The Complete Short Stories - Softcover

Ballard, J. G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007138121 ISBN 13: 9780007138128

Publisher: Flamingo, 2002

Synopsis

For the first time in one volume, a complete collection of the acclaimed short stories by the author of Empire of the Sun, Crash, 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 celebrated 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 highly influential 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 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.

About this title

Review:

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 short-story writer, from the singing orchids of Vermilion Sands in Prima Belladonna, completed in 1956, to the millennial anxieties of Report from an Obscure Planet, written in 1992.

The Complete Short Stories confirm Ballard's stature as a craftsman of the short story, which often suits his surreal brilliance above and beyond later novels such as Cocaine Nights and Super-Cannes. In his Introduction, Ballard reflects, "the short story is coined from precious metal, a glint of gold that will glow for ever in the deep purse of your imagination." Time and again, whether exploring the furthest reaches of science fiction, or the banal surrealism of English suburban life, Ballard's perverse insight lodges itself in your imagination, as he explores and often punctures what he refers to as "that over-worked hologram called reality". This collection will delight devotees, but it will also allow readers new to Ballard to experience a short-story writer of the stature of Borges, Bradbury or Edgar Allan Poe. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

‘Treat yourself to more than 1,000 compelling pages from one of the most haunting, cogent and individual imaginations in contemporary literature.’ William Boyd, Mail on Sunday

‘A feast, and not only for those who think – as I do – that Ballard has long been Britain's most original and inventive writer. For anyone bored with the stale conventions of mainstream fiction, his 90-odd stories of stilled time, desolate beauty and personal fulfilment in extreme situations will be sheer delight.’ John Gray, New Statesman

‘This marvellous, inexhaustible book is a monument at the end of fertile lands... Ballard is a superb writer; few could publish a book of this size which is never boring, where the invention never flags. Unfailingly ingenious and perverse.’ Philip Hensher, Daily Telegraph

‘Thank God for J.G. Ballard and his short stories in which wonder and awe never fade. It is no exaggeration to say that Ballard's stories are beyond compare. This is a collection of tales and fables to be savoured by admirers and newcomers alike.’ Robert Edric, Spectator

‘Reading this book of collected stories is a peculiarly enriching experience.’ Jason Cowley, Observer

About this edition

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0007138121
• ISBN 13: 9780007138128
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 1200