The Crystal World
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.18
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Sean Barrett
-
By:
-
J. G. Ballard
About this listen
From J.G. Ballard, author of Crash and Cocaine Nights comes his extraordinary vision of an African forest that turns all in its path to crystal.
Through a 'leaking' of time, the West African jungle starts to crystallize. Trees are metamorphosed into enormous jewels. Crocodiles encased in second glittering skins lurch down the river. Pythons with huge blind gemstone eyes rear in heraldic poses.
Fearing this transformation as a herald of the apocalypse, most flee the area in terror, afraid to face a catastrophe they cannot understand. But some, dazzled and strangely entranced, remain to drift through this dreamworld forest. Travelling through this gilded land, a doctor tries to resist its strange allure in pursuit of his ex-mistress, while a tribe of lepers search for Paradise…
In this tour de force of the imagination, Ballard transports the listener into one of his most unforgettable landscapes.
©1966 J. G. Ballard (P)2014 Audible StudiosListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Atrocity Exhibition
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A prophetic and experimental masterpiece by J. G. Ballard, the acclaimed author of ‘Crash’ and ‘Super-Cannes’. This edition features explanatory notes from the author. The irrational, all-pervading violence of the modern world is the subject of this extraordinary tour de force. The central character’s dreams are haunted by images of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, dead astronauts and car-crash victims as he traverses the screaming wastes of nervous breakdown.
-
-
Ballard's extreme experiment - bizarre & brilliant
- By Miriam on 08-30-14
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Complete Short Stories
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrrom, William Gaminara, Sean Barrett, and others
- Length: 63 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of 98 enthralling and pulse-quickening stories, spanning five decades, venerates the remarkable imagination of J. G. Ballard. With a body of work unparalleled in twentieth-century literature, J. G. Ballard is recognized as one of the greatest and most prophetic writers in the world. With the much-hailed release of The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard, readers now have a means to celebrate the unmatched range and mesmerizing cadences of a literary genius.
-
-
Story Title List
- By Kevin on 05-16-21
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Unlimited Dream Company
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Dylan Lynch
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a light aircraft crashes into the Thames at Shepperton, the young pilot who struggles to the surface minutes later seems to have come back from the dead. Within hours everything in the dormitory suburb is transformed. Vultures invade rooftops, luxuriant tropical vegetation overruns the quiet avenues, and the local inhabitants are propelled by the young man’s urgent visions through ecstatic sexual celebrations toward an apocalyptic climax. In this characteristically inventive novel Ballard displays to devastating effect the extraordinary imagination that has established him as one of the 20th century’s most visionary writers.
-
-
A Vision-based Parable of Virtue and Vice
- By Darwin8u on 05-08-18
By: J. G. Ballard
-
High-Rise
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Tom Hiddleston
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the Sunday Times best seller Cocaine Nights comes an unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control. Within the concealing walls of an elegant 40-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on 'enemy' floors, and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for riots and technological mayhem.
-
-
Dark and thought-provoking
- By Amazon Customer on 04-18-19
By: J. G. Ballard
-
A User's Guide to the Millennium
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of the author's articles and reviews, giving an insight into some of the most important literary, artistic, and scientific movements and events of the last 30 years.
By: J. G. Ballard
-
Empire of the Sun
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world.
-
-
Abridged version kind of ruins it.
- By John S on 06-12-14
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Atrocity Exhibition
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A prophetic and experimental masterpiece by J. G. Ballard, the acclaimed author of ‘Crash’ and ‘Super-Cannes’. This edition features explanatory notes from the author. The irrational, all-pervading violence of the modern world is the subject of this extraordinary tour de force. The central character’s dreams are haunted by images of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, dead astronauts and car-crash victims as he traverses the screaming wastes of nervous breakdown.
-
-
Ballard's extreme experiment - bizarre & brilliant
- By Miriam on 08-30-14
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Complete Short Stories
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrrom, William Gaminara, Sean Barrett, and others
- Length: 63 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of 98 enthralling and pulse-quickening stories, spanning five decades, venerates the remarkable imagination of J. G. Ballard. With a body of work unparalleled in twentieth-century literature, J. G. Ballard is recognized as one of the greatest and most prophetic writers in the world. With the much-hailed release of The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard, readers now have a means to celebrate the unmatched range and mesmerizing cadences of a literary genius.
