http://www.bookian.com Book Discussion Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:09:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://www.bookian.com/j-g-ballard/the-drowned-world/31 http://www.bookian.com/j-g-ballard/the-drowned-world/31#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:27:17 +0000 Bookian http://www.bookian.com/?p=31 Best of all Ballard books. An early one, and out of print currently. Strange fever dreams, like Thomas Manns Death in Venice, but, unlike Mann, Ballard never ignores science. This is about a reptilian fever dream in a post-warming world, where all of humanity has retreated to some small islands north of greenland, and send out reconnaissance patrols of military scientists to reclaim and save what they can of human history and knowledge. RIGHT! Meanwhile, brains retreat into the neadrathalic core from which we all grew (except for those who just showed up one day because God spread some seeds, meal crumbs stuck in his flowing white beard off a velvet painting in gold glint hanging on the wall of a small church in Las Vegas), and.. but I cannot say more. Natures plan has sworn me to silence. Awesome book. – reviewed by global warning

]]> http://www.bookian.com/j-g-ballard/the-drowned-world/31/feed 0 http://www.bookian.com/j-g-ballard/the-drought/30 http://www.bookian.com/j-g-ballard/the-drought/30#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:22:17 +0000 Bookian http://www.bookian.com/?p=30 Yes, another ecological, archaeological apocalyptic disaster science fiction book classic from an early master of the message… although most people only know him as Oh Yeah, That Guy Who Wrote The Book They Made That Movie About. (google him if you dont know.) Like Frank Herbert, whose early classics like The Green Brain outpace, IMHO, the blockbuster appeal of DUNE (though dune, of course, rocks), Ballard is obscured by his blockbuster tied to the western cultural fear of the Other. (yes, old school pomo crappification.) Either way, The Drought is one of Ballards classics about environmental degradation and the accompanying decay of the human. If only he could have lived to see it… – reviewed by end of the world again

]]> http://www.bookian.com/j-g-ballard/the-drought/30/feed 0 http://www.bookian.com/j-g-ballard/the-best-short-stories-of-j-g-ballard/29 http://www.bookian.com/j-g-ballard/the-best-short-stories-of-j-g-ballard/29#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:17:17 +0000 Bookian http://www.bookian.com/?p=29 A true poet of the scientific. This collection has an excellent grouping of Ballards short stories, many of which have been hard to find until now. Known too much for his Crash, Ballard is, like early Frank Herbert, an extensively environmentalist author, and many of these stories reflect it. Not a bad story in the collection. – reviewed by drowned world doom

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