I’m in the middle of re-reading Sandman, but I must just say that John M. Ford is a genius. But you all knew that already.
From “110 Stories” [edited to say: now pointing to a new link with more bandwidth; please follow suit]:
The steel turns red, the framework starts to go.
Jacks clasp Jills’ hands and step onto the sky.
The noise was not like anything you know.
Stand still, he said, and watch a building die.
There’s no one you can help above this floor.
We’ve got to hold our breath. We’ve got to climb.
Don’t give me that; I did this once before.
The firemen look up, and know the time.
[ And please, if you must forward copies (instead of links, as would be proper), don’t forward without attribution (as Teresa Nielsen Hayden rightly points out). ]
This is the second John M. Ford poetry snippet you’ve quoted to me, and now I’m really hoping his poems are collected in book form and purchaseable, because. Genius, yes.
Followed the title link to the full text of the poem at elisem’s LJ; about a third of the way through the poem my head started to buzz and my eyes went dim, sort of like I was going to pass out. Then I got with it again and cried like a baby. Very unsettling. Think I’ll check Amazon for him.
Thanks for the recs…
I’d say get your hands on a copy of From the End of the Twentieth Century soonest. It’s an anthology of short stories, and yes, poetry. I’d say it’s worth it for the short story “Scrabble with God” alone, but it’s got lots of other goodies, too. Like, say, “Troy: The Movie”:
(“You know from the first Cinemascope frame/An endless expanse of Monument Valley/Elmer Bernstein score thundering, soaring,/That Achilles and Hector cannot both walk into the sunset alive;/The whole 70mm screen isn’t big enough for the two of them.”)
Which, Trent, happens to be what I quoted at her elsewhere…
From the End of the Twentieth Century is a NESFA hardcover collection; your better bookstore will happily order it for you (I’ve been in a number of Borders that carried it on-shelf, but it’s no longer new, so that’s not likely these days). (You can also order it right from NESFA, but that would mean shipping charges.)
Tor is going to be issuing a collection of a bunch of other things (including the brilliant, World-Fantasy-Award-winning poem “Winter Solstice, Camelot Station”), but not for a while–last I heard, it’s for after Aspects, Ford’s giant and long-awaited WIP.
I’ll also refer you to my wibblings about The Last Hot Time, Ford’s most recent and possibly most accessible novel, elsewhere on this book log.
*resists urge to babble about all the rest of Ford’s novels that I’ve read*
Kate, I did go and read your wibblings about The Last Hot Time earlier, and I plan to pick up that one, also.
And please *don’t* resist the urge to babble about the rest of Ford’s novels – I tend to obsess categorically, so I really want to know more about Ford’s other novels!
Okay then–
The Dragon Waiting. Out of print in the US (but not that hard to find), recently reprinted in the UK. Alternate history, eventually leading up to an explanation for Richard III and the Princes in the Tower (the Shakespeare/legendary version, not the history (cf. The Daughter of Time)). Brilliantly vivid and complex; won a World Fantasy Award. Pam has a good review of it on her book log. There are a number of moments in this book that I find very memorable–I think the best way I can put it is that Ford understands the power of understatement.
Growing Up Weightless. Hard sf, in some senses a YA–it’s a coming-of-age tale set on the Moon. Perhaps too understated, as for the longest time I had no idea what was going on in the “adult” section of the plot. Someone explained it to me a few years ago, but I haven’t re-read since. Mostly what I remember about it is loss and letting go, on which subjects it is quite moving. Also out of print, but fairly easy to find.
Princes of the Air. Out of print and forgettable, at least I’ve forgotten what happened in it.
Starlight 1, “Erase/Record/Play.” Alas, another volume that’s not in stores, but libraries may well have it (and the rest).
The rest either I haven’t found or are on the to-read pile.
Ford may be most accessible in shorter form. There’s The Last Hot Time, and in From the End . . . , there’s only one story that left me saying “Huh?” (“Preflash”). I’d recommend From the End . . . to you first, just as a sampler.
Maybe I’ll take that with me on vacation this weekend. Hmmm.
Starlight 1 and Starlight 2 have been remaindered, but copies are available directly from Patrick Nielsen Hayden for $10 each. They’re both excellent, and worth checking out.
