Well, not John M Ford himself, who died some years ago. But his wonderful books have mostly been out of print since he died, and now they are soon to be back in print.
The story I have heard is that his family allowed them all to go out of print, but apparently this is not so. This guy I found on Twitter, Isaac Butler, did an 18 month investigation on it, after discovering The Dragon Waiting, Ford’s gorgeous novel of alternative history, set in England during the Wars of the Roses, but - an England in a world where paganism survived and Christianity is just some minor sect. Also, fantasy. Magic exists and vampirism is a disease, not a matter of being undead. I have a copy rescued from my school library when the school closed down.
If you are a Star Trek fan, you might be interested in his Klingon novel, The Final Reflection. I remember when it came out and all my fannish friends who were into things Klingon used it as their “Bible”. And I’m pretty sure a lot of other Klingon fans around the world did the same.
Anyway, Isaac Butler went around contacting Ford’s family members, who said no, they hadn’t deliberately suppressed the works and were only too happy to see them come back into print. He wrote an article about it for Slate.com. Read it here. Not only will his existing works be reprinted, but some which were unpublished at the time of his death.
An interesting comment was that if The Dragon Waiting had been a five book series, he might have been as successful as George R R Martin. I guess we will never know about that, but I can see why he thinks so. If you haven’t read it yet, you can look forward to reading it late next year. If you have, there will be plenty more of his books to enjoy.
I’m so delighted by this!
The story I have heard is that his family allowed them all to go out of print, but apparently this is not so. This guy I found on Twitter, Isaac Butler, did an 18 month investigation on it, after discovering The Dragon Waiting, Ford’s gorgeous novel of alternative history, set in England during the Wars of the Roses, but - an England in a world where paganism survived and Christianity is just some minor sect. Also, fantasy. Magic exists and vampirism is a disease, not a matter of being undead. I have a copy rescued from my school library when the school closed down.
If you are a Star Trek fan, you might be interested in his Klingon novel, The Final Reflection. I remember when it came out and all my fannish friends who were into things Klingon used it as their “Bible”. And I’m pretty sure a lot of other Klingon fans around the world did the same.
Anyway, Isaac Butler went around contacting Ford’s family members, who said no, they hadn’t deliberately suppressed the works and were only too happy to see them come back into print. He wrote an article about it for Slate.com. Read it here. Not only will his existing works be reprinted, but some which were unpublished at the time of his death.
An interesting comment was that if The Dragon Waiting had been a five book series, he might have been as successful as George R R Martin. I guess we will never know about that, but I can see why he thinks so. If you haven’t read it yet, you can look forward to reading it late next year. If you have, there will be plenty more of his books to enjoy.
I’m so delighted by this!
3 comments:
I am always happy to see books come back in print. I never read Ford but I generally love this type of science fiction. I like alternate reality stories. I also love Star Trek but have only read a few novels.
It's fascinating how the books went out of print and it was thought it was because of the family. Did the publisher not speak to them? Did no-one have the rights via his estate? This is why it's so important for authors to include rights in their will.
Neil Gaiman has written about this before and drafted words to include in your will (link here: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/10/important-and-pass-it-on.html)
Hi Brian! If you’re curious about Ford, they will be available again in a few months. The Dragon Waiting is definitely worth a read, and both his Star Trek novels are still in print. I used to read Star Trek novels, till they started turning them into series. To be honest, I prefer the Trek fan fiction.
Hi Anita! I’d suggest you follow my link to the article - it does answer your questions, though I rather think it was a matter of confusion on both sides. Thanks for your link, which I will check out too.
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