The Drylands

Rosenblum brings scifi to the northwest, and does it with a very real overtone. Written at a time when the area was begninning to find that water was limited even there, Rosenblum brings us a possible future where water controls all our lives from its scarcity.

I'm sorry to see this novel is out of print, it was very good. One might mention that Before she wrote this novel, Mary Rosenblum wrote several short stories about "The Drylands".The thing that makes this novel stand out is that it's much more realistic and low-key than most science fiction novels, and the near future it portrays is all too beliavable. The only actual fantastical element comes from the inclusion of "mutants" with special talents that have begun to develop as a result of living in The Drylands.This realistic and grim-and-gritty aspect also makes "The Drylands" quite different from Rosenblum's next novel "Chimera", which was also very good, but very different.