I never met Mike Ford, though my acquaintance with him goes back many years. When I was very young I read the early Star Trek books. My favorite was The Final Reflection<\/i>, a book that delved into the history of Klingons at a time when very little had been done on the subject.<\/p>\n
Later, when I was interested in the role-playing game Paranoia<\/i>, I picked up a module called The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues<\/i>. It was funny as hell, though I expect the Cold War-era humor is now dated to those who didn’t grow up in the war’s long shadow<\/a>.<\/p>\n After that I read whatever of his I could get my hands on. His second Star Trek novel, How Much For Just The Planet?<\/i>, was a farce that had Gilbert and Sullivan, jabs at Paramount, and more Klingons. Growing Up Weightless<\/i> was a beautiful coming-of-age tale set on the moon. The Dragon Waiting<\/i> was an alternate-history story set during the reigns of Edward IV and Richard III and that involved vampires.<\/p>\n From this you may start to appreciate how varied his output was. It was also much smaller than I would have liked. Fortunately for me, I discovered his postings at Making Light<\/a>, the blog of Teresa and Patrick Nielsen Hayden, a pair of book editors for Tor. Mike’s posts were entertaining and wild — his knowledge was wide-ranging and astounding, and he weilded language with verve and skill. Occasionally he’d post something that I would force my friends to read, like Harry of Five Points<\/a>, where he took Henry V<\/i> and turned it into a gangster play.<\/p>\n He died today<\/a>, cause as of yet unknown. I’d always meant to tell him how much I enjoyed his books and his posts. Now I never will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I never met Mike Ford, though my acquaintance with him goes back many years. When I was very young I read the early Star Trek books. My favorite was The Final Reflection, a book that delved into the history of Klingons at a time when very little had been done on the subject. Later, when … Continue reading On the Death of John M. Ford<\/span>