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Unlimited Dream Company

3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 · rating details · 551 ratings · 41 reviews

From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller 'Cocaine Nights' comes an acclaimed backlist title -- in which suburban London is transformed into an exotic dreamworld -- now reissued in new cover style. When a light aircraft crashes into the Thames at Shepperton, the young pilot who struggles to the surface minutes later seems to have come back from the dead. Within hours...more

Paperback, 224 pages

Published March 29th 1990 by Paladin Books (first published 1979)

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Mar 07, 2012 Simon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I picked this up on the basis of an unusual and interesting premise but until near the end I didn't know what to make of it. Full of Ballard's verbose and symbolic imagery, this story explores some very adult themes and is not for the easily offended. As the protagonist increasingly believes that the "sins of this world are metaphors for virtues in the next", he proceeds to break down taboos in the town of Shepperton as the reader is left to ponder the meaning of this idea.

As we follow Blake's t...more

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May 24, 2010 Ugh rated it 2 of 5 stars

I like a dash of the surreal every now and then. In works of fiction it can widen the potential enormously, opening up the piece to whatever otherwise-impossible turns of plot and outlandish settings and forms the artist can dream up. Sometimes surreal juxtapositions can reveal unexpected connections that might not otherwise have become apparent, and that can be a powerful and amazing trick that can elevate the work to a level beyond mere entertainment, really affecting the way that you think ab...more I like a dash of the surreal every now and then. In works of fiction it can widen the potential enormously, opening up the piece to whatever otherwise-impossible turns of plot and outlandish settings and forms the artist can dream up. Sometimes surreal juxtapositions can reveal unexpected connections that might not otherwise have become apparent, and that can be a powerful and amazing trick that can elevate the work to a level beyond mere entertainment, really affecting the way that you think about the non-fictional world. But even surreality for surreality's sake can be richly rewarding, in the right hands delivering scenes of otherwordly beauty or surprising you in a fashion that provokes laughter or wonder or even just simple admiration of a fertile imagination...

Having said that, this is pretty rubbish.

It starts out quite promisingly, with rich and evocative language and a story that seems to be going somewhere. Unfortunately, all pretense of an unfolding story is quickly dropped, and then the book becomes little more than a drawn-out list of what flowers have unexpectedly (not really) sprung up where, what birds are unexpectedly (not really) swooping or nesting where, what women or men or children or beasts the protagonist is unexpectedly (not really) feeling an urge to stick his "sex" into, over and over and over again with minor variation until finally Ballard gets bored enough (long after I did) to wrap things up. Or, more accurately, to stop repeating himself in this particular vein.

It's not just the imagery itself, but also certain phrases and sometimes even almost entire sentences that are repeated ad infinitum, such as when we're told at least half a dozen and perhaps as many as ten times about how the inhabitants of Shepperton fail to notice the protagonist's nudity. Really, is that necessary or desireable? I read the words the first time! Pearls of semen, pennants of blood, whatever-it-is-this-time perched on the roof of the supermarket... please, enough! Some of the characters too will seem very familiar to anyone who's read much of Ballard's other work, from the distracted and unkempt object of sexual attention to the fatherly but menacing and difficult to fathom other alpha male. What isn't a rehash of previous chapters is either a rehash or a later-to-be-rehashed element of another work.

There are certainly elements and sections here that are well-executed, but for me the lack of any point to 200+ pages of incessantly recycled and in any case not all that impressive surrealism is too much to swallow. Don't bother.
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Nov 18, 2011 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: location-england, read2011, sci-fi-fantasy

I find it difficult to know how to talk about this book. I loved the vibrant writing and surreal story, but could not recommend this to 95% of the readers I know.

Why? Well, you see... Blake is a bit of a loser. He steals a plane and crashes it into the Thames at Shepperton, and that's when everything goes a bit strange. He develops strong desires for everyone and everything in the town (see 95% comment earlier). Just like in dreams, relationships have no consequences, people can fly and commune...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Ape rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: england, alternatives-and-end-of-the-world

I am giving up on this book at page 95. I don't care what happens, I really don't like the main character, and although I don't have a problem with wacky books, this just seems to be too wacky for... what? This the second Ballard book I've read, and to be honest, although I can see he's a very good writer, I don't know whether I'll be interested in reading any of his other books. Ok, so the first book I read was Crash, which I did finish, but that was uncomfortable reading. And his obsession wit...more

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May 20, 2012 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The most glorious of Ballard's books and the fourth time I've read. It is emotionally moving and profound in a way atypical of Ballard's style where there usually is a certain sang-froid in his approach.

