Quoting from the Associated Press today:

"LONDON – Writer J.G. Ballard, best known for the autobiographical novel "Empire Of The Sun," which drew on his childhood detention in a Japanese prison camp in China, died Sunday, his agent said. He was 78.

Ballard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006. He had been ill "for several years" and died in London at the home of his long-term partner, his agent Margaret Hanbury said. She did not give the cause of death.

"His acute and visionary observation of contemporary life was distilled into a number of brilliant, powerful novels which have been published all over the world and saw Ballard gain cult status," Hanbury said.

Ballard was born in Shanghai, China, and was interned there in a prison camp by Japanese troops in 1941 — an experience he drew on in the 1984 novel "Empire of The Sun," later adapted as a film by U.S. director Steven Spielberg."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/ap_on_re_eu/eu_obit_jg_ballard

I remember as a kid reading a great short story by him called something like "The Wind From Nowhere."


EDIT: Actually, it was a novel --- memory fails me! :o

God rest his soul. :book2:

Quoting from the Associated Press today:

"LONDON – Writer J.G. Ballard, best known for the autobiographical novel "Empire Of The Sun," which drew on his childhood detention in a Japanese prison camp in China, died Sunday, his agent said. He was 78.

Ballard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006. He had been ill "for several years" and died in London at the home of his long-term partner, his agent Margaret Hanbury said. She did not give the cause of death.

"His acute and visionary observation of contemporary life was distilled into a number of brilliant, powerful novels which have been published all over the world and saw Ballard gain cult status," Hanbury said.

Ballard was born in Shanghai, China, and was interned there in a prison camp by Japanese troops in 1941 — an experience he drew on in the 1984 novel "Empire of The Sun," later adapted as a film by U.S. director Steven Spielberg."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/ap_on_re_eu/eu_obit_jg_ballard

I remember as a kid reading a great short story by him called something like "The Wind From Nowhere."


EDIT: Actually, it was a novel --- memory fails me! :o

God rest his soul. :book2:

Sad. He was a great author. I enjoyed his work.

I just now saw your post.

I discovered Ballard when I was a pimple-faced adolescent. I absolutely loved his work and thought of it as challenging, edgy, and entertaining.

I thought many of the "older school" SF writers of the day were writing trashy, schlockly crap. Then I discovered Norman Spinrad, J.G. Ballard, Harlan Ellison, Barry Malzberg, to name a few.

These newer writers made me realize that science fiction - like the best fiction - must first deal with human beings, and science second. These writers moved us beyond the boundaries of "normal" SF: They grabbed our minds and our gonads and shoved us hard against the wall and made us think.

I'll miss his work.

Don