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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Ballard, the surrealistic poet of contemporary life, looks into the near future in this collection of unsettling short stories. They all revolve around a world in which current tendencies are carried to alarming extremes: Ronald Reagan's presidency is revived, and a nation obsessed with his health barely notices a fleeting world war; a cargo vessel carrying toxic wastes creates a brief, hallucinatory paradise on a Caribbean island; AIDS anxiety calls forth a strange new society in which casual sex is compulsory, in order to raise the birth rate; astronauts figure in two stories, one a vision of Cape Canaveral as a shrine of ancient aviation history where time has literally stood still, the other an account of a self-described moon-walker living off his past in Rio. There are also three brilliant literary satires, which take the forms, respectively, of a questionnaire to which only the answers are given; a series of footnotes without a text; and an index to a book that may never have been written, about a man who could have been a key figure in 20th-century history. Ballard's is a playful and versatile imagination, and this collection will gratify his admirers.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This fascinating collection of stories, written over the last 15 years, is loosely tied together by Ballard's overall themes: our isolation in time and the psychological implications of technology. Some stories are eerie and surreal, others ironic and humorous, but each is uniquely insightful. Largely because of their treatment of the concept of future time, the stories may be classified as science fiction. But the locations are actual rather than conceptual, with descriptions of such locales as Florida and London bolstered by tangible allusions to well-known modern artists and public figures. In "The Secret History of World War 3," the time is 1995 and Ronald Reagan has been elected to a third term of office. As Reagan's health bulletins obscure the most significant conflict of the era, it is both funny and frightening to see the media manipulating the public perceptions of reality. The space program, astronauts, Beirut, and toxic chemical disposal are some of the subjects explored in these stories. They show the scope of Ballard's preoccupation with life in the future and recommend him to a wider audience than traditional science fiction fans.
- Patricia C. Heaney, Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, N.Y.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
Ballard, the surrealistic poet of contemporary life, looks into the near future in this collection of unsettling short stories. They all revolve around a world in which current tendencies are carried to alarming extremes: Ronald Reagan's presidency is revived, and a nation obsessed with his health barely notices a fleeting world war; a cargo vessel carrying toxic wastes creates a brief, hallucinatory paradise on a Caribbean island; AIDS anxiety calls forth a strange new society in which casual sex is compulsory, in order to raise the birth rate; astronauts figure in two stories, one a vision of Cape Canaveral as a shrine of ancient aviation history where time has literally stood still, the other an account of a self-described moon-walker living off his past in Rio. There are also three brilliant literary satires, which take the forms, respectively, of a questionnaire to which only the answers are given; a series of footnotes without a text; and an index to a book that may never have been written, about a man who could have been a key figure in 20th-century history. Ballard's is a playful and versatile imagination, and this collection will gratify his admirers.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This fascinating collection of stories, written over the last 15 years, is loosely tied together by Ballard's overall themes: our isolation in time and the psychological implications of technology. Some stories are eerie and surreal, others ironic and humorous, but each is uniquely insightful. Largely because of their treatment of the concept of future time, the stories may be classified as science fiction. But the locations are actual rather than conceptual, with descriptions of such locales as Florida and London bolstered by tangible allusions to well-known modern artists and public figures. In "The Secret History of World War 3," the time is 1995 and Ronald Reagan has been elected to a third term of office. As Reagan's health bulletins obscure the most significant conflict of the era, it is both funny and frightening to see the media manipulating the public perceptions of reality. The space program, astronauts, Beirut, and toxic chemical disposal are some of the subjects explored in these stories. They show the scope of Ballard's preoccupation with life in the future and recommend him to a wider audience than traditional science fiction fans.
- Patricia C. Heaney, Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, N.Y.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
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