the return of John M. Ford!!!!

[cahn]

Google knows too much about me. Way too much. I joke with people that I could easily be replaced by a google-bot and no one would ever know (I guess I'm pretty predictable, at that).

Anyway, this morning I woke up to Chrome helpfully proffering me an article about John M. Ford.

Me: John M. Ford?
Chrome: Yes! We here at google think you'll like it, given your extensive googling on John M. Ford and his books in the last several months.
Me: That's because I was doing this reread... never mind. Um, but he died more than a decade ago and his books are out of print, so this must be an old article?
Chrome, holding out article patiently: No, it's from 4 hours ago. From Slate.
Me: So, like, a retrospective. Why is Slate printing something like that?
Chrome: Just click on it, OK?

Guys. GUYS. This person, Isaac Butler, went down the rabbit hole, reconnected Ford's estranged family and his editors, and although (as he says) we'll never know the whole story it appears there was at least some miscommunication, and
1. His books are coming back in print, starting in 2020!!
2. A new book of stories/poems/Christmas cards/uncollected material will be published!!!!
3. Aspects, Ford's never-published epic, is getting published in 2021!!!!!!!

This is just about the best early Christmas present the world (and Isaac Butler, and Tor, and Ford's family, and of course John M. Ford himself) could have given me <33333333

(OK, and thanks Google. You win again.)

Comments

[cahn]

I KNOOOOOOW RIGHT?? and it being Tor, they'll presumably put them all out in e-book FIIIIINALLY :D

I think in, er, the many years I spent combing used bookstores for his books that I have all of them in print at this point, but also. TWO MORE. !!!!!

[jenett]

Patrick Nielsen Hayden confirmed there will indeed be ebooks. (Early in the post here)

[cahn]

AHHHHH thank you for linking me to this! I used to read Making Light from time to time but stopped a while back. (Probably around the time Ford died, in fact. sigh.)

[jenett]

It's been quite quiet over there for a couple of years, but this was one of those 'I knew there'd be stuff there' things even before it turned up in my RSS feed.

[ambyr]

Unfortunately, because Tor is part of Macmillan and many public library systems are currently boycotting Macmillan ebooks, they won’t be easily accessible ebooks :-(.

[kore]

Ahhh CRAP. I wish it were possible somehow to donate e-books to libraries.

[ambyr]

I mean, they’re boycotting Macmillan because Macmillan is refusing to allow libraries to circulate frontlist ebook titles, so donations aren’t really going to help. Writing a letter to Macmillan protesting their anti-library business practices might, though!

[kore]

oh yes GREAT idea! i burned 3 fingers and my typing time is severely limited tho....maybe i will handwrite them one.

[ashkitty]

My local library sent out a thing to their patrons saying "this is what you should say to Macmillan, and why" so the libraries are definitely on top of things. I hope it works! I am pretty much always on libraries' side in everything. ;)

[cahn]

:( I hadn't even thought about that. (I didn't know Tor was part of Macmillan either, I should have known that!) I was mostly thinking about buying them.

The funny thing -- well, actually it's not funny at all -- is that I rarely get ebooks from the library any more anyway, because I've learned that anything that is even close to a frontlist title has such a long waiting list that it's much quicker to request the paper book.

[kore]

This is EXACTLY what I thought, I will be SO HAPPY to have all new copies of everything. And the never seen unfinished novel with a preface by Gaiman?! I hope that sells! I have the Star Trek books, and I think everything but Web of Angels and The Princes of the Air and the poetry collection. I tracked down a really nice paperback of Dragon Waiting a couple years ago for ten bucks, and REALLY WANT to buy it new in hardcover..

[cahn]

I have wanted Aspects ever since I found out that it was a Thing he was working on. Ahhhhhhh. I hope that "unfinished" just means "a couple of scenes aren't done," I have enough trouble following his narratives :D

I really like Web of Angels and Princes of the Air! They are definitely early Ford and in some ways haven't aged well (e.g., the women of WoA are... kind of nonexistent) but in many ways are still amazing to me, at least :D

And yessss I want a new copy of TDW! I have one I've lent out and another I was afraid to read because I have issues because I didn't want to mess it up, because it was my nice copy!

[jenett]

Aspects is alas, less finished than that - different people had different chunks of it, but he was (as far as I've gathered from people talking about it) writing in chunks with broad gestures at connecting material. I'm assuming there's going to be info connecting the bits. Beth Meachem, his editor, had a lot of info about the interstitial bits.

So, there's definitely fascinating stuff, but expecting it to flow like a complete novel is not the way to bet.

[cahn]

Aw! But isn't it supposed to be 140k words or something totally crazy like that? I think I can live with info connecting the bits, especially if there's a lot of words in the bits :) And much better than if he'd written the first half and we only had to guess at the last half :P

[landingtree]

I actually feel better about that rather than worse given how oblique and difficult he can be... Because I already know that I do get pleasure from his books when I'm experiencing them as bits and pieces.

[cahn]

Haha,this is... very true!

[kore]

oh man, imagine if they did a special Sub Press edition of it or something!