This book review is for the Drowned World by J.G. Ballard. The book I read is the one in the picture I provided.First thing I want to do is qualify this review. In all honesty, I didn't read the whole thing. After around the 5th or 6th chapter I started skimming sections. The descriptions were just too much for me. Tedium was setting in. I did read enough to get the gist of what was going on.I'll give it two stars only because the writer at least shows intelligence in his writing style. The problem is he chooses style over substance.I'm going to keep story details brief and not discuss the plot much... I did not like this story at all.I like post-apocalyptic stories. I don't like post apocalyptic stories that are very negative. I also don't like post-apocalyptic (or any story for that matter) in which characters don't behave in a logical or realistic way relative to the fictional world they are in.The author uses just too much detail. Yes, it enriches the world but you reach a point where boredom sets in. It's great to set up the world but then the plot needs to move. Ballard reminds me a lot of the 'Wheel of Time' author, Robert Jordan, except that Ballard's descriptions are more meaningful than Jordan's. Jordan's books become unreadable half way through his series because of the never ending meaningless descriptions. In those books, you get a line of dialogue followed by a paragraph of descriptions then another line of dialogue and then another paragraph or two of descriptions. It gets monotonous.*****WARNING - SOME SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT*****For me, the evolution going backward 'thing' just doesn't work. I find this to be a very poor idea. How about forward evolution? For the record, I didn't like 'Altered States', another story in which evolution goes backward.My other big complaint is the depiction of the characters. Completely unbelievable to me. I hate the defeatist attitude of Kerans. I think Beatrice is completely unbelievable. The story tells us that Beatrice is a woman who enjoys the fine things in life and lives a luxurious lifestyle. Mankind is leaving and heading north. No woman of her type would decide to be left alone in a jungle... ever... under any circumstance. Sure, if she were like Jane Goodall and was working on scientific research but this is definitely not the case. Beatrice was not only not a tomboy but she was the opposite. There is no way she would forego the comforts of a good life knowing that she had just a few months before her supplies ran out and she was going to be forced to 'rough it' for life. I just find it preposterous that these two (Beatrice and Kerans) would just stay behind while humanity went northward. I'm not even going to bother going into the unbelievable reactions to the city when it was drained. At least there was somewhere to go. As if I'd rather live in a disgusting sweltering swamp with no where to even move... yeah right!I don't like the premise that there are lagoons and beaches and such everywhere. It's possible I missed something but the science is terrible. There is no way there could be that much silt even if the oceans really did rise as much as they did in the novels. Silt doesn't grow straight up. At the very least it would take many ages before that could happen. You can't have the whole world flooded and the water rising as high as it does in the novel and then have a beach and a small area completely drained. This just doesn't make any sense at all.CONCLUSIONS: I know there are plenty of people that disagree with me. Typically with stories like this, you get a wide diversity of opinions. This is the type of story that is polarizing. The people that like it will say to the people that don't like it, "you don't get it". Here's what I get...These characters are completely unbelievable and unlikable.This story has an interesting premise but is boring and a chore to read.If nothing else, I'd be curious to see what Hollywood could do with this story and it's setting.I won't be picking up any more books by this author. It's my first and last for this lifetime. That is, of course, unless I evolve backward.RATINGS:Plot: 1 star - I think it's terrible.Characters: 1 star - Unbelievable and underdeveloped.Setting : 4 stars. It's got a good setting at least.Overall: 2 stars