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| High-Rise
| | J.G. Ballard
| In High-Rise, Ballard once again attacks our uneasy truce with the artificial. Four futuristic high-rise apartment buildings have been built. Catering to the wealthy, these buildings are in fact enclosed worlds, featuring day-care, schooling, swimming pools and grocery stores. As the new tenants adjust to life aboard one of the high-rise complexes, violence escalates and members from adjacent floors break off into tribal factions that roam the corridors at night. It gets more frightening and visceral (if a bit predictable); High-Rise is the 21st century's Lord of the Flies, a sometimes profound statement on what we are doing with technology -- and what technology is doing to us. Additionally, it is a scathing commentary on leisure culture (a topic Ballard returns to in Cocaine Nights). If you haven't yet read Ballard, High-Rise is a great starting point.
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