-
-
Story Title List
- By Kevin on 05-16-21
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Unlimited Dream Company
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Dylan Lynch
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a light aircraft crashes into the Thames at Shepperton, the young pilot who struggles to the surface minutes later seems to have come back from the dead. Within hours everything in the dormitory suburb is transformed. Vultures invade rooftops, luxuriant tropical vegetation overruns the quiet avenues, and the local inhabitants are propelled by the young man’s urgent visions through ecstatic sexual celebrations toward an apocalyptic climax. In this characteristically inventive novel Ballard displays to devastating effect the extraordinary imagination that has established him as one of the 20th century’s most visionary writers.
-
-
A Vision-based Parable of Virtue and Vice
- By Darwin8u on 05-08-18
By: J. G. Ballard
-
High-Rise
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Tom Hiddleston
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the Sunday Times best seller Cocaine Nights comes an unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control. Within the concealing walls of an elegant 40-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on 'enemy' floors, and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for riots and technological mayhem.
-
-
Dark and thought-provoking
- By Amazon Customer on 04-18-19
By: J. G. Ballard
-
A User's Guide to the Millennium
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of the author's articles and reviews, giving an insight into some of the most important literary, artistic, and scientific movements and events of the last 30 years.
By: J. G. Ballard
-
Empire of the Sun
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world.
-
-
Abridged version kind of ruins it.
- By John S on 06-12-14
By: J. G. Ballard
-
Running Wild
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 2 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yet again J. G. Ballard’s inimitable clairvoyance is on display in this timely, powerful story of a community shattered by a massive act of violence. A massacre rocks a suburban utopia - 32 adults murdered, and their children missing - in Running Wild, one of Ballard’s most dazzlingly subversive works of fiction.
-
-
Careful With That Axe, Eugene
- By Darwin8u on 02-18-20
By: J. G. Ballard
-
Steppenwolf
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Peter Weller
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine.
-
-
Save this Hesse novel for your midlife crisis.
- By Darwin8u on 03-02-14
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Elric of Melniboné
- Volume 1: Elric of Melnibone, The Fortress of the Pearl, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and The Weird of the White Wolf
- By: Michael Moorcock, Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 24 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Moorcock began chronicling the adventures of the albino sorcerer Elric, last king of decadent Melniboné, and his sentient vampiric sword, Stormbringer, he set out to create a new kind of fantasy adventure, one that broke with tradition and reflected a more up-to-date sophistication of theme and style. The result was a bold and unique hero: a rock-and-roll antihero who would channel all the violent excesses of the '60s into one enduring archetype.
-
-
Skip the first chapter, it's not Moorcock.
- By Ted C. on 02-17-22
By: Michael Moorcock, and others
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
The Shrike Awaits. Enter The Time Tombs...
- By Michael on 10-13-12
By: Dan Simmons
-
The Martian Chronicles
- By: Ray Bradbury
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bradbury's Mars is a place of hope, dreams, and metaphor - of crystal pillars and fossil seas - where a fine dust settles on the great, empty cities of a silently destroyed civilization. It is here the invaders have come to despoil and commercialize, to grow and to learn - first a trickle, then a torrent, rushing from a world with no future toward a promise of tomorrow. The Earthman conquers Mars...and then is conquered by it, lulled by dangerous lies of comfort and familiarity, and enchanted by the lingering glamour of an ancient, mysterious native race.
-
-
The Original. Great Stories, Great Narrator.
- By Troy on 04-05-16
By: Ray Bradbury
-
The Trial
- By: Franz Kafka
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If Max Brod had obeyed Franz Kafka's dying request, Kafka's unpublished manuscripts would have been burned, unread. Fortunately, Brod ignored his friend's wishes and published The Trial, which became the author's most famous work. Now Kafka's enigmatic novel regains its humor and stylistic elegance in a new translation based on the restored original manuscript.
-
-
We are all the straw that breaks a camel's back
- By Dan Harlow on 10-14-13
By: Franz Kafka
-
The Truth and Other Stories
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twelve stories by science-fiction master Stanislaw Lem, nine of them never before published in English.
-
-
Excellent!
- By Diogenes on 06-29-22
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
The Stars My Destination
- By: Alfred Bester
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marooned in outer space after an attack on his ship, Nomad, Gulliver Foyle lives to obsessively pursue the crew of a rescue vessel that had intended to leave him to die.
-
-
STILL AMAZINGLY GOOD AFTER 62 YEARS
- By charles watkins on 02-19-18
By: Alfred Bester
-
Carrion Comfort
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Mel Foster, Laural Merlington
- Length: 39 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Caught behind the lines of Hitler's Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazis themselves. Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul will span decades and cross continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who may often exist behind the world's most horrible and violent events.
