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Billenium
An all-new collection of science fiction stories by the author of The Wind From Nowhere and The Drowned World.
Includes the following short stories and novelettes:
"Billenium", a.k.a "Billennium" (1961)
"The Insane Ones" (1962)
"Studio 5, The Stars" (1961)
"The Gentle Assassin" (1961)
"Build-Up", a.k.a "The Concentration City" (1957)
"Now: Zero" (1959)
"Mobile", a.k.a "Venus Smiles" (1957)
"Chronopolis" (1960)
"Prima Belladonna" (1956)
"The Garden of Time" (1962)
Includes the following short stories and novelettes:
"Billenium", a.k.a "Billennium" (1961)
"The Insane Ones" (1962)
"Studio 5, The Stars" (1961)
"The Gentle Assassin" (1961)
"Build-Up", a.k.a "The Concentration City" (1957)
"Now: Zero" (1959)
"Mobile", a.k.a "Venus Smiles" (1957)
"Chronopolis" (1960)
"Prima Belladonna" (1956)
"The Garden of Time" (1962)
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
14 people are currently reading
352 people want to read
About the author
J.G. Ballard
469 books4,073 followersJames Graham "J. G." Ballard (15 November 1930 – 19 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Ballard came to be associated with the New Wave of science fiction early in his career with apocalyptic (or post-apocalyptic) novels such as The Drowned World (1962), The Burning World (1964), and The Crystal World (1966). In the late 1960s and early 1970s Ballard focused on an eclectic variety of short stories (or "condensed novels") such as The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), which drew closer comparison with the work of postmodernist writers such as William S. Burroughs. In 1973 the highly controversial novel Crash was published, a story about symphorophilia and car crash fetishism; the protagonist becomes sexually aroused by staging and participating in real car crashes. The story was later adapted into a film of the same name by Canadian director David Cronenberg.
While many of Ballard's stories are thematically and narratively unusual, he is perhaps best known for his relatively conventional war novel, Empire of the Sun (1984), a semi-autobiographical account of a young boy's experiences in Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War as it came to be occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army. Described as "The best British novel about the Second World War" by The Guardian, the story was adapted into a 1987 film by Steven Spielberg.
The literary distinctiveness of Ballard's work has given rise to the adjective "Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments." The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry describes Ballard's work as being occupied with "eros, thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies".
While many of Ballard's stories are thematically and narratively unusual, he is perhaps best known for his relatively conventional war novel, Empire of the Sun (1984), a semi-autobiographical account of a young boy's experiences in Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War as it came to be occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army. Described as "The best British novel about the Second World War" by The Guardian, the story was adapted into a 1987 film by Steven Spielberg.
The literary distinctiveness of Ballard's work has given rise to the adjective "Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments." The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry describes Ballard's work as being occupied with "eros, thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies".
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
September 15, 2016
Ballard is simply an amazing writer. This is a selection of his early science fiction stories and I was stunned by the quality and diversity of the work. I discovered science fiction in my early teens and by then, Ballard had moved on to his darker narratives like Crash, and I never developed an appreciation for him. But now I see what I missed when I didn't encounter his early work until now.
For example, Billenium takes the "If this goes on" meme about the population explosion and juices it up to the nth degree. Ward is living in the city -- like 95% of the world's population -- and is happy to have found a small cube near a staircase. In this story, he is fortunate enough to find a bigger place, but soon he's joined by others and the overcrowding and lack of privacy play out once again.
Studio 5, the Stars, is a longer piece, novella in length. In this story, writers have given up and use computers to crank out pastiches of all the writing that has gone before. A beautiful stranger, Aurora Day, visits the community and decries the lack of creativity, but her own poems are of little value. Mysteriously, one day all of the machine have been broken and the writers reluctantly try to re-capture their lost art. Aurora gets caught up in a mythological quest with one of the locals which ends badly, or so it seems.
One story after another rolls off of Ballard's pen, each as good or better than the next. If you can find this book -- published in 1962 -- read it. It's as good as anything that the so-called New Wave of SF produced a few years later and in its literary style certainly foreshadows that more literary style of SF that lay ahead.
