The Drowned World is an extraordinary story of the earth as it is some time in the future, after a great increase in the sun's heat. The seas have risen, through the melting of the ice caps, and the temperature has driven the remnant of humanity to areas like northern Greenland. The action, however, all takes place further south--in fact around London--where silting, sea and jungle have returned. Plant life is reverting to the forms it had in the last period of heat--the Triassic. And the dominant animals, too, are iguanas and crocodiles. But the most interesting development is among the humans--most of them members of an expedition from Greenland which has been sent to investigate the area with a view to possible reclamation in some distant future.