The Disaster Area

by J.G. Ballard

This mesmerizing collection demonstrates perfectly Ballard’s extraordinary writing talent. All the concentrated power and imagination that distinguish his novels are demonstrated here: the iron strength of his stories lies in the juxtaposition of a recognizable physical word with an inner, complex dream landscape. Within this Disaster Area you’ll find:

- Storm-bird, Storm-dreamer
- The Concentration City
- The Subliminal Man
- Now Wakes the Sea
- Minus One
- Mr F. is Mr F.
- Zone of Terror
- Manhole 69
- The Impossible Man

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Speculative Fiction, Collections, Philosophy

191 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1967

About the author

James Graham "J. G." Ballard (15 November 1930 – 19 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Ballard came to be associated with the New Wave of science fiction early in his career with apocalyptic (or post-apocalyptic) novels such as The Drowned World (1962), The Burning World (1964), and The Crystal World (1966). In the late 1960s and early 1970s Ballard focused on an eclectic variety of short stories (or "condensed novels") such as The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), which drew closer comparison with the work of postmodernist writers such as William S. Burroughs. In 1973 the highly controversial novel Crash was published, a story about symphorophilia and car crash fetishism; the protagonist becomes sexually aroused by staging and participating in real car crashes. The story was later adapted into a film of the same name by Canadian director David Cronenberg.

While many of Ballard's stories are thematically and narratively unusual, he is perhaps best known for his relatively conventional war novel, Empire of the Sun (1984), a semi-autobiographical account of a young boy's experiences in Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War as it came to be occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army. Described as "The best British novel about the Second World War" by The Guardian, the story was adapted into a 1987 film by Steven Spielberg.

The literary distinctiveness of Ballard's work has given rise to the adjective "Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments." The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry describes Ballard's work as being occupied with "eros, thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies".

Reviews

[Jörg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ballard puts the social into science fiction. His oeuvre centers around negative developments in modern society and the individual. The first few short stories focus on some aspect of our civilization and extrapolate it into the future from a critical slant, using exaggeration as the mean. While most of the assertions can still persist, the stories show their age in the details. Later stories cover individual zones of terror. Negative influences of society on the individual, psychological disorders, absurd mind terror.

- Storm bird, storm dreamer ***
A prognosis on the negative consequences of genetical engineering before it was commonly known. Luckily, the effects didn't turn out to be as devastating and handling of gene-manipulated seeds as careless. The exaggeration is off the mark here.

- The concentration city ****
A progression on Ballard's High Rise. The whole world is a never-ending city, rising in three dimensions. The whole world? Doubting this is considered to be pathological. There must be an end to growth.

- The subliminal man ****
A future where subliminal perception actually works. A critical view on mass consumption and consumer manipulation. Fun fact: paper money isn't used anymore because machines cannot accept it.

- Now wakes the sea ***
The borders between primordial times and today blur for a man. Where today there's a city, there used to be an ocean.

- Minus One ***
A man disappears from an asylum. The corrupt director covers up this instance by simply denying the existence of this patient. The machinations of the powerful.

- Mr. F is Mr. F **
A Benjamin Button story. Mr. F is an adult living his life backwards to his own conception.

- Zone of terror **
A man sees his doppelganger(s). They are him, just a few minutes apart.

- Manhole **
Sleep is unnecessary? A doctor performs brain surgery on three probands eliminating their need for sleep. A bad decision.

- The impossible man ***
Is immortality desirable if surgery was able to grant it? Ballard doesn't think so.

I liked the first stories better. The later more individual stories suffer from unsatisfying resolutions. The common thread of absurd medical conditions gets worn out.

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is Ballard a better story writer than novelist? It's possible, seeing the unsettlingly-realized worlds he can fit into 15 or 20 pages (late capitalist endless-growth-as-ideal run amok in 'The Subliminal Man', infinite urbanism in "The Concentration City"). Not as good as the interconnected story-cycles of The Atrocity Exhibition or Vermilion Sands perhaps, but for a randomly stumbled on collection I'd heard absolutely nothing about, this is startlingly solid and inventive.

