Vermilion Sands
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"Ballard is amongst our finest writers." -Anthony Burgess
Book Description
Ballard is amongst our finest writers of fiction' Anthony Burgess
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book collects Ballard's stories about Vermillion Sands, an artists' colony maroooned in a languid future of unlimited leisure, high technology, and mysterious, jewel-eyed women. Half-sentient buildings drift in and out of the encroaching desert, art projects threaten the nature of reality, and the inhabitants pursue their obscure enthusiasms, all against the numbing blue skies and the desolate sands. In common with many of Ballard's books, it's emotionally cold, but full of sharply brilliant ideas and vivid, over-saturated images. The characters drift throught their plots as if stunned, chasing art projects, ideas and each other with the bewildered air of actors thrust suddenly into a world without motives. Here the desolate air of coming disaster which characterises Ballard's early work has made a place where people can live without regrets or consequences, where any idea can be pursued, or any fate risked, because nothing really matters. Somewhere the world is grinding to a halt, but not here, in this remote world of privileged eccentrics. Lonely, strange and startlingly beautiful, the book has the warm laziness of a luxurious sea-side town, caught endlessly in late summer, between the tourists leaving and the autumn storms.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book brings together a collection of tales set at and around the resort of Vermilion Sands. Faded film stars, has-beens and rich, shallow artists mingle in a existence filled with pointless time wasting.
This is one of Ballard's most accomplished and accessible works. For me he is most successful as a short story writer where his visions never outstay their welcome. Unfortunately, many of his earlier short stories in his New Wave phase are alienating, cold and devoid of involving characters or emotion.
These tales are very much different. They are beautifully written with great characters, even if they're not the sort of people you'd like to meet. The tales are often simple, but they are moving, and throughout there's a great sense of location. If you've not tried his stories before this would be an excellent place to start.
This is one of Ballard's most accomplished and accessible works. For me he is most successful as a short story writer where his visions never outstay their welcome. Unfortunately, many of his earlier short stories in his New Wave phase are alienating, cold and devoid of involving characters or emotion.
These tales are very much different. They are beautifully written with great characters, even if they're not the sort of people you'd like to meet. The tales are often simple, but they are moving, and throughout there's a great sense of location. If you've not tried his stories before this would be an excellent place to start.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I love this book - its twisty darkness, wide-ranging ideas, and bizarre, campy satire. In fact, this is my favorite Ballard - for all his fame and critical success, his books seem to me often too predictable, too idea-driven. In this one he was willing to have fun, and the result is as though Fellini made a horror movie.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
recommended book
This book was recommended by Gary Numan in a recent documentry. I loved his music and was earger to read this to find out where he got his inspiration from. Read more
Published 22 months ago by J. Rye
The most wonderful and memorable of his collections
This was the first J G Ballard work I ever read, some fifteen years ago now. On the strength of it I have read perhaps twenty of his other works; novels, biography and short... Read more
Published on 26 Nov 2001
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