This is a Pagan Passion, exulting in the power of creativity, to usher in new paradigms. The refrain that the vices of the present are seen as metaphors for the virtues of the future repeat and resonate through the book's pages. Old ways of thinking about religion need to be discarded. A pantheis...more

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Apr 15, 2010 Shane rated it 1 of 5 stars

in this edition there's an interview with Ballard at the back where he says that a 'professional' should write 1000+ words a day. Otherwise the writer will just 'end up with a bunch of empty wine bottles'.

From this book I learned a professional empties the bottles at night, then forces her/himself to write a chapter a day (every chapter is ~1000 words), most of which is a recap from the day before. It's taken me 4 months to read this 200 page book and not because I wanted to savor it but becaus...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Logan rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Terrible. Just, terrible. There's really no character interaction. The dialogue is minimal and mostly meaningless. There's no character development, and the story arc is one big fat flat line. At best, this is a 30 page short story, but instead it's 235 pages of endless description of bullshit, over-the-top, uninteresting "miracle" after "miracle" told in the first person by a charmless "messiah". On and on and on. I started speed reading 150 pages in and it was still fucking torture to get thru...more

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Dec 13, 2009 Andrew rated it 3 of 5 stars

Perhaps rather extraordinarily this is the first Ballard I've read. The prose is rich and semi-stream-of-consciousness in places, with an intriguing central idea developed to a logical conclusion. Ultimately, whilst I enjoyed reading it, and despite it's fluidity, in the end it is just what it is. It only occasionally informs on society as a whole, and - without wanting to spoil the ending - the final revelation (if it is that) is blindingly obvious. Having said that, I'm sure it isn't intended...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Chris Meigh rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Ballard fans only

Shelves: reviewed

A book that is so Ballardian, it enters a new realm of sexual, violent and all around weird.

When Blake crashes a plane, that he stole, into the river Thames next to the small village of Shepperton, he can’t believe that he survived. Having been underwater for 11 minutes, he tries to figure out who saved him and who caused the huge bruises on his chest. As he spends longer in the small town he soon realises that he has special powers that make him able to give birth to ample amounts of vegetation...more A book that is so Ballardian, it enters a new realm of sexual, violent and all around weird.

When Blake crashes a plane, that he stole, into the river Thames next to the small village of Shepperton, he can’t believe that he survived. Having been underwater for 11 minutes, he tries to figure out who saved him and who caused the huge bruises on his chest. As he spends longer in the small town he soon realises that he has special powers that make him able to give birth to ample amounts of vegetation and bring exotic wildlife to the village. His powers soon grow stronger until he becomes, essentially, a God of Shepperton.

Though I did enjoy this book, I found it at times too much. Ballard definitely has his own style but in this case he took that style too far and for me it led to this being one of his weaker efforts. The story itself is almost non-existent. Blake struggles with his own sexual urges whilst trying to figure out what is going on in Shepperton. I found that Ballard repeated some things continuously, for example he says that he is naked in almost every paragraph for three or four chapters: a fact that we are all obviously aware of given Ballard’s sexually driven narratives. Though I liked the characters of Miriam and the three small children, I found the other characters far more lifeless than I’m used to when reading Ballard. Normally the unusualness of his characters is a strength but in this case I found them distracting and somewhat over the top.

Ballard should be praised however for his wonderful imagination. It is probably one of his strongest descriptive pieces but I felt that the narrative itself was lacklustre – perhaps it would have been better as a short story as opposed to a 220 page novel. Another issue is that it never really explains why this is happening. It gives suggestions as to why Blake has gained his powers but it never really expands beyond that.

Overall I thought the book was somewhere in the middle. I think if it was my first venture into Ballard I would have found it grotesque and gratuitous. However, as a fan of Ballard and having read most of his novels I simply find it ‘standard Ballard’ in tone and in detail but not one of his best by any means. I would only recommend this to fans of Ballard, if you want a taster of his work I would suggest starting with High-Rise or Concrete Island.
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Nov 15, 2010 Maurizio Codogno rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: finished

Quando si inizia a leggere questo romanzo la prima domanda che ci si fa è "ma cosa si era fumato Ballard quando lo scrisse?", seguita subito dalla constatazione che è fin troppo ovvio che ai tempi nessuno pensò di prenderne i diritti per l'italiano. Blake, il protagonista, è un erotomane con tendenze omicide, oltre a una serie di altre turbe psichiche, il che significa che tutta la storia, visto che è narrata in prima persona, risulta schizofrenica e inabile per varie decine di pagine a focalizz...more

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May 03, 2009 Robert rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Blake, a crazy bloke, obsessed with flying, steals a Cessna light aircraft from a maintenance hangar in London Airport. Because the plane is faulty and Blake doesn't know how to fly properly, would-be avaitor and aircraft crash into the Thames at Shepperton shortly afterwards.