‘I’d say [From the End of the Twentieth
Century] is worth it for the short
story “Scrabble with God” alone,’
Y’know, people say this a lot, and I’ve never been able to figure out if it’s hyperbole, or if they really believe it. Sure, it’s a great story, but I really don’t think any two-page story is worth $21 of my hard-earned cash.
Fortunately, Twentieth Century is worth the $21 for “Mandalay,””All Our Propagation,”As above, so below,” “The Lost Dialogue,” “The Bard in Prime Time,” “Intersections,” “Troy: the Movie,” “Waiting for the Morning Bird,” “Riding the Hammer,” and “Scrabble with God.” I don’t know if I’m alone in this opinion, but I think the first two stories in the collection are fairly dull, so if you buy it, and don’t like them, keep reading, they get better.
Um, other Ford books I’ve read:
Web of Angels: another coming-of-age story, this one in a far-future galactic civilization. More discussion on my book log, here.
and, two Star Trek novels, which are probably easier to find than his out-of-print non-ST novels:
The Final Reflection: set in the Klingon Empire, around the time of the founding of the Federation. Very good.
How Much for Just the Planet?: People either love this and hail it as a work of comic genius, or totally hate it. I’m in the second camp. (And contrary to Ford’s exceedingly condescending essay on the matter in 20th Century, it’s not because I am a loser Star Trek fan (I can take or leave Star Trek) who has no sense of humor and wouldn’t know a joke if it bit me in the ass, I hated it because I just didn’t think the jokes were funny, and the fundamental nature of a farce is such that without the humor, it’s just a dumb story.)
Kate: well, slap my tuckus and call me Betsy-Sue. It’s just that that snippet is such an eye-catching quote, I guess it’s no surprise that it ends up quoted often.
Pam: okay, you caught me, there’s just a wee bit of hyperbole there. It is a great story, though. Makes me laugh every time. I don’t think every piece in 20th Century is uniformly great, either–“All Our Propogation” just never really grabbed me, for example–but there’s lots of good stuff there. It’s a moot point for me anyway, since my copy came from a certain benfactress who steadfastly refused to let me compensate her…
The Dragon Waiting is very good, but I really need to re-read it; it’s complex enough to merit it anyway, but also it would help a lot to have more familiarity with that period and area of history, even though it is an alternate-history tale. I’m sure I missed any number of echoes, symbols, and allusions (starting with the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, to which it proposes a rather… novel…solution).
Pam: I wouldn’t go so far as to say “Scrabble with God” is worth the whole $20, but I have got a number of people to buy the book by handing them a copy open to that story.
I actually like the first two stories. I’m personally not crazy about the song lyrics, since I can’t make them work in my head without actual music to go with them. I’m glad you like “All Our Propagation,” which I think deserves to be mentioned much more than it is in discussions of the collection. [Edited to say that my comment crossed Trent’s, above, in submission. And Trent, are you saying you still owe me a drink for that? I don’t recall refusing anything . . . ]
If we both make Vegas this December, I will try to remember to dig out my copy of “Winter Solstice, Camelot Station” and bring it with.
I can see that “All our Propagation” wouldn’t be to everbody’s taste. I’m just a sucker for cool imagery (as if my constant raving about Zelazny’s greatness wouldn’t have clued y’all into that, yet).
I agree with Trent that the collection isn’t uniformly excellent (the Star Trek essay is a particularly low point), but Ford’s such a versatile writer that it’s more than likely that a given person will find plenty of good stuff in there, whatever they consider “good” to be.
Kate: I’d say various kindnesses leave me in hock for at least dinner by now. Trouble is, last time we happened to be in the same locale, it was you, more or less, that sprung for dinner. Oh, and you happened to be a bit preoccupied at the time….
Back to Ford: I serendipitously happened to stumble into the DPL’s “Friends of the Library” sale a few weeks ago, and they had a suprisingly good selection, for obscenely low prices. Naturally, I came away with a bagfull. One that I picked up on impulse was How Much For Just the Planet; normally, I wouldn’t touch a Trek book with a ten-foot pole, but as Pam rightly notes, this seems to be a very polarizing book, and having seen the various “it’s wonderful/terrible” spats over the years managed to engage a curiousity that would otherwise have remained resolutely unpiqued.
Trent–well, then, we will definitely have to drag you (and ourselves) to Vegas, where we will shamefully impose on your feeling of obligation (and, oh yes, give you those Hodgell paperbacks that we’ve been promising you for months on end…).