"I don't think anyone wants a reader to be completely lost - certainly not to the point of giving up - but there's something to be said for a book that isn't instantly disposable, that rewards a second reading." -- John M. Ford
John Milo "Mike" Ford (April 10, 1957 – September 25, 2006) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, game designer, and poet.
Ford was regarded (and obituaries, tributes and memories describe him) as an extraordinarily intelligent, erudite and witty man. He was a popular contributor to several online discussions. He composed poems, often improvised, in both complicated forms and blank verse, notably Shakespearean pastiche; he also wrote pastiches and parodies of many other authors and styles. At Minicon and other science fiction conventions he would perform "Ask Dr. Mike", giving humorous answers to scientific and other questions in a lab coat before a whiteboard.
"At one point I intended to write precursor and sequel novels, about the establishment of the Web and its next evolution, but I am very unlikely to now; they would take place in a different universe.""Creating the fictional background for a game world isn't significantly different from creating a background for fiction.""I'm very happy that the New York Times has spoken well of my stuff; who wouldn't be? But it's not a choice I made.""If I were to write Web now, it would be a much, much darker book.""Naturally, the reader has access only to the events I show and the way I show them, but as has been said, there's generally a good deal of ambiguity in that presentation.""People tell me they laughed hard enough to wake their spouses, that they've given away numerous copies to friends, and that it's the one Trek book they'll give to people they wouldn't expect to like others.""Sometimes the reader will decide something else than the author's intent; this is certainly true of attempts to empirically decipher reality.""The cynical part of the answer is that I expect to see a good deal more space opera, set far enough in the future as to be disconnected from contemporary issues.""The ideal, it seems to me, is to show things happening and allow the reader to decide what they mean.""The language fictional characters use is chosen for effect, at least if the author is concentrating.""The people who don't like it tend to dislike it intensely. That's unfortunate, but not surprising when one deliberately goes against audience expectations.""There are people who believe in an absolutely transparent prose; with every respect for clarity of expression, I don't.""There are readers who want every point to be clearly and unambiguously set forth, and there are those who want to pry ideas and meanings out for themselves.""We're not lost. We're locationally challenged.""Well, it's an adventure story, and a Bildungsroman, of course, but there was also the intention to describe a culture that had been seen in rather narrow terms."
Ford was born in East Chicago, Indiana, and raised in Whiting, Indiana. In the mid-1970s he attended Indiana University Bloomington, where he was active in the IU science fiction club and Society for Creative Anachronism (using the name Miles Atherton de Grey); while there, he published his first short story "This, Too, We Reconcile" in the May 1976 Analog.
Ford left IU and moved to New York to work on the newly-founded Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, where, starting in mid-1978, he published poetry, fiction, articles, and game reviews. Although his last non-fiction appeared there in September 1981, he was tenth most frequent contributor for the 1977—2002 period. About 1990, he moved to Minneapolis. In addition to writing, he worked at various times as a hospital orderly, computer consultant, slush pile reader, and copy editor.
Ford suffered from complications related to diabetes since childhood and also had renal dysfunction which required dialysis and, in 2000, a kidney transplant, which improved his quality of life considerably. He was found dead from natural causes in his Minneapolis home on September 25, 2006 by his partner since the mid-1990s, Elise Matthesen. He was a prominent member of the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library, which established a John M. Ford Book Endowment after his death with the donations to be used as interest-generating capital for yearly purchase of new books.
Though Ford's novels varied in setting and style, several were of the Bildungsroman (coming-of-age) type: in Web of Angels, The Final Reflection, Princes of the Air, Growing Up Weightless, and The Last Hot Time, Ford wrote variations on the theme of growing up, learning about one's world and one's place in it, and taking responsibility for it — which involves taking on the power and wisdom to influence events, to help make the world a better place.
Otherwise, Ford's works are characterized by an aversion to doing things that have been done before. This is perhaps most notable in his two Star Trek novels, The Final Reflection (1984) and How Much for Just the Planet? (1987). The Final Reflection is the story of a small group of Klingons who prevent a war between the Klingon Empire and the Federation while the regular series characters are relegated to cameo appearances. (This novel introduced the fictional language Klingonaase.) In the comedic How Much for Just the Planet?, the Enterprise crew compete with a Klingon crew for control of a planet, whose colonists are not happy with this and defend their peace in inventive ways, which soon make everything a farce, including a Vaudevillian pie fight. The book includes song lyrics that satirize many 20th century stage musicals. Both novels present the Klingons in a more positive light, not just as the token evil menace of the week, while giving strong hints that the United Federation of Planets is not quite the shining utopia of goodwill and interspecies fellowship generally depicted in the television series.