After ten minutes, Blake is dragged from the river shore onto the grounds of a mansion. Once his confusion clears, he tries to escape Shepperton and the police he can hear pursuing him but finds he cannot - something preven...more Blake, a crazy bloke, obsessed with flying, steals a Cessna light aircraft from a maintenance hangar in London Airport. Because the plane is faulty and Blake doesn't know how to fly properly, would-be avaitor and aircraft crash into the Thames at Shepperton shortly afterwards.

After ten minutes, Blake is dragged from the river shore onto the grounds of a mansion. Once his confusion clears, he tries to escape Shepperton and the police he can hear pursuing him but finds he cannot - something prevents him - and the police never arrive to arrest him. Discovering strange urges, some of them disturbing, some of them perverted, Blake lurches from one weird adventure to another, having visions that pre-figure miracles of transformation. Blake himself transforms to a bird, a whale and a stag; Shepperton is transformed by him into a tropical realm of birds flowers and other vegetation, where the townsfolk return to a state of innocence reminiscent of Adam and Eve in Eden.

Blake takes the townsfolk into himself, then out again, teaching them to fly in the process only to be shot by the one man who refuses to accept Blake's miracles or even his status as a living man. Blake almost dies but is restored to full health by the plants and animals around him donating their strength. Blake then takes the folk of Shepperton into the sky again, this time to become an incorporeal merged entity in the heavens, before himself falling back into a grave to finally die.

Or does he? Is Blake a Pagan Messiah, come to redeem the people of Shepperton through an almost-death, almost resurrection, and lead them to Heaven or is he in fact drowning in the cockpit of his stolen aircraft, his visions and miracles nothing more than the last sparks of activity in a dying brain?

I went with the latter idea until the last quarter of the book, only then to develop doubts, before, very near the end going back to my original position. I think it is ambiguous enough that the reader can choose which ever interpretation he or she prefers.

In many ways this book is typical Ballard; the protagonist is clearly nuts from the outset and does not comprehend his own motivations or actions, also from the outset. More or less surreal events occur - in this book, extremely surreal events! The book ends somewhat ambiguously. One thing that is strikingly different from most of his books, however, is that rather than having society or the planet or some microcosm of both deteriorating drastically into chaos and irrationality, Shepperton is turned into Paradise, the townsfolk into Innocents. A quote from Time Out's review, printed at the beginning of the book, suggests that The Unlimited Dream Company is Ballard's most optimistic work. I can't argue with that, based on what I've read by Ballard (which is a fair number but probably still not half his books).

Despite the brevity of the book, the middle section, dealing with the transformation of Shepperton is repetative both in incident and in imagery, detracting from the power of the surreal events. The book really needs to be even shorter! This is perhaps the more irritating for being the only thing preventing it being the perfect realisation of the ideas Ballard wants to express in it.(less)

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Feb 21, 2010 Chris Hearn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Like the other Ballard novels that I've read so far, the characters are underdeveloped, the dialogue is forgettable and the prose is unimpressive, bar perhaps one paragraph out of every twenty five. However, this book has a fairly interesting plot and manages to provoke a little thought, enough to make up for his losses in other departments. At face value, it's pretty much fantasy writing with some literary qualities, and judged as a fantasy writer, Ballard is quite spectacular.

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Oct 20, 2012 Klytia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Attenzione , attenzione. Sta precipitando presso la tua città BLAKE, il tuo erotomane dio PAN di quartiere. Trasforma la tua noiosa cittadina in una rigogliosa foresta tropicale: procura colorati sogni lisergici dai quali non ti vorrai più svegliare; risveglia appetiti sessuali che non pensavi nemmeno di possedere; e tante altre meraviglie. Non mancare all'appuntamento o rimarrai a terra. Abusane responsabilmente. Tenere lontano dalla portata dei bambini.

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Nov 03, 2011 Luke rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

WOW

This is an amazing book. I think a lot of negative reviews people have given this novel may be due to people having read this book expecting a orthodox narrative or a twist ending etc.

