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The Complete Short Stories
by
J.G. Ballard
The Complete Short Stories of JG Ballard are required reading for all connoisseurs of Ballard's writing. This compilation brings together 96 short stories drawn from previous collections of Ballard's short stories, including The Voices of Time and War Fever, as well as four previously uncollected stories. The result is an exhilarating overview of Ballard's development as a...more
1189 pages
Published
by Flamingo
(first published January 1st 2002)
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I've been immersing myself for spells within Ballard's fictive environ, and I fucking love it there. Beautiful and limpid lyrical prose in the less-is-more vein so often found amongst those who comprise the ne plus ultra of the writer's art. I'm currently over a third of the way through it, and every single story is, in my estimation, at least good, and not infrequently ascends near or unto the rarefied airs of Hot Damn! And although the combined effects might fairly be labelled as being rather...more
JG Ballard's stuff divides fairly neatly into three phases:
1) 1956-64 - At first he was writing actual science fiction, and he was really cranking it out. There are some beautiful ones in this early part, probably my favourites - "The Sound Sweep", "The Concentration City", "Billenium", "The Voices of Time". It became gradually clear - to JG and to the reader - that he wasn't really able to do the hard-sf thing (extrapolation with a lot of wires and diagrams), but instead, he was developing, slo...more
1) 1956-64 - At first he was writing actual science fiction, and he was really cranking it out. There are some beautiful ones in this early part, probably my favourites - "The Sound Sweep", "The Concentration City", "Billenium", "The Voices of Time". It became gradually clear - to JG and to the reader - that he wasn't really able to do the hard-sf thing (extrapolation with a lot of wires and diagrams), but instead, he was developing, slo...more
27 likes · like · see review
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Wow. Two wows, in fact. A small one to me, for actually reading 1,196 pages of short stories in this era of constant distraction/instant gratification (though of course it did take several months and around six library renewals split up over two years), and two, a much bigger wow, one of the biggest wows in the known universe, to J.G. Ballard. It's an understatement to say he was a fantastic writer, though of course he was. In his writing, he cut away layers of exposition, leaving only sharp, wh...more
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I bought and read this book shortly after Ballard's death in 2009. In hindsight, I should have gotten this 1,000+ page book for my ereader device.
There is enough first rate work in this collection of Ballard's short fiction to warrant 5 stars.
His stories from the late 50s to the early 60s were more or less like the science fiction of the time.
Later, his work became "experimental" and aligned with the New Wave movement in science fiction. Ballard was an excellent prose stylist and one of the most...more
There is enough first rate work in this collection of Ballard's short fiction to warrant 5 stars.
His stories from the late 50s to the early 60s were more or less like the science fiction of the time.
Later, his work became "experimental" and aligned with the New Wave movement in science fiction. Ballard was an excellent prose stylist and one of the most...more
The first spot on my 'writers-who-I'm-going-to-read-everything-of-before-I-die' list belongs to J.G. Ballard. He is my favourite author in the world, and reading this enormous collection (1200 pages long, spanning more than 35 years) is as near as little ol' agnostic me will ever come to reading a religious text. So many brilliant ideas! The man's imagination was frightening. At their best (Billenium, The Drowned Giant, The Ultimate City) these stories have as much to tell us about the world as...more
Feb 22, 2012
Howard Cincotta
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
science-fiction
Telling Stories: The Case of J.G. Ballard and Robert Sheckley
Can you write short stories without recognizable characters, coherent plot, or realistic dialogue?
Of course you can.
That's why God invested modernism. The list of writers who have produced such works is long and distinguished: Jorge Borges, David Barthelme, David Foster Wallace, Italo Calvino, et. al.
But what happens if you're writing in a specific genre like science fiction? Which brings us to the problem of J.G. Ballard, whose mass...more
Can you write short stories without recognizable characters, coherent plot, or realistic dialogue?
Of course you can.
That's why God invested modernism. The list of writers who have produced such works is long and distinguished: Jorge Borges, David Barthelme, David Foster Wallace, Italo Calvino, et. al.
But what happens if you're writing in a specific genre like science fiction? Which brings us to the problem of J.G. Ballard, whose mass...more
1 like · like · see review
Easily in my top 5 books ever. I love JG Ballard, and his ideas come across best in short story form.
It took a while while for Ballard to really hit his stride, and he was much better as a conceptualist than as a storyteller. But what concepts! How to write a J.G. Ballard story: Technology + sex + Levi-Straussian anthropology + the impact of behavioral psychology on modern man. Recombine in every possible way. Wheeee!!!!