For example, Billenium takes the "If this goes on" meme about the population explosion and juices it up to the nth degree. Ward is living in the city -- like 95% of the world's population -- and is happy to have found a small cube near a staircase. In this story, he is fortunate enough to find a bigger place, but soon he's joined by others and the overcrowding and lack of privacy play out once again.
Studio 5, the Stars, is a longer piece, novella in length. In this story, writers have given up and use computers to crank out pastiches of all the writing that has gone before. A beautiful stranger, Aurora Day, visits the community and decries the lack of creativity, but her own poems are of little value. Mysteriously, one day all of the machine have been broken and the writers reluctantly try to re-capture their lost art. Aurora gets caught up in a mythological quest with one of the locals which ends badly, or so it seems.
One story after another rolls off of Ballard's pen, each as good or better than the next. If you can find this book -- published in 1962 -- read it. It's as good as anything that the so-called New Wave of SF produced a few years later and in its literary style certainly foreshadows that more literary style of SF that lay ahead.
December 12, 2022
I'm reading just the title story, Billennium.
This sweet little dystopia gives us all the horrors of overpopulation as if we were a population explosion of rats in a maze. Coffin apartments, 30 million in one city... oh, wait... it looks like we've reached 1961 horror status, already!
Just waiting for the dieback of the rat population...
This sweet little dystopia gives us all the horrors of overpopulation as if we were a population explosion of rats in a maze. Coffin apartments, 30 million in one city... oh, wait... it looks like we've reached 1961 horror status, already!
Just waiting for the dieback of the rat population...
December 10, 2025
Short Stories, in meiner Ausgabe eins dieser violetten Taschenbücher der „Phantastischen Bibliographischen Suhrkamp“, die es leider nicht mehr gibt. Ballard hat anspruchsvolle Science Fiction geschrieben, vor allem die Settings sind bemerkenswert: Die Erde kristallisiert, der zum Tode verurteilte lebt mit dem Henker in Wohngemeinschaft und so weiter. Seine Schreibe findet in meinen Synapsen leider keine Rezeptoren, an denen sie andocken kann. Zu dröge, zu umständlich, zu fern bleiben mir die meisten der Texte, von „Der ertrunkene Riese“ abgesehen, das aber ohnehin formal und inhaltlich aus dem Rahmen fällt. Schwarzbrot kauen. Ich hatte noch einen Roman des Autors in Auge gefasst, aber nach diesem Buch hält sich meine Neugier in Grenzen.
November 23, 2025
This is one of the most chillingly prescient dystopian stories ever written, encapsulating Ballard’s lifelong preoccupation with psychological claustrophobia and the erosion of individuality under modern pressures.
The premise is deceptively simple: extreme overpopulation has transformed urban life into a nightmare of shrinking personal space. People live crammed into tiny cubicles, their existence reduced to a mathematical minimum.
Yet Ballard is not content to treat this as mere worldbuilding; he uses it instead to interrogate how environmental pressures deform the human mind.
The protagonists, Ward and Rossiter, discover a hidden room — a space larger than anything they’ve ever known. What unfolds is an almost tragicomic escalation as they attempt to preserve this newfound luxury. At first, the room symbolises freedom: an oasis of silence, privacy, and the possibility of personal identity. But Ballard quickly flips this. The characters, like moths drawn to the light, begin inviting others in, rationalising every step until the room becomes just as crowded as the world outside.
This is Ballard’s brilliance: he reveals how systems of oppression do not need constant policing. People internalise them, replicate them, and perpetuate them willingly. Ward and Rossiter do not lose their freedom because of a tyrannical government — they lose it because of human social impulse, guilt, and the inability to resist the slow creep of shared misery. “Billenium” becomes not a dystopia about population alone but about the fragility of human autonomy.
Ballard’s prose is sharp and economical, almost architectural. His descriptions of the oppressive city are clinical yet vivid, the corridors and tenements forming a labyrinth that evokes Kafka as much as Orwell. But where Orwell warns of the state and Kafka warns of bureaucracy, Ballard warns of us. His dystopia is built from millions of tiny compromises, all rational, all individually justified, but collectively catastrophic.
