MEMORIES OF THE SPACE AGE .

Ballard, J[ames] G[raham]

ISBN 10: 0870541579 / ISBN 13: 9780870541575

Published by Arkham House Publishers, [Sauk City, Wisconsin], 1988

About this Item

Octavo, cloth. First edition, first printing. 4903 copies printed. Collects eight stories, all the Cape Canaveral and related fiction, including several stories not previously reprinted. A fine copy in nearly fine dust jacket priced $16.95 on the front flap with just a bit of dust soiling to white areas on the front panel. (#178701).

Seller Inventory # 178701

Bibliographic Details

• Title: MEMORIES OF THE SPACE AGE .
• Publisher: Arkham House Publishers, [Sauk City, Wisconsin]
• Publication Date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0870541579
• ISBN 13: 9780870541575
• Binding: Hardcover
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

This is a limited-edition collection of J.G. Ballard's short stories from Arkham House united around the theme of the failed US space program, mostly set in a deserted and desolate Cape Canaveral, with a scattering of lone ex-astronauts and others still dreaming of the Space Age.

Cover artwork 'Europe After the Rain' by Max Ernst, illustrated by J.K. Potter

The Cage of Sand (New Worlds Jun ’62)
A Question of Re-Entry (Fantastic Mar ’63)
The Dead Astronaut (Playboy May ’68)
My Dream of Flying to Wake Island (Ambit #60 ’74)
News from the Sun (Ambit #87 ’81)
Memories of the Space Age (Interzone #2 ’82)
Myths of the Near Future (F&SF Oct ’82)
The Man Who Walked on the Moon (Interzone #13 ’85)

Reviews

Ballard ( Empire of the Sun ; The Day of Creation ) is arguably the pre-eminent living science-fiction writer, and recognized as a literary force by readers and critics outside the SF field. This collection brings together Ballard's "Cape Canaveral stories," eight in all, written between 1962 and 1985, and set in a future when the space program has ceased and civilization itself seems on the wane. Images of waste, abandonment, emptiness and desolation recurtoppling towers, dead astronauts circling the Earth endlessly, deserts, empty swimming pools. In "News from the Sun," life itself is slowly draining away as people are increasingly subject to long fugue states, recalling Eliot's line, "Not with a bang but a whimper." In the title story, the protagonist alternately wanders a deserted Canaveral and tends his dying wife. Ballard writes a clear, flawless prose, rich in deft phrase and vivid imagery. This book is not for the ray-gun and bug-eyed monster crowd.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.