If you've read the crystal world or concrete island and enjoyed them then this is for you. The use of language is Ballard at his best and none of the text feels conrived or forced. It is a really fun read - approach with a open mind and enjoy the ride!

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Dec 08, 2011 Isabel rated it 3 of 5 stars

A light aircraft crashes into the Thames at Shepperton and from the moment the pilot struggles ashore, the town begins to be transformed into the Garden of Eden with the pilot as its pagan god. But is it really happening or is it the fantasy of a dying man based on the last images he saw before the plane crash? Blake's compulsion to crush the breath from other people mirrors his own experiences when drowning and his obsession with mating with all the people and animals of the town represents his...more

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Feb 23, 2010 Mike rated it 2 of 5 stars

J.G. Ballard is one wacky, pervy dude.

I liked the first quarter or so of this book - lots of craziness, potential craziness, and kick ass description. Then I got bored. And things started to feel like some stereotypical male Freudian fantasy - naked guy parading around suburbia, attaining some godlike status, having sex with everyone and everything, and everywhere he splatters his semen a jungle grows. Kind of disappointing.

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Jun 23, 2012 Sam rated it 4 of 5 stars

JG Ballard has yet to disappoint me with one of his novels and The Unlimited Dream Company further cements his reputation, in my own mind at least, as perhaps the most unique British writer of his time. We follow Blake, the novels protagonist, as he crash lands his plane into the London suburb of Shepperton where the author himself lived for the majority of his adult life. Blakes arrival brings on a massive transformation in Shepperton, turning it into a twisted Eden in which he is able to play...more

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Feb 11, 2010 Nadine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: surreal-fantasy

This novel breaks all the rules. Pilot crashes, becomes a heroic figure after death, engages in all sorts of sex with the entire population, including plants and finally redeems every living organism. It's hilarious and profound in very odd ways. If you write, he will give you permission to try new things.

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Jan 07, 2011 Tim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This story of a would-be pilot crashlanding in Shepperton, only to become trapped by unknown forces, was a real surprise to me. I’ve not read any other Ballard, and was impressed/baffled by the levels of woozy sexual fantasy. Unlike anything I’ve ever read.

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Jul 17, 2012 Kurt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Even by Ballard's standards, this is a very dreamy, weird surreal novel. I still found it intriguing enough to be absorbed by the creative use of Ballard's writing. The best way to describe it would be that it is liking watching a Terrence Malik film. I would like to see that.

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May 22, 2012 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

My first Ballard novel and, as a surreal fantasy, not a genre to which I would be naturally drawn. A challenging book, unlike anything else I've ever read. I'm not sure that I understood it all but the power of the writing is undeniable. Astonishing and simply beautiful.

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Jun 07, 2010 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

Only have 30 pages left but one of Ballards' best books. Great flights of fancy, impeccable style and social commentary rolled into one great book. If you have never read Ballard start now. You will be set free to sore out of humdrum life on literate wings.

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May 13, 2012 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

A psychedelic treat. very disturbing indeed. It's no wonder Cronenberg was so attracted to his work: it's so tremendously hateful.

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Sep 18, 2012 Christina Wilder rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: unusual-and-daring, disturbing-as-hell

One of the strangest books I have ever read, and that includes Obscene Bird of the Night and the Third Policeman.

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Feb 08, 2010 Charles Dee Mitchell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-sf

This book has more the quality of a psychedelic vision unfolding before the readers gaze than did the earlier Ballard novels I have recently read. Here there is no Conradian voyage upriver, as in The Crystal World or The Drought. (Of course the river is dry in the latter.) The theme is still one of transformation, of discovering one's true self in a changed world, although here the main character is mad or possibly dead. I also suspect that for British readers there is something intrinsically fu...more

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Nov 09, 2012 Alejandro Romero godínez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Una de las historias más extrañas y geniales que he leído, no es para todo publico.

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Sep 09, 2011 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars

Lyrical, surreal, exultant. Worth more than most writer's entire oevre. Taps into truth at the bottom layer.

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Nov 15, 2010 RandomAnthony marked it as to-read

Pausing this a bit because Woodcutters arrived from the library....

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Jun 18, 2009 Leslie added it

The Unlimited Dream Co. by J. G. Ballard

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Dec 30, 2012 Polly Marshall rated it 5 of 5 stars

Truly great.

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About J.G. Ballard

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.

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