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Title: The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard by J. G. Ballard, Anthony Burgess ISBN: 0-8050-3876-0 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: March, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: parts of this book are brilliant
Comment: I would rate a few of the stories contained in this book with five stars, but other stories bring the total rating down to 3 stars. These are the stories which I would rate with 5 stars: "The Concentration City", "Chronopolis", "Thirteen for Centaurus", and "The Sublimiminal Man". "The Concentration City" is set somewhere in the future where somethings taken for granted now have long been forgotten. Hence things have to be reinvented and rediscovered. Because of "development" however, there are almost insurmountable barriers to reinvention. "Chronopolis" is a fascinating story of how using watches and clocks became illegal. "Thirteen for Centaurus" is about a space station supposedly travelling to a distant gallaxy. "The Sublimiminal Man" is aptly named because it is about exactly what the title says. The rest of the stories just didn't hold my interest. Some of them were very complex while others were simple but didn't have a good plot. Indeed, some of the stories had no plot at all. As far as climax is concerned, none of his stories had a climax. Most of his stories should be read mainly for the experience as opposed to a good meat and potatoes story. One thing about J.G. Ballard is that he certainly is very imaginative and creative.
Rating: 4
Summary: Food for Thought
Comment: Ballard is one of the great "conceptualizers" of modern literature. The premises of his stories are the most immediately striking thing about them. Sometimes the story doesn't live up to the expectations he creates, but this is probably because he sets the bar so high.
In any case, whether a Ballard story is a total or only a partial success, it invariably provides plenty of food for thought. Three of them--"The Overloaded Man", "The Drowned Giant", and "The Garden of Time"--rank among my all-time favorites for their perfect fusion of speculative and mythic qualities. The more technology-based stories ("Concentration City", "The Voices of Time") are more interesting for their ideas than their execution.
In the introduction to this volume, Anthony Burgess hits on the central importance of Ballard's work: "Ballard considers that the kind of limitation that most contemporary fiction accepts is immoral... Language exists less to record the actual than to liberate the imagination." If you agree, buy this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Some of the best short fiction
Comment: This is some of the best short fiction ever written. A friend of mine lent me this book. I've read a lot more J.G Ballard because I loved this book so much, but have not enjoyed Ballards other work as much. Most of the stories deal with mans struggle to cope - with technolgy, with fear, with relationships with change etc. There's a few dud stories but most are home runs.
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Title: Crash : A Novel by J. G. Ballard ISBN: 0312420331 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 05 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Atrocity Exhibition by J. G. Ballard ISBN: 1889307033 Publisher: V/Search Pub. Date: December, 1990 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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Title: The Crystal World by J. G. Ballard ISBN: 0374520968 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1988 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Kindness of Women by J. G. Ballard ISBN: 0374181101 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: October, 1991 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Cocaine Nights by J. G. Ballard ISBN: 1582430179 Publisher: Counterpoint Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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