I wrote that first paragraph months ago after the first three stories in the collection, and am happy to report that after a bit of a dip in the middle into less fully realized material, the collection wraps up nicely with a sequence of paranoiac medical studies. Three stars for being less exciting than the other two story-sequences mentioned above, but very worthy nonetheless.

[Trevor Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The collection found in J.G. Ballard's The Disaster Area is very relevant today despite the majority of the stories being written before 1970. It seems like it was written taking into account some of the present fears of the time and using at as a projection into the future, which most science fiction worth it’s weight tries to do. However; what most have seemed as hard to believe or even an absurdity at the time feels all-too real as a person in the modern world today (minus the man eating birds). What I enjoyed most about this collection is that while clearly moving a distinct message about the potential dangers lying ahead for civilization, the author doesn’t sway away from the story, in fact he delivers a bang for an ending for the reader to dissect and enjoy. The author uses landscapes and environment to communicate to the reader that they are in fact on Earth, things may be different, perspectives may have changed, and animals have evolved but all is the same in a relative sense.

Have you ever imagined what you would do with your time if you no longer had the need for sleep and had an extra eight hours in a day? Manhole 69 answers this question in an unsurprising but equally disturbing way. An advanced neurological study is trying to cure compulsive behaviour by freeing the mind from sleep. The patients quickly become reliant on doctors orders as well as what they feel is their prescription for stimulation, but as sleep deprivation sets in for the staff on hand, the patients paranoia begins to take hold and no one is their to hold their hand. In The Concentration City the setting is vast but only vertically in the eyes of the citizens, most seem unbothered by it, they understand that there’s no place to go but to go up, it just costs a little bit extra. It is said that there is enough free space to go around but only one inquisitive young man is about to go on a journey to see how much free space there actually is. Franz has dreams of flying in a world that has regulations on scientific advancement and has even gone as far as clipping birds. To him the world around him consists of nothing but limitations, cold food and dirt; to others it simply is what it is and we all must deal with it. Franz on the other hand has other ideas.

“The surgeon hesitated before opening the door. ‘Look,’ he began to explain ‘you can't get out of time, can you?’ Subjectively it's a plastic dimension, but whatever you do to yourself you'll never be able to stop that clock’- he pointed to the one on the desk-"or make it run backwards. In exactly the same way you can't get out of the City."
‘The analogy doesn't hold,’ M. said. He gestured at the walls around them and the lights in the streets outside. ‘All this was built by us. The question nobody can answer is: what was here before we built it?’ “

The Impossible Man discusses the idea of eternal life and restorative surgery as a means of achieving it. The world is facing a demographic where elderly people are the majority, hospital admissions are steadily declining as people are choosing to die according to the Almighty's plan. This is a story of how people choose to deal with the circumstances of life and the power of controlling your own fate. Now Wakes The Sea tells the story of a happy married couple Mason and Miriam and their relationship with a temperamental sea. Miriam worries for her husband as she claims there is no sea but Mason hears the waves crashing every night while awakening from his slumber. Miriam has faith in her husband but is beginning to wonder if the dreams have given way to madness. Mr. F Is Mr. F is a freaky Benjamin Button-esque type story minus the romanticism and with additional control and irrational psychosomatic conditions. The story begins with an eager couple awaiting the birth of their first child and ends with a baby in a crib, how we get there proves to be quite interesting and crippling for the control freak in all of us.

“Handling him roughly, she bundled Freeman into his cot and secured him under the blankets. Downstairs he could hear her moving about rapidly, apparently preparing for some emergency. Propelled by an uncharacteristic urgency, she was closing the windows and doors. As he listened to her, Freeman noticed how cold he felt. His small body was swaddled like a new-born infant in a mass of shawls, but his bones were like sticks of ice. A curious drowsiness was coming over him, draining away his anger and fear, and the centre of his awareness was shifting from his eyes to his skin. The thin afternoon light stung his eyes, and as they closed he slipped off into a blurring limbo of shallow sleep, the tender surface of his body aching for relief.”

