The Drowned World
A foundational early novel and an accessible entry to Ballard's climate-catastrophe fiction.
Author guide
J.G. Ballard Books in Order
James Graham Ballard (1930–2009) was an English novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and satirist. His childhood in Shanghai and internment during the Second World War shaped his semi-autobiographical fiction, especially Empire of the Sun and The Kindness of Women. He became a major figure in British New Wave science fiction through novels and collections including The Drowned World, The Crystal World, The Atrocity Exhibition, and Crash. His later work increasingly examined consumer society, suburban violence, political extremism, and the psychological effects of modern technology and mass media.
science fictiondystopian fictiontransgressive fictionliterary fictionsatireautobiographical fictionessays
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
The Atrocity Exhibition
The central experimental work for readers interested in Ballard's condensed novels, satire, and media obsessions.
Empire of the Sun
His major semi-autobiographical novel and the clearest entry to the formative Shanghai experience behind much of his fiction.
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (19)
- The Wind from Nowhere
novel · 1961
- The Drowned World
novel · 1962
Fluctuations in solar radiation have melted the ice caps, sending the planet into a new Triassic Age of unendurable heat. London is a swamp; lush tropical vegetation grows up the walls of the Ritz and primeval reptiles are sighted,…
- The Burning World
novel · 1964
An apocalyptic dystopia like no other, one whose "originality and power [of] vision can be felt" (Times Literary Supplement). Water. Man’s most precious commodity is a luxury of the past. Radioactive waste from years of industrial dumping…
- The Crystal World
novel · 1966
On his way into the African jungle to visit his friends, Dr. Sanders becomes increasingly aware of the forest's bizarre petrification.
- The Atrocity Exhibition
novel · 1970
First published in 1970 and widely regarded as a prophetic masterpiece, this is a groundbreaking experimental novel by the acclaimed author of Crash and Super-Cannes, who has supplied explanatory notes for this new edition.
- Crash
novel · 1973
The car provides the hellish tableau in which Vaughan, a 'TV scientist', experiments with erotic atrocities among crash victims, each more sinister than the last: ultimately, he craves a union of blood, semen and engine coolant in a…
- Concrete Island
novel · 1974
A 35-year-old architect is driving home from his London office when his car swerves and crashes onto a traffic island lying below three converging motorways. Uninjured, he climbs the embankment to seek help, but no one will stop for him…
- High-Rise
novel · 1975
Coming in March 2016 from acclaimed director Ben Wheatley, a major motion picture adaptation of J. G. Ballard’s compelling and unnerving tale of what happens when life in a luxury apartment building descends into chaos, starring Tom…
- The Unlimited Dream Company
novel · 1979
"A remarkable piece of invention, a flight from the world of the familiar and the real into the exotic universe of dream and desire." —New York Times Book Review When a light aircraft crashes into the Thames at Shepperton, the young pilot…
- Hello America
novel · 1981
"This fable lifts a great freight of ideas effortlessly…The story of an expedition driven on by wishes of possession and power but guided internally by myths of America whose sources lie in the late 20th century." —Guardian Following the…
- Empire of the Sun
novel · 1984
"Based on J. G. Ballard's own childhood, this is the extraordinary account of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai - a mesmerising, hypnotically compelling novel of war, of starvation and survival, of internment camps and…
- The Day of Creation
novel · 1987
Drevet af sin vision om den Tredie Nil, hvis varme bifloder overskyller Sahara, drager en forhutlet WHO-læge op ad floden gennem guerillakrig og sit eget syge sinds urskov
- Running Wild
novella · 1988
The thirty-two adult members of an exclusive residential community in West London are brutally murdered, and their children are abducted, leaving no trace. Through the forensic diary of Dr. Richard Greville, Deputy Psychiatric Adviser to…
- The Kindness of Women
novel · 1991
The sequel to "Empire of the Sun", this story follows the travels of Jim, as he leaves Shanghai after the war and tries to settle firstly in England and then Canada. Shattered by personal tragedy, he throws himself into the maelstrom of…
- Rushing to Paradise
novel · 1994
"[A] chilling . . . tale about humans who gamely follow their own worst instincts.”—Chicago Tribune Led by a charismatic and slightly unhinged woman, a group of environmentalists wrest control over a small South Pacific island in hopes of…
- Cocaine Nights
novel · 1996
Five people die in an unexplained housefire in the Spanish resort of Estrella de Mar, an exclusive enclave for the rich, retired British, centred around the thriving Club Nautico. The manager of the club, Frank Prentice, pleads guilty to…
- Super-Cannes
novel · 2000
A high-tech business park on the Mediterranean coast is the setting for a most disturbing crime in this bestseller from the master of dystopia, J.G. Ballard.
