Heat of Fusion and Other Stories [Hardcover]

John M. Ford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2004

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."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These 23 stories and poems reaffirm Ford's position as one of SF's most versatile craftsmen. They range in tone from the playful "The Hemstitch Notebooks," with its musings on the perils of men shopping, to the stunningly serious "Chromatic Aberration," in which Ford invents new colors of the future while pondering the end of the ancient world. He also ponders death with Gene Wolfe elegance ("The Persecutor's Tale") and a dark wit worthy of Philip K. Dick ("Heat of Fusion" and "Preflash"). He deals admirably with a harrowing haunted house in "Tales from the Original Gothic," and brings life to the weary werewolf theme in "Shelter from the Storm." The misses are few: the too tongue-in-cheek "Erase/Record/Play: A Drama for Print" and the self-indulgent poems "The Lost Dialogue: A Reconstruction from Irrecoverable Sources" and "The Man in the Golden Mask." The best poems include the breathless science exercise "Cosmology: A User's Manual"; "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station," the only poem to win a World Fantasy Award for best short fiction; and the delightful "SF Cliches: A Sonnet Cycle," which reminds those in pursuit of immortality that "You do not want to live, who do not live." A 9/11-themed poem, "110 Stories," provides a fine closure to an excellent collection.
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About the Author

John M. Ford is the author of eight novels and dozens of short stories. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he is currently at work on a novel, Aspects, a fantasy with steam engines.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031285546X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312855468
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,939,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a diverse collection, April 22, 2004

By 

j-c-m - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heat of Fusion and Other Stories (Hardcover)

Heat of Fusion and Other Stories contains a mostly even mix of poetry and prose which should dispel any notion that John M. Ford is a "mere" fantasy/SF writer. There's a verse story in which D'Artagnan and company meet another famous swordsman, a stage play about memory, a solid rendition of the visions-of-death story, and many others. Whether reworking myths or writing of a future, Ford often leaves details understated, so stories reward multiple readings. Although some of the poems didn't do much for me, likely due to my lack of affinity for the form, they all seem well constructed. This book backs up the publisher's promise of versatility and then some.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor stories, worse poems., August 14, 2010

By 

D. Johnson (Quinnesec, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Heat of Fusion and Other Stories (Hardcover)

This is one of the worst collections of SF I've ever seen. The poems are the kind you'd expect from a prose author, the stories are what you'd expect from a poet. A mish-mash of discarded detritus, this book must have been published to fulfill a contractual obligation. Not worth the money, a poor showing from an author who is capable of much better.