Voices of Time

The first volume of the complete collection of stories by J.G. Ballard – one of the most original visionaries of the 20th century.
The creator of "Empire of the Sun", "Crash" and "High-Rise", Ballard wrote eighteen novels and dozens of stories over four decades that changed the face of world literature and influenced a whole generation of writers, artists, musicians, and filmmakers.
It is in the short form that Ballard truly reveals himself. His stories are a laboratory of ideas from which all of his famous novels grew. Here, for the first time, themes and images appear that will later become iconic: flooded cities of the future, deserts of glass, musical plants, the secret biology of mutations caused by mass media, and tales of secret wars that never occurred.
These texts, collected here for the first time in the order of their authorship and publication, offer a glimpse into the very depths of the master's imagination, showcasing how his catastrophes, hallucinations, and prophecies are born. With the release of this collection, readers finally have the opportunity to appreciate the unparalleled diversity and mesmerizing rhythm of Ballard's prose. Whether it’s musical orchids, cannibalistic rituals of the future, or an alternative history of World War III, his stories evoke visions comparable to the images of Kafka and Borges, capturing the contemporary anxiety, longing for the unfulfilled, and the strangeness of the world with unsettling precision.
The first volume includes stories written between 1956 and 1962.