Aspects (Ford)

[cahn]

Aspects, John M. Ford's epic fantasy last book, came out April 5 and I've now read what there is of it.

The most important thing you should know about it is that it was unfinished. This isn't a whole book, nothing is complete, nothing is solved. Think if you'd read the first half of The Dragon Waiting, or The Last Hot Time. You might have had a decent time, but I've always also read JMF books for that part at the end where you're like "...wait, something happened! Something big! But I'm not sure what," and then you have to go and reconstruct what the thing was. And you can't do that here. There seem to be 5 planned parts, of which we have 1 1/2, which... yeah.

It's got those JMF trademarks: interesting worldbuilding, poetry and songs (which I get a kick out of), trains (he does love his trains), found family (I think every single one of JMF's novels has a found family in it, which maybe says something).

I'm also not totally sure how exactly JMF meant to comment on the society. There's a bit where (I think) the found-family aristocrats are self-congratulating themselves that one of the servants' kids has grown up thinking he can be a "guest" there instead of a servant and that shows how egalitarian they are, except... there still have to be servants for them to have the life they have?? So how is that going to work? (It's possible someone invents robots, or harnesses this world's magic? I'm not putting it past JMF, it's just hard for me to tell given the little we do have.)

I wouldn't recommend this unless you're a Ford completist, like me. But if you are, go for it; just realize that nothing is going to be complete. But I'm really glad that we at least have what we have and that Tor agreed to publish it. (And otherwise I would have always wondered.) (although I guess as it is I will always wonder what would have come next, but I would have done that anyway.)

On the other hand, I think that Neil Gaiman's introduction (available in the free kindle sample) is worth reading even if you don't know anything about Ford. When The Dragon Waiting was re-published last year, its introduction was... umm... sub-optimal, and I remember at least one person asking why Gaiman hadn't written the intro, and someone else saying that he was probably holding out for Aspects. And lo. Anyway... Gaiman's intro is a cry of grief for Ford and his untimely death (he was only 49), and it made me have all kinds of feelings.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

On the other hand, I think that Neil Gaiman's introduction (available in the free kindle sample) is worth reading even if you don't know anything about Ford.

Oh, that's actually probably something I should request the sample for! (it definitely sounds like this shouldn't be the second JMF thing I read.)

And, heh, I don't remember if I was the person who wondered why Gaiman hadn't written the intro to The Dragon Waiting reissue, but I for sure did wonder about that, since I definitely did find the introduction that book got odd.

[cahn]

Yes, definitely don't read this as your second JMF! :) But the Gaiman intro, yes. And yeeeeah, that was a quite odd introduction, and I'm sorry for it as I think it deserved a better one.

[brainwane]

Ford died at only 49..... WOW. I had not caught that. What a tragedy.

[cahn]

Yeah. He'd been in poor health for... decades? He had diabetes and had had a kidney transplant and was not the best at taking care of his health... if anyone was going to die young, it makes sense it was him, but gosh... I'm not 49 yet, but close enough that it seems awfully awfully young. And he had so many things left to write!

[thistleingrey]

Thanks for this! I'm not a completist, but probably borderline in that I have, in effect, read almost everything but this (plus taught a few short stories, back when). hmm.

Agreed that the found-family recurrence seems to mean something. Around the time of his death, some LJ posts by his close associates suggested a rift from his biological family; Butler's piece on the copyright issue is discreet but confirms it.

[cahn]

*nods* And you would certainly be better than I at figuring out where he might have been going :)

Oh, yeah, I had heard that about his biological family, and seen the Butler piece. :( It does sound like he had a close found family, anyway <3 I hadn't noticed until now how prevalent it is in his work.

[thistleingrey]

Really not sure that's true, especially by now! It's been a long time since I've read any Ford.

[iberiandoctor]

It was you who linked me to this article, right? Thanks for that, and for this, too; I've clearly been living under a rock and missed the fact that this final book has arrived at last. (And Neil's intro made me ugly-cry, so there's that.)

[cahn]

Yes! <3 Well, I mean, I think there wasn't much fanfare about it -- it's unfinished, after all. I think its publication is a little bit of a -- I was going to say vanity project, but what I really mean is the opposite of vanity; a little present for everyone who loved his work, but I can't imagine they'll sell many copies, or expect to.

(Neil's intro! It's wonderful, isn't it. In a very emotional way. I cried too.)