In Storm-Bird, Storm-Dreamer, a biological event with unforeseen consequences had taken place two months prior, upsetting the normal predatory food chain. Agricultural sprays has enabled birds to become bigger, faster and stronger than man and seen their dietary needs transform from normal seeds and eggs to livestock, humans and even attacking buildings. The story centers around a battle at sea where the birds attack an unsuspecting young man named Crispin. Armed with a few guns and a the village idiot at his side he overcame self-doubt and won the battle but as the old saying goes ‘if a tree fall in a forest, does it make a sound’, well Crispin will have a long wait before receiving any recognition for his heroic achievement or hope that the madwoman that witnessed the fight becomes more credible. In another story we learn that there's a missing patient at a hospital, an apparent asylum escapee with no clues left behind. The charge nurse and Doctor don’t even want to entertain the thought of notifying police twelve hours after becoming aware of the situation. The staff don’t even know who they are looking for, they can’t put a face to the name, to them it’s just another faceless zombie, but this faceless zombie has a family, and a wealthy family at that. In Minus One you once again learn that the cover up is worse than the crime and how far administrative errors can take you if you want to leave the situation unscathed.

“ 'As I was saying, Doctor, you have so many patients, all wearing the same uniforms, housed in the same wards, and by and large prescribed the same treatment – is it surprising that they should lose their individual identities? If I may make a small confession,’ he added with a roguish smile. ‘ I myself find that All the patients look alike. Why, if Dr. Norm and or yourself informed me that a new patient by the name of Smith or Brown had arrived, I would automatically furnish him with the standard uniform of identity at Green Hill – those same lustreless eyes and slack mouth, the same amorphous features.’”

Job burnout is very real in certain occupational industries and can become a psychological burden once you leave the jobsite. In Zone Of Terror a man goes on a retreat to rest and recuperate only to have hallucinations of a phantom-like figure that strangely looks very much like him. His support system talks him down but the visions become more prevalent and take different forms. The Subliminal Man takes place in a world with standardized living and no choices. Customization has gone the way of the Dodo as a government conspiracy gets people to buy what’s on the market, be a slave to consumerism and work longer shifts because there is always something new coming around the corner. Hathaway is a man that values minimalism in a world where manufacturing failures are prevalent and quality control has regressed to a ridiculous point where people are asking themselves ‘who needs zippers anyway?’ Yet still prices seem to always be on the rise. Needless to say Hathaway is seeing a psychologist, a psychologist who has no problem keeping up with the Joneses because it was simply a matter of reality not choice. Infrastructure advancements has taken the Dr. farther and farther from home with more time spent on the highways observing his surroundings with Hathaway’s dark and foreboding societal stances echoing in his brain. The Subliminal Man is a great expose in the misadventures of advertising and the consequences that follow. Ignorance is bliss, some people are content following the herd, the danger lies at the feet of the freethinkers; I’m reminded of a song: ‘Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind, Do this, don't do that, can't you read/hear the sign?’

“The ability to react to stimuli, even irrationally, was a valid criterion of freedom. By contrast, what freedom Franklin possessed was peripheral, sharply demarked by the manifold responsibilities in the center of his life-the three mortgages on his home, the mandatory rounds of cocktail and TV parties, the private consultancy occupying most of Saturday which paid the instalments on the multitude of household gadgets, clothes and past holidays. About the only time he had to himself was driving to and from work.”

Overall, I enjoyed nearly all of the stories in The Disaster Area. The two that left me with a nothing feeling were Zone Of Terror and Now Wakes The Sea. Zone Of Terror was the one that negatively stood out, which is odd because it reminded me of a David Lynch story but it just didn’t have an impact or reach a crescendo that gripped me. Now Wakes The Sea was very touching in its demonstration of long-lasting love and the feeling of past lives but the conclusion left me wanting a little more. Other than these minor setbacks I was very impressed with this book and enjoyed my time with these stories. Recommended.

[Stephen Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A VISION OF DRAINED SWIMMING POOLS TO COME

Although this relatively early collection isn’t quite as strong as some of Ballard’s best it does serve well as a foretaste of what was to come, with its many glimpses of future Ballardian themes. Some stories are better than others; most notably, The Concentration City, Now Wakes the Sea, and Zone of Terror. Others are a little weak, but they’re all enjoyable, even if not always convincing. The prose, in the less successful stories, is also a little below Ballard’s normal standard, but is always readable. In general it’s a good read and worthwhile for all Ballard fans.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story will stay with me I think. Like most of the stories in this collection, I thought I had a handle on what was happening, until the final few paragraphs when everything was turned on its head

[Todd Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual, short story collections are a mixed bag. For me, the better stories were "The Concentration City", "The Subliminal Man " and "Minus One".