Also, this volume gives you a great perspective on Ballard's evolution as a writer, from his early sci-fi pieces to his more stylistically distinct later works, as well as a bun...more
Also, this volume gives you a great perspective on Ballard's evolution as a writer, from his early sci-fi pieces to his more stylistically distinct later works, as well as a bun...more
Sarebbe buona abitudine scrivere la recensione quando si è completato il libro. Sta di fatto che ho già letto - in traduzione - buona parte dei racconti raccolti in questo volume onnicomprensivo e non ho saputo resistere alla tentazione di raccomandare Ballard ad altri.
Già agli albori, in "The Concentration City" (del 1957), pur nella struttura di racconto di fantascienza "hard core" (basato su di un'ipotesi scientifica o pseudoscientifica, in questo caso un universo-città chiuso su se stesso),...more
Già agli albori, in "The Concentration City" (del 1957), pur nella struttura di racconto di fantascienza "hard core" (basato su di un'ipotesi scientifica o pseudoscientifica, in questo caso un universo-città chiuso su se stesso),...more
Like my friend tENTATIVELY, a, cONVENIENCE, I was a major Ballard fan who read so many of his books that I got a bit burned out after a while. I've generally been more interested in his novels than his short stories. I am *slowly* reading this large collection and will be happy to say that I've read all of his stories once I'm through. I would say conservatively I've read a quarter of them already.
It's interesting to see what he was doing chronologically. As I peruse the general contents, I find...more
It's interesting to see what he was doing chronologically. As I peruse the general contents, I find...more
Fantastic. 1200 pages and rarely a dull moment. Also I will say, I've read two of Ballard's books before this one, but I never realized how much he loves to use beaches as a setting. Not a complaint, just a curiosity.
After reading this book you realize how unstoppably imaginative Ballard is. It's interesting to look at the time periods each of these stories were written in, and seeing how Ballard would take the popular obsessions of the time, and twist their meaning to reveal the horrible realit...more
After reading this book you realize how unstoppably imaginative Ballard is. It's interesting to look at the time periods each of these stories were written in, and seeing how Ballard would take the popular obsessions of the time, and twist their meaning to reveal the horrible realit...more
This book took me an extraordinarily long time to read for four reasons. Three of these -- it's long; it's physically large, so I had to substitute something else when I travelled; and it's made up of short stories, which can be hard to read in succession -- are incidental to the quality of the writing. The fourth, though, is that many of the stories are frankly quite similar. This is especially odd because the premises of the stories are usually quite original and unique. Ballard wrote in the i...more
Prima Belladona: em Vermillion Sands a voz de uma cantora provoca dissonâncias na vida e no trabalho de um florista especialista em flores sonoras. Surrealismo e cruzamentos emocionais.
Escapement: um dos contos clássicos mais brilhantes do autor. Um homem pacato apercebe-se que a continuidade do tempo sofre soluços. Talvez sob o efeito de fortes manchas solares, o momento presente dobra-se sobre si próprio e repete-se a intervalos cada vez mais curtos.
The Concentration City: haverá algo para lá...more
Escapement: um dos contos clássicos mais brilhantes do autor. Um homem pacato apercebe-se que a continuidade do tempo sofre soluços. Talvez sob o efeito de fortes manchas solares, o momento presente dobra-se sobre si próprio e repete-se a intervalos cada vez mais curtos.
The Concentration City: haverá algo para lá...more
Jul 30, 2011
DoctorM
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
favourites,
short-story-collections
I grew up reading Ballard--- from the more traditional sci-fi novels like "Wind From Nowhere" or "The Burning World" through the eerie beauty of "The Crystal World". His short story collections were filled with things that I'd read and then find myself wondering about: sci-fi or not? What is Ballard doing? Somewhere in my late teens or early twenties I realised that my vision of the world and of sci-fi had been shaped by the way Ballard's own work had changed. And once you read his Vermilion San...more
A "summer project" that took an eternity to rip through, "The Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard" is an often-recommended collection of 96 little capsules of SF, horror and fantasy. If you are to become a writer (one who usually starts off writing superb short stories), then Ballard is your main man.
I thought of the cover page (of the American Ed.) while trying to make a cohesive review (which I probably failed at already)- a monolith of a man staring straight at you and little dots floating aroun...more
I thought of the cover page (of the American Ed.) while trying to make a cohesive review (which I probably failed at already)- a monolith of a man staring straight at you and little dots floating aroun...more
Oct 04, 2012
Shirari Industries
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
scifi,
environment
I'll admit it, I only read about half of these stories before I gave up. It's a huge book. Ballard has a lot of obsessions, and they're played out again and again, his mythology growing and evolving as he matured as a writer. It's a fascinating collection, but it didn't hold my interest. I love his stories about fantastic architecture - infinitely large space stations and cities, tenements with ever-shrinking and hidden rooms - but I got tired of his portrayals of women. His protagonists are alw...more
This is the first 1,200 page collection of short stories I've ever read, and probably the last. The stories were published over the course of almost 40 years, and one of the attractions from the book (apart from his reputation and my lack of knowledge of his stories) was the opportunity to see the development of a sci-fi writer over the course of four decades. But apart from a few exceptions, I was surprised at how similar his last stories were to those he published 30 years earlier.
