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angus_mckeogh's review against another edition
3.0
Really liked it. Intriguing and strange. Classic Ballard.
a_beautiful_soup's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
3.25
rossisok's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Fundamentally a novel of obsession.
daniellewalsh's review against another edition
2.0
I don't know if I just wasn't in the mood for this, but I just didn't click with this book at all.
Obviously there is a theme of Ballard's novels of an extreme environmental apocolypse; flooding, droughts, crystalisation. The ideas are unusual and interesting and a lot of people seem to love them.
After reading The Drowned World last year I thought I'd enjoy more of Ballard's work, but I don't think I'll be in a rush to pick up another.
The glistening crystal forests evoke a sense of wonder and beauty with a hidden danger and horror. But that is the extent of my 'feeling', apart from that I didn't really care much.
This was one of those books that I read and just had to keep Googling to check that I knew what was going on because I just was a little bit confused.
Keeping it short and sweet because I don't actually have much to say. Sorry Mr Ballard.
Obviously there is a theme of Ballard's novels of an extreme environmental apocolypse; flooding, droughts, crystalisation. The ideas are unusual and interesting and a lot of people seem to love them.
After reading The Drowned World last year I thought I'd enjoy more of Ballard's work, but I don't think I'll be in a rush to pick up another.
The glistening crystal forests evoke a sense of wonder and beauty with a hidden danger and horror. But that is the extent of my 'feeling', apart from that I didn't really care much.
This was one of those books that I read and just had to keep Googling to check that I knew what was going on because I just was a little bit confused.
Keeping it short and sweet because I don't actually have much to say. Sorry Mr Ballard.
simonfay's review against another edition
3.0
Later in his career, J.G. Ballard advised that a writer shouldn't write too many books. I took this to mean that a person can expend their reserve of creativity and end up becoming a pale imitation of themselves. I also gathered that this advice came from Ballard's personal experience.
I haven't read most of his material, but I have dipped into examples from numerous points in his career, and while I agree that his later offerings were rather flat, the problem of diminishing returns can be seen as early as his third apocalyptic novel, The Crystal World, wherein the very Earth around us begins to turn to glass.
The concept of our planet spontaneously transforming to crystal is potentially compelling. The decadent morbidity of it is enough to inspire any writer stuck behind a typewriter. However, Ballard was in the position of having already imagined two other kinds of apocalypses - one brilliantly rendered, the other less so, but both pulsing with lived experience and a perverse desire to journey into the dark.
With The Crystal World, he seems to have exhausted his insight into the threat of human extinction. That leaves him with the surreal imagery of his Daliesque catastrophe to keep the reader interested. Ultimately, it felt like a bit of a superficial affair, with not enough drive behind the characters actions to keep me interested.
Can a writer write too many books? I know that Ballard bounced back from this misfire. Maybe if he lived another decade he would have found another spurt of inspiration.
I haven't read most of his material, but I have dipped into examples from numerous points in his career, and while I agree that his later offerings were rather flat, the problem of diminishing returns can be seen as early as his third apocalyptic novel, The Crystal World, wherein the very Earth around us begins to turn to glass.
The concept of our planet spontaneously transforming to crystal is potentially compelling. The decadent morbidity of it is enough to inspire any writer stuck behind a typewriter. However, Ballard was in the position of having already imagined two other kinds of apocalypses - one brilliantly rendered, the other less so, but both pulsing with lived experience and a perverse desire to journey into the dark.
With The Crystal World, he seems to have exhausted his insight into the threat of human extinction. That leaves him with the surreal imagery of his Daliesque catastrophe to keep the reader interested. Ultimately, it felt like a bit of a superficial affair, with not enough drive behind the characters actions to keep me interested.
Can a writer write too many books? I know that Ballard bounced back from this misfire. Maybe if he lived another decade he would have found another spurt of inspiration.
jen286's review against another edition
3.0
This was…. Just okay. The idea was good, but the execution was not the best. I was a bit bored reading it so…not the worst but not the best
zimb0's review against another edition
3.0
I can tell there's a message somewhere here.
Maybe it's encroaching change on old, that its terrors still bend go tradition vis a vis the cross.
Maybe the new should be embraced, that you can only prevent winds for so long.
Rivers and roads, it always comes down to them for Ballard. Journeys end and then begin. Or something
Maybe it's encroaching change on old, that its terrors still bend go tradition vis a vis the cross.
Maybe the new should be embraced, that you can only prevent winds for so long.
Rivers and roads, it always comes down to them for Ballard. Journeys end and then begin. Or something
bessamemucho's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
andyml's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5