Ford avoided repetition not only of the work of others, but also of his own work. Where many writers make a name for themselves by developing a known style that repeats in many books, Ford always surprised with his ability to use a variety of styles that best suited the world, characters, and situations he had chosen to write about. (John Clute expressed this in 1993 The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction as "Two decades into his career, there remains some sense that JMF remains unwilling or unable to create a definitive style or mode; but his originality is evident, a shifting feisty energy informs almost everything he writes, and that career is still young.") This might have limited his readership, however he was much respected by his fellow writers, editors, critics and fans. Robert Jordan, Ford's life-long close friend, called Ford "the best writer in America ... bar none." Neil Gaiman called Ford "my best critic the best writer I knew." Patrick Nielsen Hayden said "Most normal people had the slight sense that something large and super-intelligent and trans-human had sort of flown over ... There would be a point where basically the plot would become so knotted and complex he would lose all of us."
Web of Angels (1980, Pocket Books, ISBN 0-671-82947-5; 1992, Tor Books, ISBN 0-8125-0959-5), an early exploration of some topics that would later be described as cyberpunk
The Princes of the Air (1982, Pocket Books, ISBN 0-671-44482-4; 1991, Tor Books, ISBN 0-8125-0958-7), a space opera
The Dragon Waiting (1983, Timescape Books, ISBN 0-671-47552-5; 1985, Avon Books, ISBN 0-380-69887-0; 2002, Gollancz, ISBN 0-575-07378-0), a fantasy alternate history combining vampires, the Medicis, and the convoluted English politics surrounding Edward IV and Richard III; winner of the 1984 World Fantasy Award
The Final Reflection (1984, Pocket Books, ISBN 0-671-47388-3; 1985, Ultramarine, ISBN 0-318-37547-8; 1985, Gregg Press, ISBN 0-8398-2885-3; 1991, Pocket Books, ISBN 0-671-74354-6, a Star Trek tie-in novel; (also 2004, Pocket Books, ISBN 0-7434-9659-0 [in omnibus Signature Edition, The Hand of Kahless])
How Much for Just the Planet? (1987, Pocket Books, ISBN 0-671-62998-0; 1990, ISBN 0-671-72214-X; 1991, ISBN 0-671-03859-1), a Star Trek tie-in novel
The Scholars of Night (1988, Tor Books, ISBN 0-312-93051-8; 1989, ISBN 0-8125-0214-0), a high tech Cold War thriller involving an undiscovered Christopher Marlowe play
Casting Fortune (1989, Tor Books, ISBN 0-8125-3815-3), a collection of stories set in the Liavek shared world, reprints "A Cup of Worrynot Tea" and "Green Is the Color" and original story "The Illusionist"
Fugue State (1990, Tor Books, ISBN 0-8125-0813-0), a longer version of the novella of the same name, published as Tor SF Double No. 25 with The Death of Doctor Island by Gene Wolfe
Growing Up Weightless (1993, Bantam Spectra, ISBN 0-553-37306-4; 1994, ISBN 0-553-56814-0), a Bildungsroman set on a human-colonized Moon; joint winner of the 1993 Philip K. Dick Award
Timesteps (1993, Rune Press), a selection of poems
From the End of the Twentieth Century (1997, NESFA Press, ISBN 0-915368-74-9, ISBN 0-915368-73-0), a collection of short stories, poetry, and essays
The Last Hot Time (2000, Tor Books, ISBN 0-312-85545-1; 2001 paperback, ISBN 0-312-87578-9), urban fantasy set in a magical Chicago, Illinois
Heat of Fusion and Other Stories (2004, Tor Books, ISBN 0-312-85546-X), a collection of short stories and poetry, finalist for the World Fantasy Award in 2005
With Darrell Schweitzer and George H. Scithers, Ford co-authored On Writing Science Fiction (The Editors Strike Back!) (1981, Owlswick Press, ISBN 0-913896-19-5; Wildside Press 2000, ISBN 1-880448-78-5), a writers' manual with advice illustrated by short stories that were first sales to IASFM.
Some shorter works
"A Cup of Worrynot Tea" in Liavek: The Players of Luck (1986, edited by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly)
"Green Is the Color", "Eel Island Shoals" (song), "Pot-Boil Blues" (song) in Liavek: Wizard's Row (1987, edited by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly)
"Riding the Hammer" in Liavek: Spells of Binding (1988, edited by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly)
"The Grand Festival: Sestina" (poem), "Divination Day: Invocation" (poem), "Birth Day: Sonnet" (poem), "Procession Day/Remembrance Night: Processional/Recessional" (poem), "Bazaar Day: Ballad" (poem), "Festival Day: Catechism" (poem), "Restoration Day: Plainsong" in Liavek: Festival Week (1990, edited by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly)
"Scrabble with God", IASFM October 1985, reprinted in From the End of the Twentieth Century
Ford published a variety of short fiction and poetry, from short short stories that are essentially fantastic jokes, to novellas revealing a deep understanding of human frailties and emotions. His poem "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station" won the World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction in 1989.