Perhaps the most haunting element of “Billenium” is the ending. It offers no catharsis, no rebellion, no epiphany — only resignation. Ward and Rossiter, crushed by circumstance and their own choices, return to the life they once despised, their “victory” overwritten by the inertia of human habit.
In that sense, the story resonates strongly today: Ballard predicted our willingness to sacrifice comfort, privacy, and dignity for the illusion of social harmony or personal convenience.
“Billenium” stands as one of Ballard’s most compact and powerful works, a perfect fusion of concept and character, satire and sorrow.
It reminds us that dystopia does not always arrive with brutality; sometimes it arrives quietly, in the shape of a crowded room and a door that never stays closed.
The premise is deceptively simple: extreme overpopulation has transformed urban life into a nightmare of shrinking personal space. People live crammed into tiny cubicles, their existence reduced to a mathematical minimum.
Yet Ballard is not content to treat this as mere worldbuilding; he uses it instead to interrogate how environmental pressures deform the human mind.
The protagonists, Ward and Rossiter, discover a hidden room — a space larger than anything they’ve ever known. What unfolds is an almost tragicomic escalation as they attempt to preserve this newfound luxury. At first, the room symbolises freedom: an oasis of silence, privacy, and the possibility of personal identity. But Ballard quickly flips this. The characters, like moths drawn to the light, begin inviting others in, rationalising every step until the room becomes just as crowded as the world outside.
This is Ballard’s brilliance: he reveals how systems of oppression do not need constant policing. People internalise them, replicate them, and perpetuate them willingly. Ward and Rossiter do not lose their freedom because of a tyrannical government — they lose it because of human social impulse, guilt, and the inability to resist the slow creep of shared misery. “Billenium” becomes not a dystopia about population alone but about the fragility of human autonomy.
Ballard’s prose is sharp and economical, almost architectural. His descriptions of the oppressive city are clinical yet vivid, the corridors and tenements forming a labyrinth that evokes Kafka as much as Orwell. But where Orwell warns of the state and Kafka warns of bureaucracy, Ballard warns of us. His dystopia is built from millions of tiny compromises, all rational, all individually justified, but collectively catastrophic.
Perhaps the most haunting element of “Billenium” is the ending. It offers no catharsis, no rebellion, no epiphany — only resignation. Ward and Rossiter, crushed by circumstance and their own choices, return to the life they once despised, their “victory” overwritten by the inertia of human habit.
In that sense, the story resonates strongly today: Ballard predicted our willingness to sacrifice comfort, privacy, and dignity for the illusion of social harmony or personal convenience.
“Billenium” stands as one of Ballard’s most compact and powerful works, a perfect fusion of concept and character, satire and sorrow.
It reminds us that dystopia does not always arrive with brutality; sometimes it arrives quietly, in the shape of a crowded room and a door that never stays closed.
July 24, 2020
Recopilación de relatos cortos en los que el autor plasma con mucha oscuridad sus obsesiones con el carácter orgánico de los edificios y las ciudades como ya hizo en sus obras consagradas Rascacielos y Crash, así como las enfermedades mentales y los viajes en el tiempo.
Los relatos más destacables por su originalidad, a mi parecer, son los tres primeros: el que da título a la colección explora la vida en una sociedad donde el espacio físico privado es cada vez más reducido; Cronópolis muestra la investigación de un estudiante en una sociedad donde no existen los relojes pero sí los cronómetros; Ciudad de Concentración nos enseña las fatigas de un inventor de máquinas voladoras para ensayar sus vuelos en una ciudad infinita en la que no hay espacios abiertos.
Ballard era un genio creando mundos y escenarios alienígenas e incómodos, tan solo quitando algún elemento cotidiano y dejando a sus personajes en el discurrir normal de la existencia; oscura y opresiva, pero no menos existencia por ello.
Los relatos más destacables por su originalidad, a mi parecer, son los tres primeros: el que da título a la colección explora la vida en una sociedad donde el espacio físico privado es cada vez más reducido; Cronópolis muestra la investigación de un estudiante en una sociedad donde no existen los relojes pero sí los cronómetros; Ciudad de Concentración nos enseña las fatigas de un inventor de máquinas voladoras para ensayar sus vuelos en una ciudad infinita en la que no hay espacios abiertos.
