vow to always watch out for one another.  But they never expected this…  The world they have returned to has been transformed—by water.  And the water is rising.  As climate predictions are tossed aside and the earth’s major cities are threatened, the former captives find themselves fighting this new threat on all fronts.  In his element, NASA scientist Gary Boyle throws himself into researching the extreme weather.  The storms can’t stop Helen Gray from searching for the baby she had in captivity.  With London drowning, British military officer Piers Michaelmas is at the forefront of his government’s response.  And the former USAF captain Lily Brooke finds herself in the employ  of a financial mogul—a man whose resources and ego outmatch any government’s in reshaping the future.  But water continues to flow from the earth’s mantle.  Entire countries disappear.  High ground becomes a precious commodity.  And finally, the dreadful truth is known:  Before fifty years have passed, there will be nowhere left to run.” 

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I really don’t know how many stars to give Flood.  I’m on the fence.  It took me ten days to read, and usually I read a book a day.  Now, I know this is a long novel, but had it been riveting, I would have finished it in two days.  The first segment (2016) was very interesting to me.  It was about 110 pages long, and I was really into it, but then the book just lost its intensity.  The second segment (2017-2020) seemed very scientific, and while I guess that information needs to be there in order to authenticate the story, I was bored out of my mind.  I kept putting the book down.  Everything seemed to develop so slowly, and the fast paced flooding of the world was now inching along.  Honestly, I lost interest, and when I realized that this novel actually takes place over 30 years, and is written in chucked sections, skipping up to five years at a time, I was really put off. 

But, I always finish a book.  So I read on, in spurts.  The character development, I feel, was non-existent.  On one occasion I wrote a friend about the novel and stated that, “At this point, I hope all the characters drown—the character development is non-existent anyway, and I wouldn’t care if they all died… but they won’t because I read the last page (bad habit). Ugh.”  I always find it sad when I’m reading a novel and the characters don’t “speak” to me.  I feel like that is happening more and more often, and I don’t know if it’s the books I choose, or just me. 

However, Flood wasn’t all bad.  Like I said, the first segment was riveting.  The middle was… bland.  But it picked up again.  Somewhere in the middle of section three (2020-2035) it started to get interesting again, and once section four came about (2035-2041), it really picked up.  The ending, section five (2041-2052), which was gratefully the shortest section, yet spanned nine years, was satisfying in its own right, though there really isn’t any closure.  It’s very ominous and left open for the readers interpretation.  I hate when books do that, but it fit this novel very well. 

All in all, I think this book would have been phenomenal had it been pared down to about 200 pages, and not 500 (my copy is 500 pages, but it is my understanding that there are longer copies out there… bigger print?).  The story itself was a great idea, and it was scary, though not is a horror show kind of way.  It really makes you think about the stability of the earth, and what is to come in the future. 

I do wish there was a better way to go about tracking the story over the 30+ years the novel covers, but perhaps there is no better way than to jump around.  I understand that it would be inconceivable to have the earth flood any quicker—you’ll have to read it to see why—but still, all the minute details, and the long stretches in between the story (jumping from 2020-2025) just wasn’t my style.  Perhaps you’ll find it more satisfactory. 

And so, we’re back to my beginning statement: I really don’t know how many stars to give Flood.  I’m on the fence.  I’m in between “it was okay,” and “I liked it.”  I mean, in retrospect, it was just okay; I’m never going to re-read it, but I liked parts of it, and in the end, it really made me think, and I actually couldn’t sleep!  So… I’m somewhere in-between.  Let’s go with two and a half stars.