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{{creator}}
[[File:JohnMFord 2001 ddb.jpg|thumb|300px|John M. Ford in 2000]]
'''John
Probably his widely-known work is in a sense his least original -- two novels in the [[Star Trek Expanded Universe]], but even here he broke new ground: ''The Final Reflection'' is a historical novel of the early years of Federation-Klingon interaction, with a Klingon as its hero, and ''How Much For Just The Planet?'' is a musical comedy. He also co-wrote the Klingons sourcebook for FASA's ''Star Trek''
Ford's other work in the realm of RPG design includes several sourcebooks for ''[[GURPS]]'', and the classic ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'' supplement, ''The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues''.
Notable poems include the sonnet "[http://nielsenhayden.com/electrolite/archives/003789.html#29472 Against Entropy]" ("Regret, by definition, comes too late; / Say what you mean. Bear witness. Iterate."), the multi-award-winning narrative poem "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station", and the September 11 tribute "[http://nielsenhayden.com/110.html 110 Stories]".
And we haven't even scratched the surface of his original novels, which include ''Web of Angels'', which did [[Cyberpunk]] before cyberpunk was cool; ''The Princes of the Air'', a [[Space Opera]] featuring a trio of con men; ''The Dragon Waiting'', an [[Alternate History]] political thriller that won a World Fantasy award; ''The Scholars of Night'', a [[Cold War]] thriller; ''Growing Up Weightless'', a Philip K. Dick Award winner that's been described as one of the best Heinlein juveniles [[Robert Heinlein]] never wrote; and ''The Last Hot Time'', a [[The Windy City|Chicago]] gangster story set [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] in which half the characters are elves.
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=== John M. Ford's works provide examples of: ===▼
Not to be confused with director [[John Ford]].
▲----
* [[Actual Pacifist]]: The diplomat Emanuel Tagore in ''The Final Reflection''. This causes some confusion when Klingon security attempts to search his luggage for hidden weapons, and takes their inability to find any as a sign that he's hidden them really well.
* [[Against My Religion]]: In ''How Much for Just the Planet?'' we have McCoy explaining why he, Sulu, and two Klingons won't Kneel Before Zod (the evil queen Janeka):
{{quote|
* [[Alternate History]]: ''The Dragon Waiting''
* [[Amnesiac Dissonance]]: Self-inflicted in the short story "Erase/Record/Play", in which the scientists experimenting on prisoners in a concentration camp give everyone - victims, guards, and tormentors - the same experimental memory-wiping drug, and mix themselves into the general population to avoid punishment when the liberators come. They can't be coerced or tricked into revealing their guilt, because even they don't know if they're guilty.
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* [[Bizarre and Improbable Golf Game]]: ''How Much For Just The Planet?'' features one that involves land mines and artillery.
* [[Body Double]]: Queen Rachel in ''The Princes of the Air'' has several, of which at least one is an android and one is a male relative who has the same build and shares the distinctive family eye colour.
* [[Chained to
* [[Con Man]]: The heroes of ''The Princes of the Air''
* [[Crowd Song]]: In ''How Much For Just The Planet?'', the Direidians break out into crowd songs around the visiting Federation and Klingon diplomatic delegations on several occasions. It turns out that {{spoiler|it ''was'' all carefully rehearsed and planned out ahead of time, as part of the Direidian "plan C" to prevent either of the two sides from taking over their planet and disrupting their way of life}}.
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* [[In Spite of a Nail]]: In ''The Dragon Waiting'' Christianity never took hold in the Roman Empire, Constantinople didn't fall to the Turks, and France was partitioned between England and Byzantium sometime in the 12th century. The Wars of the Roses still seemingly happen exactly as they do in reality up through the crowning of Edward IV, with the exception of one relatively insignificant death.
* [[Light Bulb Joke]]: ''The Final Reflection'' has these in the form of "Rom Jokes", which Federation and Klingon crewmembers swap at a peace conference. The only one related to the reader is "How many Romulans does it take to change a transtator coil? Answer: 1 to change the coil, 150 to blow the ship up out of shame."
* [[Magic
* [[Meaningful Rename]]: All the human characters in ''The Last Hot Time'' have one in their backstory, except the protagonist, who being the [[Naive Newcomer]] gets his during the course of the story. (Interestingly, the narration continues to refer to him by his old name for a couple more chapters, until he's settled in to his new identity.)
* [[Must Have Caffeine]]: In ''How Much for Just the Planet?'' it's quickly established over breakfast that "Bones McCoy was not a morning person":
{{quote|
* [[Naive Newcomer]]: The protagonist of ''The Last Hot Time''
* [[No Waterproofing in
** Technically it's "no peppermint shake-proofing", but yeah.
* [[Pie in
{{quote|
''Splat.''
Blueberry it was. }}
* [[Public Domain Character]]: [[King Arthur]] and co. in "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station"
* [[Safe Word]]: Appears in ''The Last Hot Time'', as the hero learns about BDSM.
* [[Scrabble Babble]]: The short story "Scrabble With God" uses this trope with a twist. "It isn't that He cheats, exactly." But any word He plays is a real word -- even if it wasn't a minute ago. And He's not above ''un''creating things in order to be able to challenge His opponents' words, either...
* [[Sealed Badass in
* [[Smart People Play Chess]]: ''The Final Reflection'' reveals that Klingon military strategy is the province of military "thought admirals", who hone their skills in ''klin zha'' (Klingon chess). The (Klingon) protagonist's father, who is a thought admiral, also studies other races' equivalents of ''klin zha'', including the Human game "chess", to gain insight into the races that play them.
* [[Starbucks Skin Scale]]: In ''The Princes of the Air'' there's a scene where the protagonist and a woman he's interested in are having coffee together, and it's noted in passing that her skin tone matches the coffee-with-cream they're drinking.
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* [[Time for Plan B]]: In ''How Much for Just the Planet?'' the Diredei plan to stop the Federation and/or Klingons from exploiting their dilithium is called "Plan C". {{spoiler|There was no Plan A or B; C stands for the keystone of the plan: "Comedy".}}
* [[Treacherous Advisor]]: In ''The Dragon Waiting'':
{{quote|
"Yes, Professor, they are absolutely loyal to me," {{spoiler|Buckingham}} said, and signaled for his men to close the door. }}
* [[Tuckerization]]: ''The Final Reflection'' includes brief cameos by Klingons based on the co-authors of the Klingons sourcebook. Much of the supporting cast of ''How Much For Just The Planet?'' is based on Ford's friends and fellow authors, including [[Diane Duane]], [[Peter Morwood]], [[Neil Gaiman]], [[Pamela Dean]], and [[Janet Kagan]].
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{{reflist}}
{{World Fantasy Award Novel}}
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Creator Index]]
[[Category:Authors]]
▲[[Category:John M. Ford]]
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