§ J.G. Ballard never won the Nobel... but then, if you look at a list of those who did, you understand why. His heroes invariably choose to head in the wrong direction through the ruined landscapes of the soul, lost adventurers who are often swallowed by the raw unknown of the quantum universe. While he thought his fiction was optimistic, its scientific colorations hold no appeal for the bourgeois literati. No genuflections to the literary masterpieces of the past, no near-field homages to life in the welfare state, no easy Anglican moralizing, no feminine propaganda. His imagery comes from telescopes and microscopes, scientific papers and pulp fiction, old encyclopedias and the galleries of the surrealists. The secret of his writing is to be found in the metaphysical power of his metaphors and his ability to reconcile the unknown with the known.

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In many ways J.G. Ballard was like L. Ron Hubbard, a maverick science fiction writer with a cult, but in Ballard's case a non-institutionalized cult. The JG Ballard Book, edited by the premier JGB collector Rick McGrath, feeds the beast, adds another brick to the shrine. It's a compendium of artifacts and opinions, interviews, typescripts, photographs, dust jacket repos, hand-writing repos, notes, and so on. Besides reprinting classic interviews by Ballard experts James Goddard and David Pringle, and several excellent theme essays by other commentators, the volume is illustrated with some subtle photos by the nomadic Ana Barrado. Want to write a Master's thesis in hurry? Too tired to research via Facebook? Get The J.G. Ballard Book. Nice layout, legible print, fun illustrations... Ballardian story by CC's Paul A. Green... in all, not only a fitting homage to the late great visionary writer JGB, but an artifact onto itself. Collect it while you can.

The J.G. Ballard Book is available from Amazon »»

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