John M. Ford

Easton Press John M. Ford books

Growing Up Weightless - Signed First Edition of Science Fiction - 1993

 

Author John M. Ford

John M. Ford, born on April 10, 1957, in East Chicago, Indiana, was an American writer, poet, and game designer. Known for his versatility and talent across various literary genres, Ford made significant contributions to science fiction, fantasy, and role-playing games. Ford's early career involved writing science fiction and fantasy novels. He gained recognition for works such as Web of Angels (1980), The Princes of the Air (1982), and The Dragon Waiting (1983), the last of which won the World Fantasy Award.

Apart from his novels, Ford was a notable figure in the world of role-playing games. He contributed to various gaming systems and settings, including writing for the Star Trek and GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System) series. One of Ford's most acclaimed works is the novel Growing Up Weightless (1993), which won the Philip K. Dick Award. He also wrote under the pseudonym Judith Moffett, creating science fiction works like Pennterra (1987) and the Holy Ground trilogy. John M. Ford was known for his unique and experimental approach to storytelling, often blending genres and pushing the boundaries of traditional narrative forms. His writing style showcased a deep understanding of language, culture, and history, making his works engaging and intellectually stimulating.

Tragically, John M. Ford passed away on September 25, 2006, at the age of 49. His death marked the loss of a talented and imaginative writer whose contributions to speculative fiction and gaming continue to be remembered and appreciated by fans and fellow authors.

 

Growing Up Weightless

Talented, imaginative, and self-confident, Matthias Ronay has never known any life but that on the moon, and he clashes with his brilliant politician father, Albin Ronay, in an attempt to change his future.

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.

Matthias Ronay is a prodigy. He's talented, smart, imaginative, and he's never left the Moon. Desperate to explore the galaxy further, he finds himself at odds with his father, Albin, a senior politician in the Lunar government. While Matthias buries himself in computer games, and Albin attempts to gain support for political plans, 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.

It's not that Matt Ronay, the protagonist of this novel, is weightless; it's just that he lives on the Moon, and he has the ability to flow gracefully through the low gravity. There's a figurative weightless to the story as well, that of Ronay's life and decisions he faces growing up as an adolescent in lunar society. Ronay, a brilliant youth, takes a trip to distant city, acts in theater and dreams of flight to far-off worlds. His father, a leader in lunar politics, doesn't always understand, though he may have had some of the same yearnings as his son. This imaginative novel won the 1994 Philip K. Dick Award.