-
-
Idk who needs to see this, but TRIGGER WARNING
- By WBA on 11-05-19
By: Dan Simmons
-
Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh
- By: Joseph Conrad
- Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh
- Length: 3 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Signature Performance: Kenneth Branagh plays this like a campfire ghost story, told by a haunted, slightly insane Marlow.
-
-
Disgusting Revision
- By Long_Schlong_Silver on 09-27-18
By: Joseph Conrad
-
The Cyberiad
- Fables for the Cybernetic Age
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trurl and Klaupacius are constructor robots who try to out-invent each other. Over the course of their adventures in The Cyberiad, they travel to the far corners of the cosmos to take on freelance problem-solving jobs, with dire consequences for their unsuspecting employers.
-
-
If Dr. Suess Wrote Science Fiction...
- By Nils J. Rasmussen on 05-27-14
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
Stormbreaker
- The First Alex Rider Adventure
- By: Anthony Horowitz
- Narrated by: Nathaniel Parker
- Length: 4 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They said his uncle Ian died in a car accident. Alex Rider knows that's a lie, and the bullet holes in his uncle's car confirm the truth. But nothing can prepare him for the news that the uncle he always thought he knew was really a spy for Britain's top-secret intelligence agency. Enlisted to find his uncle's killers and complete Ian's final mission, Alex suddenly finds himself caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse, with no way out.
-
-
Okay action story held up by an great narrator
- By Mary Fan on 08-13-13
By: Anthony Horowitz
Related to this topic
-
The Glass Palace
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love will shape his life. He cannot forget her, and years later, as a rich man, he goes in search of her.
-
-
I struggled to finish... enough said.
- By Ty on 05-02-10
By: Amitav Ghosh
-
Eagle in the Sky
- By: Wilbur Smith
- Narrated by: Byron Mondahl
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Syrian plane disintegrated, evaporating in a gush of silvery smoke, rent through with bright white lightning, and the ejecting pilot's body was blown clear of the fuselage. For an instant it was outlined ahead of David's screen, cruciform in shape with arms and legs thrown wide, the helmet still on the head, and the clothing ballooning in the rush of air.
-
-
May be my favorite
- By JDD on 05-14-19
By: Wilbur Smith
-
The Garden of Evening Mists
- By: Tan Twan Eng
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malaya, 1951. Yun Ling Teoh, the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle-fringed tea plantations of Cameron Highlands. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the emperor of Japan. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in memory of her sister, who died in the camp.
-
-
The best
- By Susan Gardner Bowers on 03-11-13
By: Tan Twan Eng
-
The Iron Tiger
- By: Jack Higgins
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before the sun can set on Jack Drummond’s career as a pilot in the British Navy, he must complete one final flight - a weapons drop over Tibet to aid guerilla fighters in their border dispute with the Red Chinese. But before he can complete the job, his plane and supplies are burned, stranding him in the Himalayas. Now, with his plane grounded, he must deliver a Tibetan leader’s son to safety over land. With the advancing Chinese enemy hot on his heels, Drummond’s final mission becomes a suspense-filled struggle for survival across the world’s most rugged terrain.
-
-
absolutely fabulous
- By Tom on 06-17-21
By: Jack Higgins
-
Force Ten from Navarone
- By: Alistair MacLean
- Narrated by: Jonathan Oliver
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Almost before the last echoes of the famous guns have died away, the three Navarone heroes are parachuted into war-torn Yugoslavia to rescue a division of partisans and fulfil a secret mission, so deadly that it must be hidden even from their own allies.
-
-
Better than the Guns of Navarone
- By KENNETH L SHRIVER on 03-29-17
By: Alistair MacLean
-
Empire of the Sun
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world.
-
-
Abridged version kind of ruins it.
- By John S on 06-12-14
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Glass Palace
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love will shape his life. He cannot forget her, and years later, as a rich man, he goes in search of her.
-
-
I struggled to finish... enough said.
- By Ty on 05-02-10
By: Amitav Ghosh
-
Eagle in the Sky
- By: Wilbur Smith
- Narrated by: Byron Mondahl
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Syrian plane disintegrated, evaporating in a gush of silvery smoke, rent through with bright white lightning, and the ejecting pilot's body was blown clear of the fuselage. For an instant it was outlined ahead of David's screen, cruciform in shape with arms and legs thrown wide, the helmet still on the head, and the clothing ballooning in the rush of air.
