FORD, John M(ilo)

(1957-)

   US writer. He is author of some children's fiction under an unrevealed pseudonym. He began publishing sf under his own name with "This, Too, We Reconcile" for ASF in 1976. His Alternities Corporationsequence appeared in magazines 1979-81. His first novel, Web of Angels (1980), can be seen in retrospect as a quite remarkable rendering of thebasic venues exploited by CYBERPUNK some years later, though its traditional rite-of-passage plot bears little resemblance to the quest-for-Nirvana structure given definitive form by William GIBSON in NEUROMANCER (1984). Beyond that basic distinction in dynamic thrust,however, and beyond JMF's failure (or disinclination) to make use of film-noir icons and the hegemony of corporate Japan, the eponymous commmunication/data web much resembles CYBERSPACE, though intergalactic in scope; the cowboy hacker protagonist hired out to a merchant prince is also familiar, as are the Web's automatic defence systems - Geisthounds - which hunt him remorselessly. JMF's second novel, The Princes of the Air (1982), is a florid SPACE OPERA whose detail is more enthralling than itsspan. The Dragon Waiting (1983) is an ALTERNATE-WORLD fantasy set in an unChristianized (and dragonless) medieval Europe; it won the 1984 World Fantasy AWARD. The Final Reflection * (1984), Star Trek: Voyage toAdventure * (1984) (as Michael J. Dodge) and How Much for Just the Planet? * (1987) are STAR TREK ties; The Scholars of Night (1988) is an associational thriller; Casting Fortune * (coll 1989), set in the Liavek SHARED-WORLD enterprise, contains in "The Illusionist" a book-length taleof theatrical MAGIC; and Fugue State (1987 in Under the Wheel ed Elizabeth Mitchell; rev1990 dos) is a complex sf exploration of an imprisonedpsyche. GROWING UP WEIGHTLESS (1993) - which tied for the 1994 PHILIP K. DICK AWARD with Jack WOMACK's Elvissey (1993) - depicts life on the Moonin terms that seem realistic, for the human settlement there lives under strait conditions, and has a difficult relationship with Earth; but the rite of passage into adulthood at the tale's centre is not innovative. 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.

   JC

   Other works: On Writing Science Fiction (The Editors Strike Back!) (anth 1981) with Darrell SCHWEITZER and George H. SCITHERS.

   See also: FANTASY; GAMES AND TOYS; POETRY; TIMESCAPE BOOKS.