Complete Short Stories [Hardcover]

J G Ballard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 2001

For the first time, the complete collected short stories of the author of 'Empire of the Sun', 'Cocaine Nights' and 'Super-Cannes' -- regarded by many as Britain's No. 1 living fiction writer. With sixteen novels over four decades -- from 'The Drowned World' in 1962 to his highly acclaimed 'Super-Cannes' in 2000 -- J.G. Ballard is firmly established as one of Britain's most highly regarded and original novelists. For all that time he has also written short stories; in fact, many people consider that he is at his best in the short-story format. These stories have appeared in magazines such as 'New Worlds', 'Amazing Stories' and 'Interzone', and in several separate collections, including 'The Voices of Time', 'The Terminal Beach', 'The Day of Forever', 'The Venus Hunters,' 'The Disaster Area', 'Vermilion Sands', 'Low-Flying Aircraft', 'Myths of the Near Future' and 'War Fever'. Now, for the first time, all of J.G. Ballard's published stories -- including four stories that have not previously appeared in a collection -- have been gathered together in one volume and set out in the order in which they were originally published, providing an unprecedented opportunity to review the career of one of Britain's greatest writers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The most important contemporary British writer.' Will Self, Independent 'He has had from the start an extraordinary descriptive gift, an eye for the mood and code of the visual environment that is like Poe's, but steadier. He remains most effective in the tight capsule of the short story.' Richard Holmes, The Times 'Ballard is the most modern of writers; his art engages with the artefacts and obsessions of the second half of the century in a manner and with an intensity umatched by any other writer.' William Boyd, Daily Telegraph 'J.G. Ballard is a magician of the contemporary scene and a literary saboteur. Ballard's fantastical landscapes are among the most haunting in English literature. No one else writes with such enchanted clarity or strange power.' Ian Thomson, Guardian

About the Author

J.G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, where his father was a businessman. After internment in a civilian prison camp, he and his family returned to England in 1946. His 1984 bestseller Empire of the Sun won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was later filmed by Steven Spielberg. His controversial novel Crash has recently been made into an equally controversial film by David Cronenberg.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1200 pages
• Publisher: Flamingo / HarperCollins; 1St Edition edition (November 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007124058
• ISBN-13: 978-0007124053
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,364,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Shanghai in 1930, J. G. BALLARD is the author of sixteen novels, including "Empire of the Sun," "The Drowned World," and "Crash." He lived in London until his death in April 2009.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars R.I.P. J. G. Ballard: Understand His Development as a Writer Through His Lesser Known Works, April 21, 2009

By 

directions "neuralbuddhist" (Space Time Foam) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Short Stories (Hardcover)

J.G. Ballard's death was a concluding chapter in a life that in some ways had been stripped of humanity. Which is a not uncommon experience. After being stalked online, abandoned by half of the people I know after having acquired (and under official study for) tardive psychosis, tardive dysphrenia and tardive dysmentia and close to death each day one wonders if life gets worse. Or is that a bad thing in itself? I would say J.G. Ballard's passing would be one clear sign as being a living embodiment of "The Atrocity Exhibition" (his most surreal work) I could not ever communicate with him (in real world terms). But his life was certainly not just a fictional depiction of some sick and depraved imagination. If you read the book (far better than the movie) "Empire of the Sun" you can understand that his traumatic experiences shaped him to see the darker side of the human imagination. In "The Complete Short Stories" we see his evolution as a relatively conventional science fiction writer to outright warped dissertations on humanity ("Why I Want to F*** Ronald Reagan", written around the time of his true masterpiece "Crash") to more conventional stories along the lines of "Empire of the Sun". A typical story is "The Comsat Angels" (yes I did pick that one first being that it inspired one of my favorite post punk bands) where as it turns out "boy geniuses" are being cloned for quiz shows. But instead of a science fiction schema it instead depicts the true depersonalization and commifidication of the media (and this being in the 60's, update it now to the internet). So now in being trapped some world physically a step towards death but yet not entirely towards it (one we will all inhabit someday) its perhaps a bit depressing to have a fellow traveler depart. But in seeing how the world has totally lost its humanity perhaps it might make you pause for thought. Or at least keep reading. And please do so. Every page is worth it.