-
-
May be my favorite
- By JDD on 05-14-19
By: Wilbur Smith
-
The Garden of Evening Mists
- By: Tan Twan Eng
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malaya, 1951. Yun Ling Teoh, the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle-fringed tea plantations of Cameron Highlands. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the emperor of Japan. Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in memory of her sister, who died in the camp.
-
-
The best
- By Susan Gardner Bowers on 03-11-13
By: Tan Twan Eng
-
The Iron Tiger
- By: Jack Higgins
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before the sun can set on Jack Drummond’s career as a pilot in the British Navy, he must complete one final flight - a weapons drop over Tibet to aid guerilla fighters in their border dispute with the Red Chinese. But before he can complete the job, his plane and supplies are burned, stranding him in the Himalayas. Now, with his plane grounded, he must deliver a Tibetan leader’s son to safety over land. With the advancing Chinese enemy hot on his heels, Drummond’s final mission becomes a suspense-filled struggle for survival across the world’s most rugged terrain.
-
-
absolutely fabulous
- By Tom on 06-17-21
By: Jack Higgins
-
Force Ten from Navarone
- By: Alistair MacLean
- Narrated by: Jonathan Oliver
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Almost before the last echoes of the famous guns have died away, the three Navarone heroes are parachuted into war-torn Yugoslavia to rescue a division of partisans and fulfil a secret mission, so deadly that it must be hidden even from their own allies.
-
-
Better than the Guns of Navarone
- By KENNETH L SHRIVER on 03-29-17
By: Alistair MacLean
-
Empire of the Sun
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shanghai, 1941 -- a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world.
-
-
Abridged version kind of ruins it.
- By John S on 06-12-14
By: J. G. Ballard
-
Valhalla
- By: Robert J. Mrazek
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In remote, icy Greenland, ex-Air Force General Steven Macaulay helps lead an expedition to recover a lost World War II plane. Encased in ice below is a find that will astonish the world - a perfectly-preserved Viking ship, buried for nearly a thousand years, along with the frozen corpses of nine crewmen. Assembling the foremost Viking scholars, Macaulay tasks the gorgeous Lexy Vaughan to translate the ship’s markings - until her work is cut short when her colleagues are murdered.
-
-
Still can't get my head around it...
- By Matthew on 11-04-14
By: Robert J. Mrazek
-
Stormbreaker
- The First Alex Rider Adventure
- By: Anthony Horowitz
- Narrated by: Nathaniel Parker
- Length: 4 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They said his uncle Ian died in a car accident. Alex Rider knows that's a lie, and the bullet holes in his uncle's car confirm the truth. But nothing can prepare him for the news that the uncle he always thought he knew was really a spy for Britain's top-secret intelligence agency. Enlisted to find his uncle's killers and complete Ian's final mission, Alex suddenly finds himself caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse, with no way out.
-
-
Okay action story held up by an great narrator
- By Mary Fan on 08-13-13
By: Anthony Horowitz
-
Declare
- By: Tim Powers
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 21 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young double agent infiltrating the Soviet spy network in Nazi-occupied Paris, Andrew Hale finds himself caught up in a secret, even more ruthless war. Two decades later, a coded message draws Professor Andrew Hale back into Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Elements from his past are gathering in Beirut, including ex-British counterespionage chief and Soviet mole Kim Philby, and a beautiful former Spanish Civil War soldier-turned-intelligence operative.
-
-
Oh Fish. Art Thou Constant???
- By art on 03-11-11
By: Tim Powers
-
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe
- By: Kij Johnson
- Narrated by: Kij Johnson
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Professor Vellitt Boe teaches at the prestigious Ulthar Women's College. When one of her most gifted students elopes with a dreamer from the waking world, Vellitt must retrieve her.
-
-
it took me a few trys to ger through this audio
- By Melanie on 05-13-17
By: Kij Johnson
-
Forever and a Day
- A James Bond Novel
- By: Anthony Horowitz
- Narrated by: Matthew Goode
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A spy is dead. A legend is born. This is how it all began. The explosive prequel to Casino Royale, from best-selling author Anthony Horowitz. Forever and a Day is the story of the birth of a legend, in the brutal underworld of the French Riviera, taking listeners into the very beginning of James Bond’s illustrious career and the formation of his identity.
-
-
Another fantastic Bond novel
- By stuartjash on 11-08-18
By: Anthony Horowitz
-
Children of the Night
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: George Ralph
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a desolate orphanage in what remains of post-Communist Romania, a desperately ill infant is given the wrong blood transfusion - and flourishes when he's supposed to die. The discovery of his unique immune system may hold the key to the long-awaited cure for cancer and AIDS - and a link to a clan of vampires.
