The Crystal World
Dr. Edward Sanders, a physician specializing in the treatment of leprosy, is invited to Mont Royal by Dr. and Mrs. Clair. Upon arriving at Port Matarre, a small outpost in the interior of Africa, he notices a "pervading auroral goom, broken by inward shifts of light." The reluctance of authorities to acknowledge this curious mid-morning darkness arouses Sander's suspician that something has gone wrong. Unable to reach Mont Royal by car – the roadways have been blocked – he takes to the river. His journey brings him to the forest, now fully petrified, pulsating and vibrant. Sanders finds himself strangely drawn toward this glittering world, whose area expands daily, affecting not only the physical environment but also its inhabitants. The purity and permanance of the forest's crystal form taunt him, even at the expense of that one unpredictable agent called human life.
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J. G. Ballard
James Graham Ballard (1930–2009) was a British novelist and short story writer who was a prominent part of the New Wave in science fiction in the mid- to late-1960s and whose work frequently focused on dystopian themes.
J. G. Ballard's best known books are the controversial novel Crash, an exploration of sexual fetishism connected to automobile accidents, and the semi-autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun, about his childhood internment by the Japanese during World War II after the invasion and conquest of Shanghai, where Ballard was born in the International Settlement. Both books were adapted into films, by David Cronenberg and Stephen Spielberg respectively.
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