- Millennium People
novel · 2003
After his ex-wife is killed in a bombing at London's Heathrow airport, psychologist David Markham infiltrates the shadowy protest group responsible and finds himself becoming brainwashed by the group's charismatic leader, a doctor based…
- Kingdom Come
novel · 2006
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Selection A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Fiction) "J.G. Ballard is the undisputed laureate of suburban psychosis.... A brilliant novel." --Literary Review
Nonfiction (1)
- Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton
autobiography · 2008
J.G. Ballard has been, for over fifty years, one of this country's most significant writers. Beginning with the events that inspired his classic novel, "Empire of the Sun", in this revelatory autobiography he charts the course of his…
Short fiction (17)
- The Voices of Time and Other Stories
short-story-collection · 1962
- Billennium
short-story-collection · 1962
- Passport to Eternity
short-story-collection · 1963
- The Four-Dimensional Nightmare
short-story-collection · 1963
- The Terminal Beach
short-story-collection · 1964
The Terminal Beach is one of the most brilliant collections of short stories by the author of Crash and Empire of the Sun. It ranges from the title story's disturbing picture of an abandoned atomic testing island in the Pacific to the…
- The Impossible Man
short-story-collection · 1966
- The Overloaded Man
short-story-collection · 1967
- Vermilion Sands
short-story-collection · 1971
Vermilion Sands is J.G. Ballard's fantasy landscape of the future - a latter-day Palm Springs populated by forgotten movie queens, temperamental dilettantes and drugged beachcombers.
- Chronopolis and Other Stories
short-story-collection · 1971
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1971. Hardcover with dustjacket. Collects 16 stories originally published between 1957 and 1966. Ballard (1930-2009) is a highly regarded science fiction writer, and this edition is quite collectible.
- Low-Flying Aircraft and Other Stories
short-story-collection · 1976
- Myths of the Near Future
short-story-collection · 1982
First published 1982. Short stories providing visions of other times and other places, where nothing seems quite right
- Memories of the Space Age
short-story-collection · 1988
The "Cape Canaveral" stories, eight stories originally published between 1962 and 1985.
- War Fever
short-story-collection · 1990
A war-ravaged Beirut is the setting for the title story of this visionary collection, a tale in which a young street fighter inadvertently discovers how to bring an to the bloodshed only to find that his solution is all too effective as…
- The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard
short-story-collection · 2009
Essays and speeches (2)
- Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan
pamphlet · 1988
- A User's Guide to the Millennium: Essays and Reviews
essay-collection · 1996
A collection of novelist's non-fiction writings spanning more than thirty years addresses topics including the arts, science, literature, popular culture, and his own life.
Frequently asked questions about J.G. Ballard
Who was J.G. Ballard?
J.G. Ballard was the professional name of James Graham Ballard (1930–2009), an English novelist and short-story writer born in Shanghai. He became known for psychologically intense science fiction and dystopian fiction, later gaining a wider readership through his autobiographical war novel Empire of the Sun.
Sources: sf-encyclopedia.com (opens in a new tab)theguardian.com (opens in a new tab)
What happened to J.G. Ballard during World War II?
As a boy in Shanghai, Ballard and his family were interned in a Japanese civilian prisoner-of-war camp. The experience later informed Empire of the Sun and helped shape recurring images and concerns in his fiction.
Why is J.G. Ballard associated with the New Wave of science fiction?
His early fiction favored psychology, disaster, technology, and the inner life over conventional space-adventure themes. He became a figurehead of British New Wave science fiction and used the term “inner space” for the psychological territory he explored.
Sources: sf-encyclopedia.com (opens in a new tab)sf-encyclopedia.com (opens in a new tab)
Which awards did J.G. Ballard win?
He won the British Science Fiction Association’s 1980 Best Novel award for The Unlimited Dream Company. Empire of the Sun later won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Award.
Sources: bsfa.co.uk (opens in a new tab)penguinrandomhouse.com (opens in a new tab)
What does “Ballardian” mean, and what is J.G. Ballard’s legacy?
“Ballardian” describes dystopian modernity, bleak artificial landscapes, and the psychological effects of technological, social, or environmental change. The term reflects Ballard’s lasting influence on writers including Charles Platt, M. John Harrison, and Jeff VanderMeer.
Sources: collinsdictionary.com (opens in a new tab)sf-encyclopedia.com (opens in a new tab)