As far as th...more
As far as th...more
I knew this would be a great way to start the year and I was not disappointed. Hearing the evolution of his short stories from the 60's and onward was a joy. Many of the stories have become favorites I will re-read throughout my life. His view of future technological advances, seemingly from the side of those who didn't gain from them, serves as an interesting warning and thought experiment.
The two stories dealing with lives in reverse truly stood out. Like trying to read an MC Escher image. You...more
The two stories dealing with lives in reverse truly stood out. Like trying to read an MC Escher image. You...more
Great for the sci-fi, which comprises the first third of the book, but like Philip K. Dick, the 70s just stifled Ballard's writing into a claustrophobic, paranoid, bitter otherness, that was sometimes brilliant and sometimes just torture to read. By the end, I felt like I'd just ran a marathon.
Overall, what you'd expect from a collection of short stories to the tenth power. This was everything of everything that wasn't Ballard in novel form, minus a few.
I liked it, but I definitely feel this boo...more
Overall, what you'd expect from a collection of short stories to the tenth power. This was everything of everything that wasn't Ballard in novel form, minus a few.
I liked it, but I definitely feel this boo...more
Dec 02, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
jan-feb-2010
The 98 entries in The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard remind us of the power of the well-crafted short story. The tales' chronological ordering offers a valuable glimpse into the author's evolution of thought and style, and the range of the work might surprise American readers (the collection was first published nearly a decade ago in Britain) who know Ballard's novels but haven't spent much time with the short fiction. Ballard draws on and influences an eclectic tradition—the author will remi...more
One of the best in the history of our fair language - science fact - though come to think of it, Ballard's shorts would translate reasonably well into other languages, as their quality of thought alone would bring the goods; sagittal perspectives, and certainly one of the more validated prophets the world has produced...
Since I've read and reread half this stories over thd last 40 years and never encountered the others until getting this huge volume it's hard to say anything conclusive. I reread some and skip others for reasons I can't figure. At his best he was the best. Other times he could be remarkably unBallardian. "The Voices of Time" is one of the 10 best short stories ever but the same year he wrote some utterly dull boilerplate SF. On the whole though, terrific.
In addition to the short story "The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race," this collection caught my eye by way of NPR's review, and more specifically: "Reading him serially is like eating a meal of desserts, while somehow still getting a lot of protein."
I read 200 of 1200 pages, but I own this and will return someday. Ballard is amazing but not quite, to me, an amazing writer. No, he's a good writer, but his stories never catch me as stories. I mean, I'm always kind of bored. That said, he's unbelievable in his ability to futurecast - like William Gibson good. The stories (and novels) from the 50s and 60s about environmental destruction and pollution would be right on today. He also has a PK Dickian interest in time and psychedelic perception a...more
Complete, indeed — some 120 stories written between 1956-1996. Many odd psychological explorations. Some favorites from the early works: "Prima Belladolla," (1956); "Now: Zero," (1959); "Chronopolis," (1960); "The Man on the 99th Floor," (1961); "The Singing Statues," (1961); and "End-Game," (1963).
I've finished most of this mammoth tome, but I'll probably continue dipping into it for years to come. It's a catalog of new literary values and ways of telling stories that showcase a still-startling sensibility. You know, "Ballardian." Like any collection the quality fluctuates, but the best pieces remain truly visionary. And in this context, even the weaker stories play like intriguing minor variations on major themes. Pick hits: "The Beach Murders," "Notes Toward A Mental Breakdown," "End-Ga...more
This is one of the best books ever. The 113th floor, the sound garden, the astronauts who worship in their grounded spaceship and the spaceman assassin gliding down to Westminster Abbey will always exist in this book.
It's interesting to see how this British Science-Fiction writer's short stories reflect his real life experiences in WWII in Shanghai, as recounted in his fiction/bio Empire of the Sun. The early stories from 1956-1960 are very dystopic and recall Ray Bradbury. I like them. As time moves on, however, Ballard's writing becomes laced with vulgarity and decadence. This makes the collection uneven, but there are still interesting tales. Since Spielberg's film of Empire of the Sun is one of my favori...more
Immense, and immensely enjoyable, considering most of these short stories are pretty bleak in tone. I read a little less than half but will check it out again.
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J.G. Ballard (James Graham Ballard) was born in 1930 in Shanghai, China where his father was a businessman. After the attack on Pearl Harbour, Ballard and his family were placed in a civilian prison camp. They returned to England in 1946. After two years at Cambridge, where he read medicine, Ballard worked as a copywriter and a Covent Garden porter before going to Canada with the RAF.
In 1956 his f...more
More about J.G. Ballard...
In 1956 his f...more
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