J. Ballard: The Complete Short Stories

If so, we arrived some moments too late. As we leave, the computers have calmed themselves, and are singing quietly in unison. Perhaps they miss their former companions, however brutish. Our concluding survey indicates that they have invented God, perhaps an idealised image of the race they entombed. As we set out into space we can hear them praying.

J.G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai, China, where his father was a businessman. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he and his family were placed in a civilian prison camp. They returned to England in 1946.

After reading Medicine at Cambridge for two years, he worked as a copywriter and Covent Garden porter before going to Canada with the RAF. His first short stories appeared in 1956, and after working on scientific journals he published his first major novel, The Drowned World , in 1962. His acclaimed 1984 novel Empire of the Sun won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was later filmed by Steven Spielberg. His 1973 novel Crash was also made into a film, directed by David Cronenberg.

J.G. Ballard’s most recent novels are Cocaine Nights and Super-Cannes .

The stories in this collection first appeared in the following publications:

‘Prima Belladonna’ Science Fantasy 1956

‘Escapement’ New Worlds 1956

‘The Concentration City’ (as ‘Build-Up’) New Worlds 1957

‘Venus Smiles’ (as ‘Mobile’) Science Fantasy 1957

‘Manhole 69’ New Worlds 1957

‘Track 12’ New Worlds 1958

‘The Waiting Grounds’ New Worlds 1959

‘Now: Zero’ Science Fantasy 1959

‘The Sound-Sweep’ Science Fantasy 1960

‘Zone of Terror’ New Worlds 1960

‘Chronopolis’ New Worlds 1960

‘The Voices of Time’ New Worlds 1960

‘The Last World of Mr Goddard’ Science Fantasy 1960

‘Studio 5, The Stars’ Science Fantasy 1961

‘Deep End’ New Worlds 1961

‘The Overloaded Man’ New Worlds 1961

‘Mr F. is Mr F.’ Science Fantasy 1961

‘Billennium’ New Worlds 1961

‘The Gentle Assassin’ New Worlds 1961

‘The Insane Ones’ Amazing Stories 1962

‘The Garden of Time’ Fantasy and Science Fiction 1962

‘The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista’ Amazing Stories 1962

‘Thirteen to Centaurus’ Amazing Stories 1962

‘Passport to Eternity’ Amazing Stories 1962

‘The Cage of Sand’ New Worlds 1962

‘The Watch-Towers’ Science Fantasy 1962

‘The Singing Statues’ Fantastic Stories 1962

‘The Man on the 99th Floor’ New Worlds 1962

‘The Subliminal Man’ New Worlds 1963

‘The Reptile Enclosure’ (as ‘The Sherrington Theory’) Amazing Stories 1963

‘A Question of Re-Entry’ Fantastic Stories 1963

‘The Time-Tombs’ Worlds of If 1963

‘Now Wakes the Sea’ Fantasy and Science Fiction 1963

‘The Venus Hunters’ (as ‘The Encounter’) Amazing Stories 1963

‘End-Game’ New Worlds 1963

‘Minus One’ Science Fantasy 1963

‘The Sudden Afternoon’ Fantastic Stories 1963

‘The Screen Game’ Fantastic Stories 1963

‘Time of Passage’ Science Fantasy 1964

‘Prisoner of the Coral Deep’ Argosy 1964

‘The Lost Leonardo’ Fantasy and Science Fiction 1964

‘The Terminal Beach’ New Worlds 1964

‘The Illuminated Man’ Fantasy and Science Fiction 1964

‘The Delta at Sunset’ The Terminal Beach 1964

‘The Drowned Giant’ The Terminal Beach 1964

‘The Gioconda of the Twilight Noon’ The Terminal Beach 1964

‘The Volcano Dances’ The Terminal Beach 1964

‘The Beach Murders’ (as ‘Confetti Royale’) Rogue 1966

‘The Day of Forever’ The Impossible Man 1966

‘The Impossible Man’ The Impossible Man 1966

‘Storm-Bird, Storm-Dreamer’ The Impossible Man 1966

‘Tomorrow is a Million Years’ Argosy 1966

‘The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race’ Ambit 1966

‘Cry Hope, Cry Fury!’ Fantasy and Science Fiction 1967

‘The Recognition’ Dangerous Visions 1967

‘The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D’ Fantasy and Science Fiction 1967

‘Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan’ International Times 1968

‘The Dead Astronaut’ Playboy 1968

‘The Comsat Angels’ Worlds of If 1968

‘The Killing Ground’ New Worlds 1969

‘A Place and a Time to Die’ New Worlds 1969

‘Say Goodbye to the Wind’ Fantastic Stories 1970

‘The Greatest Television Show on Earth’ Ambit 1972

‘My Dream of Flying to Wake Island’ Ambit 1974

‘The Air Disaster’ Bananas 1975

‘Low-Flying Aircraft’ Bananas 1975

‘The Life and Death of God’ Ambit 1976

‘Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown’ Bananas 1976

‘The 60 Minute Zoom’ Bananas 1976

‘The Smile’ Bananas 1976

‘The Ultimate City’ Low-Flying Aircraft 1976

‘The Dead Time’ Bananas 1977

‘The Index’ Bananas 1977

‘The Intensive Care Unit’ Ambit 1977

‘Theatre of War’ Bananas 1977

‘Having a Wonderful Time’ Bananas 1978

‘One Afternoon at Utah Beach’ Anticipations 1978

‘Zodiac 2000’ Ambit 1978

‘Motel Architecture’ Bananas 1978

‘A Host of Furious Fancies’ Time Out 1980

‘News from the Sun’ Ambit 1981

‘Memories of the Space Age’ Interzone 1982

‘Myths of the Near Future’ Myths of the Near Future 1982

‘Report on an Unidentified Space Station’ City Limits 1982

‘The Object of the Attack’ Interzone 1984

‘Answers to a Questionnaire’ Ambit 1985

‘The Man Who Walked on the Moon’ Interzone 1985

‘The Secret History of World War 3’ Ambit 1988

‘Love in a Colder Climate’ Interview 1989

‘The Enormous Space’ Interzone 1989

‘The Largest Theme Park in the World’ Guardian 1989

‘War Fever’ Fantasy and Science Fiction 1989

‘Dream Cargoes’ Shincho 1990

‘A Guide to Virtual Death’ Interzone 1992

‘The Message from Mars’ Interzone 1992

‘Report from an Obscure Planet’ Leonardo 1992