Ballard era un genio creando mundos y escenarios alienígenas e incómodos, tan solo quitando algún elemento cotidiano y dejando a sus personajes en el discurrir normal de la existencia; oscura y opresiva, pero no menos existencia por ello.
August 12, 2018
This is a note solely on the title story, published in 1961 in 'New Worlds'. in essence, it is a parable of over-population and urban crowding that is very much of its time with a wry and cynical take on human nature
January 17, 2016
El señor J.G Ballard Nos muestras diferentes futuros en cada cuento, algunos creíbles (Bilenio y Chronopolis) y otros que caen en la fantasía técnica de la ciencia ficción (Ciudad de concentración y el jardín del tiempo).
Bilenio:
El primer cuento del libro y homónimo, trata de un futuro donde la sobre población es tan grabe que cada ser humano esta limitado a unos escasos metros cuadrados de espacio. Un par de amigos encuentra un salón abandonado donde planean vivir.
Chronopolis.
En un futuro donde los relojes son prohibidos, un joven encuentra un reloj en el brazo muerto de un anciano, el cual le abre un mundo nuevo, donde el tiempo puede ser medido.
Ciudad de Concentración:
Un chico busca un lugar abierto para probar su maquina voladora, pero no esta seguro si hay algo mas allá de la densa metrópolis.
Los Locos:
El estado a declarado ilegal tratar a un enfermo mental, convierto a los psiquiatras en delincuentes.
Móvil.
Una pareja compra una escultura horrible de metal, pero esta planea algo...
Ahora : cero.
Un oficinista tiene la habilidad de causar la muerte de una persona si esta la escribe en una hoja de papel.
El asesino bondadoso.
Un francotirador espera por décadas a su objetivo
El jardín del tiempo:
En el jardín del tiempo una pareja esperan su final.
Bilenio:
El primer cuento del libro y homónimo, trata de un futuro donde la sobre población es tan grabe que cada ser humano esta limitado a unos escasos metros cuadrados de espacio. Un par de amigos encuentra un salón abandonado donde planean vivir.
Chronopolis.
En un futuro donde los relojes son prohibidos, un joven encuentra un reloj en el brazo muerto de un anciano, el cual le abre un mundo nuevo, donde el tiempo puede ser medido.
Ciudad de Concentración:
Un chico busca un lugar abierto para probar su maquina voladora, pero no esta seguro si hay algo mas allá de la densa metrópolis.
Los Locos:
El estado a declarado ilegal tratar a un enfermo mental, convierto a los psiquiatras en delincuentes.
Móvil.
Una pareja compra una escultura horrible de metal, pero esta planea algo...
Ahora : cero.
Un oficinista tiene la habilidad de causar la muerte de una persona si esta la escribe en una hoja de papel.
El asesino bondadoso.
Un francotirador espera por décadas a su objetivo
El jardín del tiempo:
En el jardín del tiempo una pareja esperan su final.
January 27, 2020
4.25/5 (collated rating: Very Good)
Billenium (1962), J. G. Ballard’s first collection of short stories, contains three masterpieces of the 50s/60s: “Billenium” (1961), “Build-Up” (variant title: The Concentration City) (1957), and “Chronopolis” (1960). The first is a deadpan satire on overpopulation, the second a fantastic [...]
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
Billenium (1962), J. G. Ballard’s first collection of short stories, contains three masterpieces of the 50s/60s: “Billenium” (1961), “Build-Up” (variant title: The Concentration City) (1957), and “Chronopolis” (1960). The first is a deadpan satire on overpopulation, the second a fantastic [...]
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
December 11, 2024
A dystopian short story about an overpopulated world where everyone sleeps in cubicle-like tenements. Two men invite two women into their space, who then invite a whole village into that shared space. Since it's a story about space, taking up space and literally making room, perhaps the moral of the story is just don't try to be a nice guy, I guess, or people may overstay their welcome. LOL.
January 24, 2022
Bilenio ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cronopolis ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ciudad de Concentración ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Los Locos ⭐⭐⭐
Movil ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ahora: Cero ⭐⭐
El Asesino Bondadoso ⭐⭐
El Jardín del Tiempo ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Es lo primero que me leí de Ballard. La impresión que me deja es que escribe todo deprimente y triste, melancólico.
Los cuentos que menos me gustaron me parecieron muy poco originales.
Me gusta cómo escribe, me gustan las distopias que propone, pero no me gusta que siempre termine todo mal.
Seguró me leeré algo más de él cuando junte coraje, para ver si escribe siempre en el mismo tono o tira alguna buena...
Cronopolis ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ciudad de Concentración ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Los Locos ⭐⭐⭐
Movil ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ahora: Cero ⭐⭐
El Asesino Bondadoso ⭐⭐
El Jardín del Tiempo ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Es lo primero que me leí de Ballard. La impresión que me deja es que escribe todo deprimente y triste, melancólico.
Los cuentos que menos me gustaron me parecieron muy poco originales.
Me gusta cómo escribe, me gustan las distopias que propone, pero no me gusta que siempre termine todo mal.
Seguró me leeré algo más de él cuando junte coraje, para ver si escribe siempre en el mismo tono o tira alguna buena...
August 4, 2025
Esta colección me ha impresionado menos que la anterior que leí pero los relatos de Ballard son siempre interesantes. Hay un par un poco más flojos y agrupan varios con temas parecidos (ciudades organizadas espacial o temporalmente) esto los desmerece un pco, si no hubieran ido seguidos me hubieran gustado mas.
November 28, 2017
Distopia sobre la superpoblación de la Tierra en el futuro y la gestión insostenible de recursos. Demasiado repetitiva y con un final muy deficiente. No obstante deja visos del Ballard que llegará a ser.
June 10, 2025
Billenium is a similar read to another Ballard story I've recently read. It focuses on overpopulation and the emphasis put on how much area someone may have for their living quarters. An interesting plot.
August 20, 2017
Neverending cramping of space even in an age of scarcity
September 5, 2017
Fascinating plot, but missed something in it's conclusion.
March 28, 2018
I really enjoy a small taste of Ballard short fiction.
April 29, 2018
This short story explores fears of overpopulation in a comedic and interesting way.
February 6, 2019
Boring!
November 15, 2022
A collection of 1960s science fiction fantasy short stories by J. G. Ballard, wildly and vividly imaginative. Almost frighteningly.
December 19, 2022
have only read billenium, not the other short stories
December 26, 2023
One word to describe this story is claustrophobic. I felt trapped and cramped with each word. Never has a book unlocked such a fear within me.
November 4, 2024
genuinely made me sick to my stomach
December 10, 2024
read title short story in short bursts because it made me so uncomfortable....... 5 stars
May 13, 2016
In the 1960s and 1970s overpopulation had become a huge concern. Novels like Make Room! Make Room! and The World Inside (among others) played with these fears and offered nightmare scenarios of what life might be like. This story follows a similar dark imagery, but while these futurist speculations paint a dismal picture, they failed to really grasp the numbers of exponential population growth.
November 1, 2017
1962 collection of reasonably diverse early stuff, more miss than hit. the 3 Vermilion Sands stories are fortunately nothing alike (cf. the questionable Space Age experiment).
"The Insane Ones" (1962) and "Studio 5, The Stars" (1961) are a couple of nice sardonic what-ifs. "The Gentle Assassin" (1961) is OK, an ironic time-travel paradox tale.
"The Insane Ones" (1962) and "Studio 5, The Stars" (1961) are a couple of nice sardonic what-ifs. "The Gentle Assassin" (1961) is OK, an ironic time-travel paradox tale.
November 18, 2025
This is the short story only.
Not a collection of short stories.
I have read many SF short stories
in my life and I would say that this
is among the 5 best SF short stories
that I have ever read.
Not a collection of short stories.
I have read many SF short stories
in my life and I would say that this
is among the 5 best SF short stories
that I have ever read.
June 16, 2014
Um bom conto sobre sobrepovoamento e a constante insatisfação humana cujo humor apurado não esconde o subtexto deprimente.
November 29, 2012
Highly entertaining. As a NYC real estate agent and renter, I can relate on many levels.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews