Rereading John M. Ford
Jan. 7th, 2007 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnSo when I went home I got much of my Ford (not his Trek books, I'm not sure how they got missed, and Scholars of Night, which is I-don't-know-where, and Fugue State, which I have given up hope of understanding) and brought them back with me and had me a nice little orgy of rereading. The Dragon Waiting I have in CA and have thus already reread.
-The Last Hot Time: I've only read this twice or three times now, so I'm still at the stage where there are whole plot elements that I'm still discovering. (This is part of why I love Ford -- each book contains at least three rereads worth of plot!) I like it a lot better than I did on first reading, possibly as a result of now understanding (most of) what is going on.
-Growing Up Weightless: I like this less than I did when I first read it... I know all the other Ford fans like this a lot, but I guess that I have a couple of problems: first, Matt's character is apparently supposed to be super cool, and I definitely got that super-cool sense about Ruby or Stringjack, but he just seemed like a more-or-less normal teenager, maybe one who was slightly better-acting under pressure. Second,... oh, maybe I don't understand the plot (always likely with these books!) but I don't get why Albin was all concerned that Matt would ride the water and die, which was apparently a major plot point; Matt hated Albin even talking about water, and certainly politically this makes no sense when you could get "children with terminal diseases," as one of the other characters points out. Third, some of the revealed interactions between characters (here I am particularly thinking about Rubylaser) had no buildup from the rest of the book, as far as I could tell. Maybe it was a little too subtle for me. Maybe I'll read it in ten years and it will all make sense. But right now this is my least favorite of his books, though it is still a good coming-of-age book.
-Princes of the Air - This and Web I love, partially because I absolutely adore his far-future crazy imaginings. And I love Obeck, that insecure self-hating but still talented and dedicated diplomat (oh, that word!) - he's possibly my favorite Ford character, along with his crazy cool bigger-than-life friends. I identify with Obeck-- I know what it's like to have friends who know what they're doing, and while loving them feel insecure about what you're doing-- and to attain what looks like success while feeling hollow inside-- and not to be able to explain something to a friend because the friend is too good a person to actually understand the thing. This may be my favorite.
-Web of Angels- I saved this one for last because it's always been my absolute favorite Ford, though not one I usually give to people to try to hook them... and on rereading I remembered why. It's in WAY far future, and is very, very heavily allusive and poetical and whimsical and fantastical... Mr. Aristide speaks in a very mannered way that actually turned me off this reading until I remembered that that was just the way he was. (I think when I first read this book he reminded me of a certain physics teacher we had... which may be part of the reason I like this book.) The main character, Grailer, also kind of is annoying to me; as three times my age (due to the miracle of Lifespan) he acts like he's still a teenager. But I love the heavy religious (though it is not by any means a religious book) and poetic and literary allusions... some of which I am still getting on subsequent rereadings... I think this is the first time I've reread since my Dante kick, so I'm finally getting all the Dante references... and the scope of his weird universe is a lot of fun. And my gosh, his Webspinning, written before the internet was a force to be reckoned with, does seem rather prescient now.
-The Last Hot Time: I've only read this twice or three times now, so I'm still at the stage where there are whole plot elements that I'm still discovering. (This is part of why I love Ford -- each book contains at least three rereads worth of plot!) I like it a lot better than I did on first reading, possibly as a result of now understanding (most of) what is going on.
-Growing Up Weightless: I like this less than I did when I first read it... I know all the other Ford fans like this a lot, but I guess that I have a couple of problems: first, Matt's character is apparently supposed to be super cool, and I definitely got that super-cool sense about Ruby or Stringjack, but he just seemed like a more-or-less normal teenager, maybe one who was slightly better-acting under pressure. Second,... oh, maybe I don't understand the plot (always likely with these books!) but I don't get why Albin was all concerned that Matt would ride the water and die, which was apparently a major plot point; Matt hated Albin even talking about water, and certainly politically this makes no sense when you could get "children with terminal diseases," as one of the other characters points out. Third, some of the revealed interactions between characters (here I am particularly thinking about Rubylaser) had no buildup from the rest of the book, as far as I could tell. Maybe it was a little too subtle for me. Maybe I'll read it in ten years and it will all make sense. But right now this is my least favorite of his books, though it is still a good coming-of-age book.
-Princes of the Air - This and Web I love, partially because I absolutely adore his far-future crazy imaginings. And I love Obeck, that insecure self-hating but still talented and dedicated diplomat (oh, that word!) - he's possibly my favorite Ford character, along with his crazy cool bigger-than-life friends. I identify with Obeck-- I know what it's like to have friends who know what they're doing, and while loving them feel insecure about what you're doing-- and to attain what looks like success while feeling hollow inside-- and not to be able to explain something to a friend because the friend is too good a person to actually understand the thing. This may be my favorite.
-Web of Angels- I saved this one for last because it's always been my absolute favorite Ford, though not one I usually give to people to try to hook them... and on rereading I remembered why. It's in WAY far future, and is very, very heavily allusive and poetical and whimsical and fantastical... Mr. Aristide speaks in a very mannered way that actually turned me off this reading until I remembered that that was just the way he was. (I think when I first read this book he reminded me of a certain physics teacher we had... which may be part of the reason I like this book.) The main character, Grailer, also kind of is annoying to me; as three times my age (due to the miracle of Lifespan) he acts like he's still a teenager. But I love the heavy religious (though it is not by any means a religious book) and poetic and literary allusions... some of which I am still getting on subsequent rereadings... I think this is the first time I've reread since my Dante kick, so I'm finally getting all the Dante references... and the scope of his weird universe is a lot of fun. And my gosh, his Webspinning, written before the internet was a force to be reckoned with, does seem rather prescient now.
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