After the Flood by Kassandra Montag
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

So. I checked this one out because GR had it on a list and it was dystopia and I had seen the author's name rolling around so I thought, "why not?"

So. The good: It's well written, and it does exactly what it sets out to do. That is, it's a LitSF post-apocalypse that deals with the minutiae of living mostly on boats after the worldwide floods that mostly pulled a Waterworld on the world. Good, so far, especially since it kept it realistic, unlike said Waterworld.

Also good was the fact that it kept the heart and despair and wrapped itself up like a good little LitSF title should.

The bad: I have grown to really dislike LitSF titles. They roll around in their emotional pain, sometimes coming up for minimalist plot-air, and then just plod around living a regular old life except when the pain comes around again.

I'm sure there's a market for this. I've seen -- unwillingly -- my share of Lifetime movies.

But believe it or not, I'd be just fine with all of the above IF the title goes above and beyond with actual SF stuff. Give me great ideas with that pain, show me a really fun time with that pain, or just scratch the surface of what it means to be SCIENCE FICTION, rather than just dreaming up a small portion of what it would mean to live in a banal pirate-laden world of regular people who happened to have survived this long after the fall of civilization.

So.

This wasn't that. It was just that little portion, plus the pain and regret, and a little banal living.

I wanted to like this more. Let's just leave it at that.

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