John M. Ford

John M. Ford's The Last Hot Time is the final novel from the brilliant author of The Dragon Waiting and Growing Up Weightless, a provocative noir fantasy of astounding subtlety. When Danny Holman leaves the cornfields of Iowa for the bright lights of Chicago, he expects his life to change. He just can't guess how much and how fast. A violent incident on the road brings Danny the favor of a man known only as Mr. Patrise, who gives Danny a job, a home, and a new identity. The City is a different world from the one Danny--now called Doc--knew, and literally so. Long-vanished powers have returned, and more is going on in the streets than nightlife and street warfare. Power is gathering: a power rooted in terror, madness, and death. To fight it will require Doc to face what he fears most. To defeat it will take something more than courage. Now with a new introduction by Roz Kaveney, written especially for this edition.

Originally published in 1980, the legendary John M. Ford’s first published novel was an uncannily brilliant anticipation of the later cyberpunk genre - and of the internet itself. The Web links the many worlds of humanity. Most people can only use it to communicate. Some can retrieve and store data, as well as use simple precoded programs. Only a privileged few are able to create their own software, within proscribed limits. And then there are the Webspinners. Grailer is Fourth Literate, able to manipulate the Web at will - and use it for purposes unintended and impossible for anyone but the most talented Webspinner. Obviously, he cannot be allowed to live. Condemned to death at the age of nine, Grailer must go underground, hiding his skills, testing his powers- until he is ready to do battle with the Web itself. With a new introduction from Cory Doctorow, written especially for this edition.

With an introduction by Neil Gaiman, this is the first trade paperback publication of Aspects, the final work of one of the greatest science fiction and fantasy authors of all time, John M. Ford...

Matthias Ronay is a prodigy. He's talented, smart, imaginative, and he's never left the Moon. He dreams of more - of space, of adventure, of glory. Desperate to explore the galaxy further, he finds himself at odds with his father, Albin, a senior politician in the Lunar government. Albin has expectations for his son, for the legacy he has built on the Moon, and he expects Matthias to fall in line without question. While Matthias buries himself in computer games to simulate being anywhere but where he is, and Albin attempts to gain support for political plans that he wants to groom Matthias for, can they come to a solution that benefits them both? GROWING UP WEIGHTLESS is one of John M. Ford's last novels, and another triumph of writing.

Out of print for more than two decades, John M. Ford's Growing Up Weightless is an award-winning classic of a "lost generation" of young people born on the human-colonized Moon. Matthias Ronay has grown up in the low gravity and great glass citadels of independent Luna--and in the considerable shadow of his father, a member of the council that governs Luna's increasingly complex society. But Matt feels weighed down on the world where he was born, where there is no more need for exploration, for innovation, for radical ideas--and where his every movement can be tracked by his father on the infonets. Matt and five of his friends, equally brilliant and restless, have planned a secret adventure. They will trick the electronic sentinels, slip out of the city for a journey to Farside. Their passage into the expanse of perpetual night will change them in ways they never could have predicted...and bring Matt to the destiny for which he has yearned. With a new introduction by Francis Spufford, author of Red Plenty and Golden Hill. Tor Essentials presents new editions of science fiction and fantasy titles of proven merit and lasting value, each volume introduced by an appropriate literary figure.

The final, lost, masterpiece from one of the greatest fantasy writers of all time will be published at last.

From a snowbound inn, high in the Alps, four unlikely allies will turn against the might of Byzantium to secure the English throne for Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and make him Richard III. A noble Byzantine mercenary. A female Florentine physician. An ageless Welsh wizard. And Sforza, an uncanny duke. Together, they will alter the fate of millions . . . Available for the first time in nearly two decades, with a new introduction by New York Times-bestselling author Scott Lynch, The Dragon Waiting is a masterpiece of blood and magic. * * * * * * * * *'Had [John M. Ford] taken The Dragon Waiting and written a sequence of five books based in that world, with that power, he would've been George R. R. Martin' Neil Gaiman'The best mingling of histroy with historical magic that I have ever seen' Gene Wolfe

"The best mingling of history with historical magic that I have ever seen."--Gene Wolfe In a snowbound inn high in the Alps, four people meet who will alter fate. A noble Byzantine mercenary . . . A female Florentine physician . . . An ageless Welsh wizard . . . And Sforza, the uncanny duke. Together they will wage an intrigue-filled campaign against the might of Byzantium to secure the English throne for Richard, Duke of Gloucester--and make him Richard III. Available for the first time in nearly two decades, with a new introduction by New York Times-bestselling author Scott Lynch, The Dragon Waiting is a masterpiece of blood and magic. "Had John M. Ford] taken The Dragon Waiting and written a sequence of five books based in that world, with that power, he would've been George R. R. Martin." --Neil Gaiman

"The best mingling of history with historical magic that I have ever seen."--Gene Wolfe In a snowbound inn high in the Alps, four people meet who will alter fate. A noble Byzantine mercenary . . . A female Florentine physician . . . An ageless Welsh wizard . . . And Sforza, the uncanny duke. Together they will wage an intrigue-filled campaign against the might of Byzantium to secure the English throne for Richard, Duke of Gloucester--and make him Richard III. Available for the first time in nearly two decades, with a new introduction by New York Times bestselling author Scott Lynch, The Dragon Waiting is a masterpiece of blood and magic." Had John M. Ford] taken The Dragon Waiting and written a sequence of five books based in that world, with that power, he would've been George R. R. Martin." --Neil Gaiman

Krenn, a Klingon captain, faces a test of conscience, when he learns of a Klingon plan to destroy the Federation, in The Final Reflection, and when the discovery of an ancient scroll threatens the Klingon legend of Kahless, the present-day emperor Kahless clone turns to Picard and Worf for assistance in Kahless, in a new omnibus edition featuring two best-selling novels. Original. 12,500 first printing.

John M. Ford is an astonishingly versatile writer. He has written award-winning fantasy novels (The Dragon Waiting, winner of the 1984 World Fantasy Award), award-winning fantasy role-playing games (The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues), New York Times bestselling Star Trek novels (the classic The Final Reflection and How Much for Just the Planet), and the only poem to ever win the World Fantasy Award for best short fiction ("Winter Solstice, Camelot Station"). He is as at home writing sonnets as he is writing short stories or novels. Heat of Fusion and Other Stories collects stories and poems written over the course of two decades. It includes award winners and award nominees, as well as some rarities, amusements, and astonishments. Here are short stories such as "Chromatic Aberration," "Preflash," "Erase/Record/Play," and the title story, "Heat of Fusion," that take us from the near past to the near future, and on into worlds of wonder. And there are poems---the award-winner "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station," plus the amazing "Cosmology: A User's Manual," the rare "The Man in the Golden Mask," and the moving "110 Stories," which has never been published in book form. Twenty-two works in all, gifts from the talent that Robert Jordan calls "the best writer in America, bar none."

When Danny Holman leaves the cornfields of Iowa for the bright lights of Chicago, he expects his life to change. He just can't guess how much and how fast. A violent incident on the road brings Danny the favor of a man known only as Mr. Patrise, who gives Danny a job, a home, and a new identity. The City is a different world from the one Danny--now called Doc--knew, and literally so. Long-vanished powers have returned, and more is going on in the streets than nightlife and street warfare. Power is gathering: a power rooted in terror, madness, and death. To fight it will require Doc to face what he fears most. To defeat it will take something more than courage.