*Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: We’re continuing to introduce the new layout for our books categories, with an image for each book. This week, we return to our Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror category, and turn our attention to J G Ballard, one of the leading lights of the New Wave of Science Fiction which came to prominence in the UK and USA in the 1960s. Initially a writer of surreal and disturbing short stories such as in the collections ‘The Overloaded Man’ or ‘The Terminal Beach’, he wrote several haunting novels around themes of a decaying world such as ‘The Drought’ and ‘The Wind From Nowhere’ and later collections included ‘The Venus Hunters’ and ‘Vermilion Sands’. All of these and more can be found in our catalogue. Ballard’s work was often steeped in controversy such as in ‘Crash’ (adapted to film by David Cronenburg), but it is perhaps for the mainstream war novel ‘Empire of the Sun’ (filmed by Spielberg) that he will be best remembered outside the genre. Ballard is not a comfortable, easy read; rather he is unsettling and thought-provoking, playing with dystopias and the psychological effects of topographical catastrophes. He’d have had a field day with our present dystopia.
PICTURED: ALL by J G BALLARD (others listed in our catalogue)
THE DAY OF FOREVER Panther 1967 1st UK PB GD £10 Short stories
THE DROUGHT Penguin 1968 1st UK PB GD/VG £7
THE FOUR-DIMENSIONAL NIGHTMARE Penguin 1965 1st UK PB VG £10 Short stories
THE OVERLOADED MAN Panther 1967 1st UK PB VG £20 Short stories
THE TERMINAL BEACH Penguin 1966 1st UK PB VG £12 Short stories
VERMILION SANDS Panther 1973 1st UK PB FA £8 Short stories
THE WIND FROM NOWHERE Berkley 1962 1st US PB GD/VG £15