-
-
needs a different reader
- By Kelly Howard on 09-12-08
By: Dan Simmons
-
Where Eagles Dare
- By: Alistair MacLean
- Narrated by: Jonathan Oliver
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The classic World War II thriller from the acclaimed master of action and suspense. One winter night, seven men and a woman are parachuted onto a mountainside in wartime Germany. Their objective: an apparently inaccessible castle, headquarters of the Gestapo. Their mission: to rescue a crashed American general before the Nazi interrogators can force him to reveal secret D-day plans.
-
-
Great Book, Terrible Performance
- By OldFed on 12-04-17
By: Alistair MacLean
-
Wild Justice
- By: Wilbur Smith
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The hijacking of a jumbo jet off the Seychelles galvanises antiterrorist chief Peter Stride into the action for which he has spent a lifetime training. But even in the hail of bullets which follows, he knows that this is only the beginning of a nightmare. Stride is the one man who might find the twisted genius who holds the world hostage - if only his every move were not anticipated by the enemy....
-
-
more vivid descriptions and good story but unsatis
- By JDD on 05-27-19
By: Wilbur Smith
-
The Last King of Scotland
- By: Giles Foden
- Narrated by: Mirron E. Willis
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shortly after his arrival in Uganda, Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan is called to the scene of a bizarre accident: Idi Amin, careening down a dirt road in his Maserati, has hit a cow. When Garrigan tends to Amin, the dictator, obsessed with all things Scottish, appoints him as his personal physician. So begins a fateful dalliance with the African leader whose Emperor Jones-style autocracy would transform into a reign of terror.
-
-
Worst Production Ever
- By James on 01-24-07
By: Giles Foden
-
The Hidden Oasis
- By: Paul Sussman
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 20 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Egypt 2153 BC: 80 priests set out under cover of darkness with a mysterious object.... Albania, 1986: A plane takes off bound for the Sudan. Somewhere over the Sahara it disappears.... The present: a mummified corpse is discovered in the dunes with a roll of camera film and a clay obelisk inscribed with a hieroglyphic sign.... Three unconnected events - or so it seems.
-
-
Hot and Heavy in Egypt
- By Matthew on 05-10-10
By: Paul Sussman
-
Eon
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Perhaps it wasn't from our time, perhaps it wasn't even from our universe, but the arrival of the 300-kilometer long stone was the answer to humanity's desperate plea to end the threat of nuclear war. Inside the deep recesses of the stone lies Thistledown: the remnants of a human society, versed in English, Russian and Chinese. The artifacts of this familiar people foretell a great Death caused by the ravages of war, but the government and scientists are unable to decide how to use this knowledge.
-
-
Am Epic Original SciFi Read Worth Your Time...
- By Michael on 07-01-12
By: Greg Bear
-
The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack
- Burton & Swinburne, Book 1
- By: Mark Hodder
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sir Richard Francis Burton and Algernon Charles Swinburne are sucked into the perilous depths of a moral and ethical vacuum when Lord Palmerston commissions Burton to investigate assaults on young women committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack - and to find out why werewolves are terrorizing London's East End.
-
-
Fun Steampunk but on the outlandish side
- By Robert L. on 02-08-12
By: Mark Hodder
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Drowned World
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1962, J.G. Ballard’s mesmerizing and ferociously imaginative novel not only gained him widespread critical acclaim but also established his reputation as one of the finest writers of a generation. The Drowned World imagines a terrifying world in which global warming has melted the ice caps and primordial jungles have overrun a tropical London. Set during the year 2145, this novel follows biologist Dr. Robert Kearns and his team of scientists as they confront a cityscape in which nature is on the rampage and giant lizards, dragonflies, and insects fiercely compete for domination.
-
-
EGO AGAINST ID
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-05-16
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Complete Short Stories
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrrom, William Gaminara, Sean Barrett, and others
- Length: 63 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of 98 enthralling and pulse-quickening stories, spanning five decades, venerates the remarkable imagination of J. G. Ballard. With a body of work unparalleled in twentieth-century literature, J. G. Ballard is recognized as one of the greatest and most prophetic writers in the world. With the much-hailed release of The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard, readers now have a means to celebrate the unmatched range and mesmerizing cadences of a literary genius.
-
-
Story Title List
- By Kevin on 05-16-21
By: J. G. Ballard
-
Millennium People
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millennium People tells the story of David Markham, a psychologist who is searching for the truth behind a bomb that exploded on a Heathrow baggage carousel, killing his ex-wife. Infiltrating a shadowy protest group responsible for her death, David finds himself succumbing to the charismatic charms of the group's leader, who hopes to incite a violent rebellion against the government by his fanatical adherents, the spiritually and financially impoverished members of Britain's white middle class.
-
-
A vicious boredom ruled the world
- By Darwin8u on 02-06-20
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Atrocity Exhibition
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A prophetic and experimental masterpiece by J. G. Ballard, the acclaimed author of ‘Crash’ and ‘Super-Cannes’. This edition features explanatory notes from the author. The irrational, all-pervading violence of the modern world is the subject of this extraordinary tour de force. The central character’s dreams are haunted by images of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, dead astronauts and car-crash victims as he traverses the screaming wastes of nervous breakdown.
-
-
Ballard's extreme experiment - bizarre & brilliant
- By Miriam on 08-30-14
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Unlimited Dream Company
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Dylan Lynch
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a light aircraft crashes into the Thames at Shepperton, the young pilot who struggles to the surface minutes later seems to have come back from the dead. Within hours everything in the dormitory suburb is transformed. Vultures invade rooftops, luxuriant tropical vegetation overruns the quiet avenues, and the local inhabitants are propelled by the young man’s urgent visions through ecstatic sexual celebrations toward an apocalyptic climax. In this characteristically inventive novel Ballard displays to devastating effect the extraordinary imagination that has established him as one of the 20th century’s most visionary writers.
-
-
A Vision-based Parable of Virtue and Vice
- By Darwin8u on 05-08-18
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Concrete Island
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A chilling novel about our modern world, from the author of Empire of the Sun and Crash. An architect is driving home from his London offices when a blow-out sends his speeding Jaguar hurtling out of control. Smashing through a temporary barrier he finds himself, dazed and disorientated, on a traffic island below three converging motorways. But when he tries to climb the embankment or flag-down a passing car for help it proves impossible - and he finds himself marooned on the concrete island.
-
-
Interesting. complelingly odd.
- By josh on 02-08-17
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Drowned World
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1962, J.G. Ballard’s mesmerizing and ferociously imaginative novel not only gained him widespread critical acclaim but also established his reputation as one of the finest writers of a generation. The Drowned World imagines a terrifying world in which global warming has melted the ice caps and primordial jungles have overrun a tropical London. Set during the year 2145, this novel follows biologist Dr. Robert Kearns and his team of scientists as they confront a cityscape in which nature is on the rampage and giant lizards, dragonflies, and insects fiercely compete for domination.
-
-
EGO AGAINST ID
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-05-16
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Complete Short Stories
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrrom, William Gaminara, Sean Barrett, and others
- Length: 63 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of 98 enthralling and pulse-quickening stories, spanning five decades, venerates the remarkable imagination of J. G. Ballard. With a body of work unparalleled in twentieth-century literature, J. G. Ballard is recognized as one of the greatest and most prophetic writers in the world. With the much-hailed release of The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard, readers now have a means to celebrate the unmatched range and mesmerizing cadences of a literary genius.
-
-
Story Title List
- By Kevin on 05-16-21
By: J. G. Ballard
-
Millennium People
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millennium People tells the story of David Markham, a psychologist who is searching for the truth behind a bomb that exploded on a Heathrow baggage carousel, killing his ex-wife. Infiltrating a shadowy protest group responsible for her death, David finds himself succumbing to the charismatic charms of the group's leader, who hopes to incite a violent rebellion against the government by his fanatical adherents, the spiritually and financially impoverished members of Britain's white middle class.
-
-
A vicious boredom ruled the world
- By Darwin8u on 02-06-20
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Atrocity Exhibition
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A prophetic and experimental masterpiece by J. G. Ballard, the acclaimed author of ‘Crash’ and ‘Super-Cannes’. This edition features explanatory notes from the author. The irrational, all-pervading violence of the modern world is the subject of this extraordinary tour de force. The central character’s dreams are haunted by images of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, dead astronauts and car-crash victims as he traverses the screaming wastes of nervous breakdown.
-
-
Ballard's extreme experiment - bizarre & brilliant
- By Miriam on 08-30-14
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Unlimited Dream Company
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Dylan Lynch
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a light aircraft crashes into the Thames at Shepperton, the young pilot who struggles to the surface minutes later seems to have come back from the dead. Within hours everything in the dormitory suburb is transformed. Vultures invade rooftops, luxuriant tropical vegetation overruns the quiet avenues, and the local inhabitants are propelled by the young man’s urgent visions through ecstatic sexual celebrations toward an apocalyptic climax. In this characteristically inventive novel Ballard displays to devastating effect the extraordinary imagination that has established him as one of the 20th century’s most visionary writers.
-
-
A Vision-based Parable of Virtue and Vice
- By Darwin8u on 05-08-18
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Concrete Island
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: William Gaminara
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A chilling novel about our modern world, from the author of Empire of the Sun and Crash. An architect is driving home from his London offices when a blow-out sends his speeding Jaguar hurtling out of control. Smashing through a temporary barrier he finds himself, dazed and disorientated, on a traffic island below three converging motorways. But when he tries to climb the embankment or flag-down a passing car for help it proves impossible - and he finds himself marooned on the concrete island.
-
-
Interesting. complelingly odd.
- By josh on 02-08-17
By: J. G. Ballard
-
Kingdom Come
- A Novel
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Andy Caploe
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A violent novel filled with insidious twists, Kingdom Come follows the exploits of Richard Pearson, a rebellious, unemployed advertising executive, whose father is gunned down by a deranged mental patient in a vast shopping mall outside Heathrow Airport.
-
-
who is making these narrator calls?
- By Christopher on 04-22-14
By: J. G. Ballard
-
High-Rise
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Tom Hiddleston
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the Sunday Times best seller Cocaine Nights comes an unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control. Within the concealing walls of an elegant 40-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on 'enemy' floors, and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for riots and technological mayhem.
-
-
Dark and thought-provoking
- By Amazon Customer on 04-18-19
By: J. G. Ballard
-
A User's Guide to the Millennium
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of the author's articles and reviews, giving an insight into some of the most important literary, artistic, and scientific movements and events of the last 30 years.
By: J. G. Ballard
-
Running Wild
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 2 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yet again J. G. Ballard’s inimitable clairvoyance is on display in this timely, powerful story of a community shattered by a massive act of violence. A massacre rocks a suburban utopia - 32 adults murdered, and their children missing - in Running Wild, one of Ballard’s most dazzlingly subversive works of fiction.
-
-
Careful With That Axe, Eugene
- By Darwin8u on 02-18-20
By: J. G. Ballard
-
Hello America
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: David Ledoux
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following the energy crisis of the late 20th century, America has been abandoned. Now, a century later, a small group of European explorers returns to the now climatically mutated continent. But America is unrecognizable - the Bering Strait has been dammed and much of the country has become a desert, populated by isolated natives and the bizarre remnants of a disintegrated culture. The expedition sets off from Manhattan on a cross-country journey, through Holiday Inns and abandoned theme parks, to uncover a shocking new power in the heart of Las Vegas.
-
-
If you like Ballard, don't buy this audibook!
- By the kid on 10-12-13
By: J. G. Ballard
-
High-Rise
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Eric Yves Garcia
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a class war erupts inside a luxurious apartment block, modern elevators become violent battlegrounds and cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on “enemy” floors. In this visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as once-peaceful residents, driven by primal urges, re-create a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.
-
-
Ballard deserves a more competent narrator
- By Christopher on 04-21-14
By: J. G. Ballard
-
High-Rise
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Tom Hiddleston
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a class war erupts inside a luxurious apartment block, modern elevators become violent battlegrounds, and cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on "enemy" floors. In this visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as once-peaceful residents, driven by primal urges, re-create a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.
-
-
TOM HIDDLESTON NEEDS TO READ EVERYTHING
- By Jeanette on 04-05-15
By: J. G. Ballard
-
Pavane
- By: Keith Roberts
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Considered Keith Roberts' masterwork, this novel consists of linked short stories (six measures and a coda) of a 20th century in which the Roman Catholic Church controls the Western world, and has done so since Queen Elizabeth of England was assassinated in 1588. The Protestant Reformation never happened, and the world is kept in a Dark Age of steam-power transportation, with no allowance for electrical power, by a tyrannical Rome.
-
-
It's the Characters that Outline the World
- By Troy on 03-01-13
By: Keith Roberts
-
The Best of Cordwainer Smith
- By: Cordwainer Smith
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With an introduction by J. J. Pierce, this volume features the 12 most important stories by Cordwainer Smith, a unique writer who has fused wonder and poetry into imaginative tales that transcend both science and fiction.
-
-
Great Science Fiction
- By Amazon Customer on 12-06-16
By: Cordwainer Smith
-
Rushing to Paradise
- By: J. G. Ballard
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Led by a charismatic and slightly unhinged woman, a group of environmentalists wrest control over a small South Pacific island in hopes of cultivating it into their own private Eden. But paradise is not quite what it seems in this “searing” (Kirkus Reviews) send-up of environmentalism, feminism, and extremism of all sorts.
