Empire of the Sun
by J. G. Ballard · first published 1984
67% recommend22% neutral11% critical
Why HN recommends it
Semi-autobiographical novel set in wartime Shanghai, known for its vivid atmosphere and as a key to understanding Ballard's writing. It serves as a strong starting point for his fiction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A fictionalized account of the author's experiences as a boy in Shanghai, China, during the Second World War, and in Lunghua C.A.C. (Civilian Assembly Centre), where he was interned from 1942 to 1945.
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And, yet again, a dystopian J G Ballard (late British sci-fi author and author of Empire Of The Sun) story becomes reality.. Ballard's High Rise (1975) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Rise - shares a lot of similarities with this outcome (though the tower in the book was in London) and is a fine…
on “Venezuela's squatter skyscrapers; as the country declines” ↗…worth reading, as is Crash. His short stories are generally excellent, and maybe the best intro: Vermilion Sands is brilliant, but the best value is the (two volume) Complete Short Stories collection. Empire of the Sun is pretty much essential if you want to understand why he wrote the way he did; why his characters are drawn and act the way they do. There's also a short essay he did for the Guardian a few years before…
on ““I can't stop comparing everything to Black Mirror”” ↗>If adults enjoy his writing, in what sense are they children's novels? In the sense that novels by people like Joseph Conrad or J. G. Ballard are not. 'Empire of the Sun' was one one of my favourite novels as a young teenager, but it was hard work in comparison to Pratchett. The difference in intended audience was utterly clear.
on “Terry Pratchett warns Bill Gates about fake news (1995)” ↗…Weimar-era Berlin apparently had. From that perspective they really didn't disappoint. In a similar vein, although it's been a while since I read it, I'd strongly recommend J G Ballard's semi-autobiographical Empire of the Sun - especially the earlier sections set in pre and post invasion Shanghai are also very evocative.
on “Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?” ↗While Ballard is more popularly known for Crash and Empire of the Sun, I can't recommend his earlier works enough, especially his short stories. Many of his writings were ahead of his time [1]. A particular favorite of mine is "Studio 5, the Stars"[2] which written in…
on “J.G. Ballard: My Favorite Books” ↗Agree with both. If you like Vonnegut, perhaps try the fiction of J.G.Ballard. Empire of the Sun is rightly famous, it is autobiography - but read that too. If you are American, you might not know that other things happened at the same time as the attack on Pearl Harbor [Yes, it was 8 December 1941…
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗Ballard was primarily an SF author though. His autobiographical Empire of the Sun was an exception as was, arguably Crash. But really, although his later writing got away from the world destroying sub-genre, there were at least science fictional elements throughout.
on “Dark Futures: What happens when literary novelists experiment with Sci-Fi” ↗You say zero technical know how, but Ballard spent some of his formative years making his way in a Japanese prison camp in China. If you believe the novel (Empire of the Sun), part of his survival was attributed to combinations of a way with language, people, and youthful endurance. But the backdrop was very much technical know how - working to obtain increasingly scarce…
on “J.G. Ballard predicted the rise of social media (2016)” ↗My favorite is "The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard". It has some of his best sci-fi, and they're all under 50 pages. His longer fiction (Cocaine Nights, Empire of the Sun, etc.) is okay, but IMO short stories are where he really shined. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/70239.The_Best_Short_Sto...
on “We are living in a version of the future out of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson” ↗