Ford published some children's fiction under pseudonyms that he did not make public, and two children's gamebooks under house names Michael J. Dodge (Star Trek: Voyage to Adventure, 1984) and Milo Dennison (The Case of the Gentleman Ghost, 1985).
Ford plotted three issues of Captain Confederacy alternate history comics in the late 1980s and wrote issue number 10, "Driving North."
Ford also contributed to The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time (2001, Tor Books, ISBN 0-312-86936-3), drawing some of the maps.
Games
The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues (1985, West End Games, ISBN 0-87431-027-X), an adventure for the Paranoia roleplaying game
Star Trek III with Greg Costikyan and Doug Kaufman (1985, West End Games)
GURPS Time Travel with Steve Jackson (1991, Steve Jackson Games, ISBN 1-55634-115-6), a resource book for the GURPS roleplaying game
GURPS Y2K with Steve Jackson et al. (1999, Steve Jackson Games, ISBN 1-55634-406-6), a resource book for the GURPS roleplaying game
GURPS Traveller: Starports (2000, Steve Jackson Games, ISBN 1-55634-401-5), a resource book for the GURPS Traveller roleplaying game
GURPS Infinite Worlds with Steve Jackson and Kenneth Hite (2005, Steve Jackson Games, ISBN 1-55634-734-0), a resource book for the GURPS roleplaying game
Ford further wrote Klingon manuals for the Star Trek role-playing game, and a number of RPG articles, which appeared in Autoduel Quarterly, Pyramid, Roleplayer, Space Gamer, and Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society.
In The Final Reflection he described a chess-like game played by Klingons, klin zha, which has been adopted by Klingon fandom.
2005 Origins Award for Role-Playing Game Supplement of the Year — GURPS Infinite Worlds 4th Edition
1998 Minnesota Book Award for Fantasy & Science Fiction — From the End of the Twentieth Century
1993 Philip K. Dick Award — Growing Up Weightless
1991 Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement — GURPS Time Travel
1989 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction — "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station" (in Invitation to Camelot, edited by Parke Godwin)
1989 Rhysling Award for Long Poem — also "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station"
1985 Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement — The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues
1984 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel — The Dragon Waiting
Nominations
2005 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection — Heat of Fusion and Other Stories
1996 Nebula Award for Best Novelette — "Erase/Record/Play" (in Starlight 1, edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden)
1996 Theodore Sturgeon Award — also "Erase/Record/Play"
1995 Rhysling Award for Long Poems — "Troy: The Movie" (in Weird Tales, Spring 1994)
1991 Rhysling Award for Long Poems — "Bazaar Day: Ballad" (in Liavek: Festival Week, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull) and "Cosmology: A User’s Manual" (in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, January 1990)
1990 Rhysling Award for Long Poems — "A Holiday in the Park" (in Weird Tales, Winter 1988/1989)
1987 Nebula Award for Best Novelette (final ballot) — "Fugue State" (in Under the Wheel, edited by Elizabeth Mitchell)
Mike Ford: Occasional Works – Part One to Twelve and Coda: selection of Ford's comments to Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden's weblog Making Light, with links to context
110 Stories, poem written about the September 11, 2001 attacks
Troy: The Movie, 1994 poem
Winter Solstice, Camelot Station, 1989 poem
"As Above, So Below", short story (in Dragons of Light, ed. Orson Scott Card, Ace Books, 1980)
"Driving North", short story written as the script for issue 10 of Captain Confederacy
Strange Horizons 2002 interview with Ford
Patrick Nielsen Hayden's 2001 online interview with Ford (and other inkWELL participants)
Alex Krislov's 1980s interview with Ford
Quote from "Playing Scrabble with God", another
Ford's USENET posts 1994—5, in Google Groups archive
About Ford
Teresa Nielsen Hayden: Making Light: John M. Ford, 1957-2006. With links to online works by Ford, articles, weblog posts and memories about him etc.
Memory of Ford by his aunt Jane (Harley) Starner
Will Shetterly: An Introduction to John M. Ford
Neil Gaiman: Introduction to From the End of the Twentieth Century
Steve Jackson: Daily Illuminator article remembering Ford
Eric Burns, Websnark: Requiescat in Pace, John M. Ford with discussion of Ford's influence on Klingons in Star Trek
John Clute: Obituary: John M. Ford, in The Independent
Andrew Brown: column on London memorial gathering for Ford, in The Guardian
David Langford: John M Who? SFX December 2006
Peg Kerr: personal journal entry on the Minneapolis memorial gathering
The Society for the Preservation of Mike - a LiveJournal community
