April 29, 2009

J. G. Ballard (1930–2009)

J.G. Ballard died today after a long battle with prostate cancer. He is perhaps best known for his autobiographical novel The Empire of the Sun, but I will always remember his work from the seventies and early eighties, beginning with Crash and ending with his collection of short stories War Fever. It was these edgy, controversial, and surreal stories that will always signify Ballard for me. Not only has speculative fiction lost one of its more significant names, but so has world literature.

There’s some particularly good stuff on Ballardian.