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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. First Edition. From Library JournalThis fascinating collection of stories, written over the last 15 years, is loosely tied together by Ballard's overall themes: our isolation in time and the psychological implications of technology. Some stories are eerie and surreal, others ironic and humorous, but each is uniquely insightful. Largely because of their treatment of the concept of future time, the stories may be classified as science fiction. But the locations are actual rather than conceptual, with descriptions of such locales as Florida and London bolstered by tangible allusions to well-known modern artists and public figures. In "The Secret History of World War 3," the time is 1995 and Ronald Reagan has been elected to a third term of office. As Reagan's health bulletins obscure the most significant conflict of the era, it is both funny and frightening to see the media manipulating the public perceptions of reality. The space program, astronauts, Beirut, and toxic chemical disposal are some of the subjects explored in these stories. They show the scope of Ballard's preoccupation with life in the future and recommend him to a wider audience than traditional science fiction fans.- Patricia C. Heaney, Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, N.Y.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.Product DescriptionA war-ravaged Beirut is the setting for the title story of this visionary collection, a tale in which a young street fighter inadvertently discovers how to bring an to the bloodshed only to find that his solution is all too effective as far as some supposedly neutral observers are concerned. Other stories feature an assassination plot against an American astronaut, the leader of an authoritarian religious movement; a man who is destroyed by a car crash and resolves never to leave his apartment again; and the survivor of a toxic-waste ship wrecked on a deserted Caribbean island.From Publishers WeeklyBallard, the surrealistic poet of contemporary life, looks into the near future in this collection of unsettling short stories. They all revolve around a world in which current tendencies are carried to alarming extremes: Ronald Reagan's presidency is revived, and a nation obsessed with his health barely notices a fleeting world war; a cargo vessel carrying toxic wastes creates a brief, hallucinatory paradise on a Caribbean island; AIDS anxiety calls forth a strange new society in which casual sex is compulsory, in order to raise the birth rate; astronauts figure in two stories, one a vision of Cape Canaveral as a shrine of ancient aviation history where time has literally stood still, the other an account of a self-described moon-walker living off his past in Rio. There are also three brilliant literary satires, which take the forms, respectively, of a questionnaire to which only the answers are given; a series of footnotes without a text; and an index to a book that may never have been written, about a man who could have been a key figure in 20th-century history. Ballard's is a playful and versatile imagination, and this collection will gratify his admirers.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.ReviewShort, dense, vivid, hallucinatory. -David Foster Wallace, The Washington Post Book WorldThe voltage is high . . . Far more rigorous and fastidious than Jorge Luis Borges or Italo Calvino, Mr. Ballard keeps impeccably cool. -Ursula K. le Guin, The New York Times Book ReviewMr. Ballard creates a hallucinatory vision of mankind's perils in this collection of stories . . . Here is an author who keeps exting the limitless boundaries of fiction. -Herbert Mitgang, The New York TimesAbout the AuthorJ. G. Ballard is the author of more than twenty novels and short-story collections. He lives in Shepperton, England. Seller Inventory # DADAX0374286450
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Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 0.85. Seller Inventory # Q-0374286450