[Nemos · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were nine short stories in this collection, each about 20 pages long. Out of the nine of them there's only one that I really liked, and even that was a couple of points short of a 10/10. Most of the rest had some kind of interesting idea at the core but the page count prevented them from being explored in an interesting or meaningful way, and a few left me scratching my head and wondering "what was the point?" Overall a pretty meh reading experience.

[Andrew Copolov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a good collection of short psychological sci-fi stories. Generally I find his long form stories more enjoyable, but from this collection The Concentration City and The Subliminal Man show how well Ballard’s writing can suit short stories.

[N. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think you can try this out if you want to figure out if you like this author's books. Otherwise, I just thought it was okay.

[Russ · Rating 3 out of 5]

5/10

[Ryan Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great really ahead

[Alien · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved "The Terminal Beach" which I read not so long ago and had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately I was disappointed. The themes are there: the bizarre, the strange. But somehow the mysterious atmosphere from the Terminal Beach was not present. And the plots kept irritating me. The stories, where Ballard extrapolates the present into the future are too extreme and physically impossible, so they don´t work for me.
Another thing is that - following a tradition of the 80s - ALL the stories ended on a depressing note.

[Ficie · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the back cover there's a quote by Graham Greene: "One of the best science fiction books I have read".
I have to disagree.
I found most of the stories contained in this book hard to read (the first one, "Storm-bird, storm-dreamer" was especially painful: incredibly slow, 20 pages that felt 3 times as many), and quite pointless.
"Minus one" is by far the best story in the bunch, clever and nicely disturbing.

[Spin-l.p. · Rating 4 out of 5]

1967

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Except for the weak first story, "The Disaster Area" is some excellent and imaginative science fiction, which despite being written in the late 1960s hasn't lost much of its visionary appeal.

[Farhad · Rating 4 out of 5]

the first two stories with dystopian future cities are well written, horrifying and amazing. I didn't liked the others that much except for the lost patient story and cure for sleeping one.

[William Leight · Rating 2 out of 5]

