John M. Ford (1957–2006)

Still unwell. Ugh. John M Ford, man-about-literature, wrote a spy novel, and it is a clever, elliptical tale of game-playing and historical secrets and a plot that, quite properly, reveals a contempt and hate and fear of the world that gives us spy novels. Ford can be downright obscure in his writing, but I thought it all worked to his advantage here in the murky world of secrets and betrayals and double meanings and triple agents. I do now wish he'd written a novel about Christopher show more Marlowe. The brief historical bits made me want to go reread The Dragon Waiting (or Waldrop's Heart of Whitenesse.) show less

Wow. This is one of the most intricate, complex, multilayered, meticulously researched alternative history/fantasy books I've ever read. (If not THE most?)
- It helps if you know your English history, your Shakespeare, something about early Renaissance and Florence, something about ancient Rome and Byzantium :)))) It heightens your enjoyment of the book, as you go through the literary/historical allusions and Easter eggs scattered throughout.
- It was interesting to see John M. Ford imagine a show more world without Christianity as one of the dominant religions - a world which is more humanistic, more advanced, and is a (somewhat) better place for women than 15th century Europe of "our" world.
- Nothing is spelled out and the plot unfolds slowly. As a reader, you need to PAY ATTENTION and fill in the blanks.
- The magic system is very dark. I don't think I've ever seen its like in any other fantasy book.
- The characters are wonderfully - and subtly - drawn. (I loved Cynthia!)
- This is a book you need to re-read and see what you had missed last time.
- Like many others, I highly recommend Draco Concordans as a reading companion. It is geeky and wonderful, and it's interesting to see what you have missed in chapter x. show less

Despite the title (there is no "real" dragon in the book), this reads more like an alternate history first and a fantasy second. The premise is that Byzantium endured and neither Christianity nor Islam became a dominant religion (which also means that various pagan beliefs from across Europe also persisted). Furthermore, magic works (within certain limits - in particular, wizards can't practice magic without it taking an immediate toll on their strength and health) and there are vampires, show more albeit with a rationale for the characteristics of that condition.

The story is set in the late Medieval period, during the Wars of the Roses. A Welsh magician, a disinherited Byzantine scion turned soldier of fortune, a female Medici with medical skills and a Bavarian vampire ordnance engineer are brought together to play a part in ultimately putting Richard III on the throne of England and thwarting the advance of Byzantium. The world-building is exceptionally well-detailed and the scene painting is particularly vivid.

The action of the book is a little episodic, and the continual shifts in point of view characters does mean that not all the events of the book happen on-stage. Add to that the fact that, especially in the last third of the book when the action moves to the British Isles, characters may be identified by their proper names or by their titles, (plus disguises, costumed and/or magical) and the whole thing does get a little hard to follow without a family tree or two to hand. So just like real Plantagenet history, then.

The four main protagonists are well-drawn, though having all four active in the plot at the same time does perhaps leave that characterisation a bit thin in a 350-page novel rather than a 800-page doorstop blockbuster. Still, less is more. And Ford's research is good, with very few lapses caused by a transatlantic perspective - about the only example I tripped over were the murderers of the Duke of Clarence (of 'butt of malmsey' fame), whose accents mainly seem inspired by Lady Penelope's butler Parker in the 1960s Thunderbirds tv series. The text is allusion-rich, some of these being buried quite deep. There was one Tolkien allusion that made me laugh out loud.

Overall, then, a fantasy novel that reads like an alternate history, is well-written, more historically accurate than most, and above all intelligent whilst still retaining all the suspense and excitement of big bangs and derring-do. A palpable hit. show less

Ford, John M. Growing Up Weightless. Spectra, 1993.
On my first reading, I underrated Growing Up Weightless. I mistakenly assumed John Ford aimed for a young adult story in the manner of Robert Heinlein but missed the mark. The setting is a near future Lunar colony divided politically and facing several existential crises. It is a territory familiar in Heinlein. Heinlein’s young heroes and heroines overcome difficulties and face the future optimistically. Ford’s hero, Matt, is not so show more lucky. Matt and his friends look down on the clumsy “slammers” from Earth. Matt finds hating Earth easy. He also resents the strictures of Lunar life and wants to join the crew of an interstellar colony ship. In the meantime, he and his friends entertain themselves with role-playing games and an unsupervised and unauthorized train trip to a base on the far side of the Moon. In the end, Matt discovers that making his dreams come true causes pain for himself, his family, friends, and potential lovers. Ford’s style is subtler and more difficult than one generally finds in young adult fiction. There are no large infodumps of exposition. Readers are like slammer tourists who must learn as slowly what the world is like. 4 stars. show less