beemch's review
4.0
there’s this really cool story towards the end of the book that features a group of errant youths who sculpt clouds using makeshift gliders in the world turned desert post WWIII. then, halfway through this beautiful woman shows up and we are lead by the narrator to believe she’s quite evil because she killed her (cheating) husband after he painted a really poor portrait of her. at one point she appears topless and her breasts are described as snakes.
that pretty accurately sums up my entire opinion on JG ballard. if you google pictures of the man, you can tell he had absolutely no game.
that pretty accurately sums up my entire opinion on JG ballard. if you google pictures of the man, you can tell he had absolutely no game.
david_agranoff's review
5.0
Fantastic collection of Ballard stories. Surreal,bizarro, Science fiction, horror, thought provoking and all around genius writing.
geve_'s review
4.0
3.5 rounded up.
These feel very much like stories out of the time they were written in both a good and bad way. There were a couple of great stories (4-5 stars), but most were just fine (2-3 stars). There were some repeated themes as well, that made these feel like practice stories for later and possibly better works. In particular there were several stories about running out of living space/resources and cramped mega-cities as well as stories about the whole "playing god" improvement of humanity to our detriment.
I will say I was struck by the very dystopian nature of the stories which is part of why they feel a bit dated, while also being a little nostalgic for a time I never experienced, but have certainly read a lot about.
All in all, this was a mostly good read. I will probably pick up another book by this author.
These feel very much like stories out of the time they were written in both a good and bad way. There were a couple of great stories (4-5 stars), but most were just fine (2-3 stars). There were some repeated themes as well, that made these feel like practice stories for later and possibly better works. In particular there were several stories about running out of living space/resources and cramped mega-cities as well as stories about the whole "playing god" improvement of humanity to our detriment.
I will say I was struck by the very dystopian nature of the stories which is part of why they feel a bit dated, while also being a little nostalgic for a time I never experienced, but have certainly read a lot about.
All in all, this was a mostly good read. I will probably pick up another book by this author.
sobolevnrm's review
4.0
About half of these stories are absolutely fantastic -- the other half are terrible.
jeffhall's review
4.0
J.G. Ballard wrote a lot of short stories over his long career, and many of them are completely forgettable, well in line with the general contents of the pulpy sci-fi magazines which published them. Even in this collection of his best stories, there are more than a couple of outright clunkers.
On the other hand, when Ballard was really working at the peak of his talent, his words could dazzle with depth, clarity, wisdom, and occasionally even with music, as in these memorable lines from "The Voices of Time":
"...the (Apollo) Seven and their journey to the white gardens of the moon, and the blue people who had come from Orion and spoken in poetry to them of ancient beautiful worlds beneath golden suns in the island galaxies, vanished forever now in the myriad deaths of the cosmos."
I first encountered these stories more than thirty years ago, and some of them are so well-crafted that they have become a part of my consciousness, such that every re-reading feels like reengaging with a part of myself. Beyond "The Voices of Time", the others that are somehow always with me are:
"Deep End"
"The Garden of Time"
"The Cage of Sand"
"End Game"
"The Drowned Giant"
"End Game" is unusual for Ballard, a tale of personal and political gamesmanship with no relation to his usual science fiction themes. And it's excellent. As is "The Drowned Giant", which is simply perfect in capturing humanity's endless thirst for novelty, irreverence, and destruction.
In the end, I have to consider "The Cage of Sand" as Ballard's very best story. He wrote many similar tales of "post-space age" melancholy, often featuring grounded astronauts or pilots trying to understand the futility of humanity's interstellar dreams. But in the "The Cage of Sand", the author goes further, and gives us a tale of the detritus of those dreams, and the frustrated lives of the dreamers who have nowhere else to go when the future has come to a halt. J.G. Ballard was a rare talent who could express the limits of the hopes that humanity wraps around our scientific and technical prowess, and "The Cage of Sand" tackles that complex subject with beauty and grace.
On the other hand, when Ballard was really working at the peak of his talent, his words could dazzle with depth, clarity, wisdom, and occasionally even with music, as in these memorable lines from "The Voices of Time":
"...the (Apollo) Seven and their journey to the white gardens of the moon, and the blue people who had come from Orion and spoken in poetry to them of ancient beautiful worlds beneath golden suns in the island galaxies, vanished forever now in the myriad deaths of the cosmos."
I first encountered these stories more than thirty years ago, and some of them are so well-crafted that they have become a part of my consciousness, such that every re-reading feels like reengaging with a part of myself. Beyond "The Voices of Time", the others that are somehow always with me are:
"Deep End"
"The Garden of Time"
"The Cage of Sand"
"End Game"
"The Drowned Giant"
"End Game" is unusual for Ballard, a tale of personal and political gamesmanship with no relation to his usual science fiction themes. And it's excellent. As is "The Drowned Giant", which is simply perfect in capturing humanity's endless thirst for novelty, irreverence, and destruction.
In the end, I have to consider "The Cage of Sand" as Ballard's very best story. He wrote many similar tales of "post-space age" melancholy, often featuring grounded astronauts or pilots trying to understand the futility of humanity's interstellar dreams. But in the "The Cage of Sand", the author goes further, and gives us a tale of the detritus of those dreams, and the frustrated lives of the dreamers who have nowhere else to go when the future has come to a halt. J.G. Ballard was a rare talent who could express the limits of the hopes that humanity wraps around our scientific and technical prowess, and "The Cage of Sand" tackles that complex subject with beauty and grace.
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