Storm-bird, Storm-dreamer: interesting if rather macabre idea, but the twist at the end was pretty clear from the beginning. The story definitely could’ve done without the retarded guy, who is self-evidently and unnecessarily there to add a sort of gothic flavor.
The Concentration City: a very annoying story that creates an interesting idea, undermines it by poor choices (a totally enclosed world-city that somehow still has the technology and society of early-'60s America; the choice of going east to look for the edge of the city is clearly driven by the mindset of somebody today, not somebody with no concept of “sky”) and preachiness (the birds who have evolved not to have wings, for no reason at all; the scientist who tells our hero that science is only about cataloging the discoveries of the past), and then at the end admits defeat by saying “well, none of it is really real anyway!” World-building is not required but if your amazing idea doesn’t make sense, neither will your story.
The Subliminal Man: unsurprisingly, it’s about conformity and going along to get along. There’s a telling detail, though, when Ballard explains that bills were eliminated in order to encourage easier spending, because vending machines could not deal with bills. Which, frankly, shows Ballard’s limits as a sci-fi writer: he’s just not very good at imagining technology. It wouldn’t have taken a particularly imaginative writer to come up with the idea of vending machines that take bills: if he really wanted to emphasize the drive towards making consumption as easy as possible, he could have come up with an electronic system. For a society capable of constructing massive devices for beaming subliminal messages to highway drivers, this should be possible, but Ballard apparently can’t conceive of such a thing. The story itself is no great shakes, the idea is kind of ridiculous and the critiques of consumerism, while not necessarily wrong, manage to be both heavy-handed and very obviously of their time.
Now Wakes the Sea: not a bad ghost story, as Ballard is good at atmosphere, but you can kind of see the end coming, and there’s no effort to give a reason for the developments, the way that M.R. James, who was probably an influence on this one, would have.
Minus One: a mordantly satirical story that’s not sci-fi at all, which may be why it’s better than average for this collection. Ballard is masterful on the way that the head of the asylum manipulates his subordinates to make a seeming problem, a missing inmate, go away. The ending was a bit heavy-handed, though (a problem that Ballard sometimes has).
Mr. F is Mr. F: I have to give Ballard a bit of credit for thinking outside the box here, as expectant mothers aren't usually monstrous figures. Nonetheless, the total absence of any sort of motivation for the events of the story reduces its impact.
Zone of Terror: ghost story whose attempt to use a psychiatrical motivation isn’t particularly successful. The gun is also introduced in a rather heavy-handed way. Good idea, though.
Manhole 69: this one is a bit obvious. A doctor has come up with a brilliant idea to eliminate the need for sleep via a combination of psychiatric therapy and neurosurgery: you will not be surprised to find out that it goes wrong. To go with the Chekhov’s gun from the previous story, the Chekhov story “The Bet” is a running theme here, but I’m not convinced that the parallels are as strong as Ballard thinks. I also find his psychiatric techno-babble less than convincing. And it doesn’t make sense that the experimental subjects experience a shared breakdown. Interestingly, this story doesn’t end on an unequivocally depressing note, as all the others do: not quite clear why this should be the case.
The Impossible Man: this story his merges two themes, one of old people in an aging world who decide to die rather than extending their lives indefinitely through medical miracles, the other of people who reject the idea of having part of somebody else’s body implanted in them. Organ transplants were still new and strange when the story was written, but this particular theme hasn’t aged well, and it doesn’t help that Ballard, for once being imaginative, jumps to the idea that not just internal organs but whole limbs could be transplanted, thus achieving a weird hybrid of a futuristic idea with an old-fashioned attitude. As a result, when our hero gets in a car accident to remove the leg he had surgically attached to replace one he lost in a previous car accident, because he doesn’t feel like the leg is his, it just doesn’t feel sensible. And since Ballard chose to focus on a young person — presumably because the society he lives in is full of old people, something which we are told but which is not investigated at all — the more interesting, and more timeless, question of the decision of the old people to not keep living gets short shrift.

[Gautam Sasidharan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"One of the best science fiction books I have read"

These lines by Graham Greene are what made me go for this book.

J G Ballard's "The Disaster Area" is a collection of nine short stories. Storm-bird, storm-dreamer talks about a man who is guarding a shore and is dystopian. The Concentration City takes on the idea of real estate. The Subliminal Man is about billboards on the highway. Now Wakes The Sea is a blur between the past and the present. Minus One is about a lunatic asylum. Mr F is Mr F is about a man's death, the Benjamin Button way. Zone of Terror is a thriller with a psychological angle. Manhole 69 explores the possibility of existing without sleep. The Impossible Man is built on the premise of organ donation and restorative surgery.

If you ask why this book works, the answer will be the delight in reading the visions made half of century back as fiction which have come close to reality today. This feeling is felt in most of the stories including The Subliminal Man and The Concentration City. The book is not exactly science fiction but a set of stories which explore the possibilities of future. Since such a vista can be made interesting only with a negative connotation, the stories end with no hope for resuscitation.

The book is written in a simple and lucid language. As with any fiction which deals with science, future, psychoanalysis and the like, there seems to be areas which are grey. Like the intention of Crispin when he dives down the slope in Storm-Bird, Storm-Dreamer or the author's intention in Now Wakes The Sea. However, the writing is rich in description of the scene and adds layers in the stories by bringing in elements about the society. But essentially it is the plot which scores especially in stories like The Concentration City, Manhole 69 and the Impossible Man.

There isn't anything to be written against but it is to be mentioned that each of the stories leave you wanting for more; more about the characters and the story thereafter. While the fact that the author has been able to pack a punch in each of the short stories shows the author's strength, the want for more can act as a dampener to this incredible book.

Overall, a great book to taste.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the first sentence of The Disaster Area, I knew I was coming home to J. G. Ballard: "At dawn the bodies of the dead birds shone in the damp light of the marsh, their grey plumage hanging in the still water like fallen clouds." Ballard's distinctive style and tone of cultured detachment is inimitable. First published in 1967, this edition of The Disaster Area, with cover art possibly by Peter Goodfellow (according to Internet Speculative Fiction Database), was issued in 1979.

This was long my favourite Ballard collection of short stories, even over Vermillion Sands. It contains several of Ballard's earlier stories, including "The Concentration City," "Manhole 69," and "Mr. F is Mr. F," which are masterpieces of what might be termed psychological science fiction, or psychological horror. I read these and other stories from The Disaster Area over and over in the late 1970's when I first encountered them, and they have remained with me all these years. "Mr. F is Mr. F" is perhaps one of the most perfect and terrifying stories Ballard ever wrote.

Not every story in this volume is of the same quality. The first and last stories in the book, "Storm-bird, Storm-dreamer" and "The Impossible Man," for example, are weaker. The former reads as an idea for another of Ballard's disaster novels, but it seems incomplete and lacking; the latter has aged poorly since the mid-1960's, when it was written.

Overall, however, The Disaster Area is a brilliant collection—the very best of J. G. Ballard. Anyone unfamiliar with Ballard would do well to pick up this volume first to get a good sense of his originality and significance.

[Thomas R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ballard is one of my favorite authors, but he is perhaps hard to understand and appreciate. I would suggest reading Empire of the Sun as a start to seeing where Ballard is coming from. I do not suggest that everyone should read Ballard as he is especially dark and stomps over dangerous territory, but to one who appreciates the type of lens that Ballard looks through, there can be a lot to consider and think about.

This Ballard collection includes 9-stories.
Storm-bird, Storm-dreamer - Two basic protagonists. One who is responsible for shooting down extra large birds caused by some biological disaster and is alone except for a widowed woman who is collecting feathers. Misunderstandings of purposes cause more disaster.
The Concentration City - A city that seems to have no end and a strange connection to time.
The Subliminal Man - Advertising from hell.
Now Wakes the Sea - One man experiences visions of an ancient sea and its lure.
Minus One - The tyranny of an Asylum, for the unwanted of the rich, and how they solve the problem when one of their patients disappears. This story reminds me of a section of Cloud Atlas.
Mr. F. is Mr. F. - A form of devolution and more of a horror story.
Zone of Terror - Another horror story where drugs and hallucinations finally become reality.
Manhole 69 - Let's just say this is another horror story especially for anyone with insomnia.
The Impossible Man - A story of a transplant that seems to take over the conscience actions of a young man.

[Psientist · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a re-read. Enjoyed the title story of the collection. Also the story about the vast city linked by trains -- that reminded me of Iain M. Banks a bit. A lot of the rest seemed a little contrived. They extrapolate some sort of psycho-analytic theories to extreme ends. Good but not brilliant.
The title story is hallucinogenically convincing. Worth a read.

[Darien McCormack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed his short stories. I have been working my way thorough his works. Each story has a different subject twist to start your mind thinking afterwards....what if? Still as valid things to ponder now, as when it was wrote.

[Elise Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

the first two stories with dystopian future cities are well written, horrifying and amazing. I didn't liked the others that much except for the lost patient story and cure for sleeping one.

[Marlies Vaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een verzameling korte sf verhalen, oorspronkelijk gepubliceerd in 1967. Ze zijn daardoor wat gedateerd, maar wel goed geschreven. Sommige griezelig, andere verrassend.

[Jonathan Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid collection of subtle SF. Ballard’s prose is beautiful. A melancholy runs through the collection, a sadness for a future in some ways already realised.

[Arthur B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incorporates some of Ballard's best early work. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

ballard: here are some thought-provoking stories about how capitalism and man’s hubris will lead us to a destruction of self

also ballard: wouldn’t it be fucked up if you turned into a baby lol

[ساسان عاصی · Rating 5 out of 5]

اعتراف می‌کنم کم‌وبیش انتظار داستان‌هایی این‌قدر خوب رو نداشتم؛ خوب بله، ولی این‌قدر خوب که بعضی داستان‌ها به‌نظرم تنه به شاهکار هم بزنن... عالی بود کتاب.‏

[H. F. Greenwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories first published in 1967 - hard to imagine, almost 60 years old.
Quietly terrifying. Such perfect little vignettes.