-
-
For Ballard completists
- By Sandahl on 10-31-13
By: J. G. Ballard
-
The Doomed City
- By: Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Andrew Bromfield - Translator
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 17 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are widely considered the greatest of Russian science fiction masters, yet the novel they worked hardest on, the one that was their own favorite and that listeners worldwide have acclaimed their magnum opus, has never before been published in English. The Doomed City was so politically risky that the Strugatskys kept its existence a secret even from their closest friends for 16 years. It was only published in Russia during perestroika in the late 1980s, the last of their works to see publication.
-
-
Great Book
- By Mr. Sparkle on 03-15-18
By: Arkady Strugatsky, and others
-
Blindsight
- By: Peter Watts
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in 2082, Peter Watts' Blindsight is fast-moving, hard SF that pulls readers into a futuristic world where a mind-bending alien encounter is about to unfold. After the Firefall, all eyes are locked heavenward as a team of specialists aboard the self-piloted spaceship Theseus hurtles outbound to intercept an unknown intelligence.
-
-
Gothic Horror Hard Science Fiction
- By Doug D. Eigsti on 06-24-15
By: Peter Watts
What listeners say about The Crystal World
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Darwin8u
- 03-31-19
Need to add more meat below:
Reminds me of several other of Ballard's environmental disaster/transformation novels with a bit of Conrad's Heart of Darkness overlayed for good measure.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Miriam
- 08-27-14
Perfect narration for Ballard's descriptive prose
I feel I must announce my bias upfront: I am a fan of both Ballard as a writer, and Barrett as a narrator. Even with that bias, I truly felt that this particular audiobook was a 'perfect marriage' - a five-star narration that enhances a vivid, evocative text. I would definitely recommend this audiobook as an introduction to early Ballard.
A lot of readers - even Ballard fans - don't like this book: some common criticisms are that the characters are unbearable and their motivations ambiguous, the descriptions of landscapes interminable, the symbolism heavy-handed and the ending, in particular, irreconcilable. I would never dare suggest Ballard as 'light-reading', but I nevertheless think that 'The Crystal World' is one of his books that can be read 'simply', as a pure narrative (without interposed analysis). If you are going to approach it in that way, perhaps it is helpful to have in mind Colin Greenland's thesis that it's all about acceptance and acclimatization: seen in this light, the characters' choices may be more relatable.
I do find it interesting that one of the common complaints about 'The Crystal World' is the focus on describing the environment in which the characters find themselves. In this regard, 'The Crystal World' reminds me somewhat of Lem's 'Solaris' - the awesome beauty is almost a distraction from the destructive (and/or transformational) nature of the environment. Jason Heller's take on Ballard as "[u]nimaginable horror meted out in the most disciplined packages" is the one that resonates the most with me. I don't think that there is an extraneous word in 'The Crystal World', and Barrett's subtle narration is the perfect complement.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Robert Osborne
- 06-01-15
Breathe taking
I am certain that I will be reading and rereading this novel for the rest of my days by the light of the prismatic sun evermore in receipt of its crystallized wisdom.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- C. Rosser
- 01-07-22
reread after 50 years
The book still retains the lyrical quality of surrender to inevitable doom that I vaguely remembered. I had forgotten most of the personal entanglements of the characters however. Not for every reader.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jason Hood
- 08-06-18
A recomendation from my dad
So my dad bought me a series of books in the sci-fi genre, but this series is the Nebula award winners and other enjoyable award winning liturature from th genre. This book was so much fun that I just heard the "cereal narrator" talking you through the story. The characters are fun and engaging, you can almost feel your finger prike on a crystal leaf. Definitely worth a listen. Just be patient and youll get there, because this book sounds like its out of the 1920s. Nostalgia all the way.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dr. Joe de Beauchamp
- 02-18-22
Crystal World
I found this realistic science fiction novel extremely interesting on the second read. JJ Ballard conveys realistic science fiction. I found the narration much better than reading the novel itself, it flowed more than just reading a book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- James
- 01-23-24
The jeweled forest
Very well done fantasy/science fiction. Very good use of words and told well by the reader.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Aaron
- 04-14-15
Couldn't finish
Any additional comments?
I've been reading for years about how great J.G. Ballard is, but I just don't get it. Seems like basically pulp, and pulp in which not much happens. Read The Drowned World, but that wasn't much better.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful