J.G.Ballard R.I.P.

Author J.G. Ballard died Sunday, April 19, 2009 6:53:31 PM, aged 78.

from The Crystal World,1966:

"He awoke into brilliant sunshine in a street of temples, where rainbows spangled the gilded air with the blaze of colours. Shielding his eyes, he lay back & looked up at the roof-tops, their gold tiles inlaid with row upon row of coloured gems, like pavilions in the temple quarter of Bangkok.

A hand pulled at his shoulder. Trying to sit up, Sanders found that the semi-circle of clear pavement was vanished, & his body lay sprawled in a bed of sprouting needles. The growth had been most rapid in the entrance to the depository, & his right arm was encased in a mass of crystalline spurs, three or four inches long, that reached almost to his shoulders. Inside this frozen gauntlet, almost too heavy to lift, his fingers were outlined in a maze of rainbows.

Sanders dragged himself to his knees, tearing away some of the crystals. He found the bearded man in the white suit crouching behind him, his shot-gun in his hands.

'Ventress!' With a cry, Sanders raised his jewelled arm. In the sunlight the faint nodes of the gem-stones he had stuffed into his cuff shone in the tissues of his arm like inlaid stars. 'Ventress, for God's sake!'

His shout distracted Ventress from his scrutiny of the light-filled street. His small face with its bright eyes was transfigured by the strange colours that mottled his skin & drew out the pale blues & violets of his beard. His suit radiated a thousand bands of colour.

He knelt down beside Sanders, trying to replace the strip of crystals torn from his arm."

One of my all-time favorite authors. I will grieve his passing.