Yep. Looking at the Ballard article on the SF Encyclopedia site, I see how much of his work I've missed:
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/ballard_j_g
Although that's true with most other authors, except maybe my favorite, Jack Vance.
Checking some of the linked articles, I noticed that the author of the entry "Optimism and Pessimism" classifies Ballard as an "ironist" rather than a pessimist. I'm not sure I'd agree,though it's an interesting argument.
The entries on "Post-Apocalypse","Ruined Earth",and related themes are also of interest,although with articles by multiple authors,you can get some disagreements among them,as well as differing uses of the same terms. I noticed this with the companion Encyclopedia of Fantasy,in articles related to Tolkien.
BTW--I've been tempted to chime in on some of the other book threads,but most of the other ones are over a year old. That would be considered to thread necromancy, I suppose.
OTOH,whenever I browse the Book Forum, I seem to be the only one here,so I'm guessing no one would care!