Next SFF Author: John M. Ford

Previous SFF Author: Matt Forbeck

SFF Author: Jeffrey Ford

(1955- )
Jeffrey Ford used to be a professor of writing and early American literature but now writes full time. His novel The Physiognomy won the 1998 World Fantasy Award and was a New York Times notable book of the year. The Girl in the Glass won the Edgar Award and The Shadow Year won the Shirley Jackson Award. Jeffrey Ford lives in Ohio with his wife. Learn more at Jeffrey Ford’s website

The Physiognomy: Sometimes brilliant, always bizarre

The Physiognomy by Jeffrey Ford

Physiognomist Cley has been sent by Master Drachton Below, the evil genius who constructed the Well-Built City, to the faraway mining district of Anamasobia to investigate the theft of a fruit that’s rumored to have grown in the Earthly Paradise and to have supernatural powers. Upon arriving, the skeptical and arrogant physiognomist finds a whole town of morons whose physical features clearly indicate that they are all backward and generally pathetic. Except for Arla, whose beautiful features suggest that she is intelligent and competent, and who seems to understand the science of physiognomy (even though that’s impossible because she’s a woman).

Memoranda: Original and thought-provoking

Memoranda by Jeffrey Ford

In waking from a dream, we obliterate worlds, and in calling up a memory, we return the dead to life again and again only to bring them face to face with annihilation as our attention shifts to something else.

After the destruction of the Well-Built City (detailed in The Physiognomy), Physiognomist Cley has been living in a village in the wilderness, acting as herbalist and midwife. One day a mechanical bird, obviously built by evil Master Drachton Below, arrives in the village,

The Beyond: Not as inventive as its predecessors

The Beyond by Jeffrey Ford

The Beyond is the last book in Jeffrey Ford’s WELL-BUILT CITY trilogy. This bizarre story began with The Physiognomy in which Cley, an arrogant and cruel physiognomist, is sent by the evil ruler Drachton Below on a mission to the mining town of Anamasobia. While there, Cley makes a bad decision which destroys the beautiful face of Arla, the woman he has fallen in love with. This humbles and devastates Cley (drastically changing his personality for the better) and leads to the destruction of Drachton Below’s Well-Built City.

Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Jeffrey Ford | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Portrait of Mrs Charbuque: Couldn’t put it down

The Portrait of Mrs Charbuque by Jeffrey Ford

The best thing about being my own master when it comes to choosing what I want to read is that when I read a book I really want to talk about I can without feeling like I have to put aside any other obligations, and I really want to talk about The Portrait of Mrs Charbuque.

Piero Piambo, a portrait artist in New York in 1893, is currently in fashion and as a result also in high demand.

The Empire of Ice Cream: Dynamic range and dynamic prose

The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford

Emerging in the late morning of an overcast day (one novel in 1988 and a handful of short stories over the decade that followed), there was not much indication Jeffrey Ford would become as prolific as he has. In 1997 he produced THE WELL-BUILT CITY trilogy which did well critically, but was not a commercial success. A deluge of short fiction followed, however, and since 2000 he has produced more than ninety stories amidst a couple of novels.

The Drowned Life: Each and every story is rich

The Drowned Life by Jeffrey Ford

Jeffrey Ford‘s The Drowned Life is as engrossing as his previous short story collections, immediately ensnaring the reader with his detailed prose and characterization. One noticeable trend is that while Ford dabbles in clear-cut fantasy with stories such as “The Manticore Spell” or “The Dismantled Invention of Fate,” much of his work deals more with the mundane sprinkled with just the right amounts of magic and the surreal. The titular piece for example, “The Drowned Life,” seems like the narrative of the common Joe,

The Shadow Year: Little slices of life

The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford

The Shadow Year is a charming coming-of-age tale about the 6th grade year of an average American boy (we never learn his name) growing up in the 1960s. This year isn’t average, though, because there are some strange things going on in his small town. As he navigates his way around mundane matters such as an alcoholic manic depressive mother, a father who holds down three jobs, live-in grandparents, and unpleasant teachers, he’s also concerned with a prowler, a classmate who disappeared,

The Urban Fantasy Anthology: Not what I expected it to be

The Urban Fantasy Anthology edited by Peter S. Beagle & Joe R. Lansdale

It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of most urban fantasy. I tend to find problems with almost every urban fantasy book I’ve tried to read. When I got this book in the mail, I kind of rolled my eyes and shot it to the top of my “to be read” pile so I could get it over with fast. I didn’t expect to actually enjoy this book. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d open this anthology and think,

Sarah Chorn´s rating: 4 | Carrie Vaughn, Charles De_Lint, Emma Bull, Francesca Lia Block, Holly Black, Jeffrey Ford, Joe R. Lansdale, Kelley Armstrong, Neil Gaiman, Patricia Briggs, Peter S. Beagle, Steven R. Boyett, Suzy McKee Charnas, Tim Powers | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Ahab’s Return: A well-crafted novel that didn’t quite compel

Ahab’s Return: or, The Last Voyage by Jeffrey Ford

Ahab’s Return: or, The Last Voyage (2018), by Jeffrey Ford, is a Locus finalist for fantasy novels, so one should keep that in mind while taking in this review, as I take a somewhat (though only somewhat) lesser view of the novel. Which happens to me surprisingly often with awards outside the Booker; probably something else to keep in mind.

The titular character is indeed that Captain Ahab of Moby Dick fame,

Magazine Monday: Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2012

The novella is the ideal length for a science fiction story. It’s long enough to allow a reader to become immersed in a scene and involved with the characters; and it’s short enough to allow a reader to suspend disbelief as to the more unscientific or strange aspects of a story without questioning them too closely. Kate Wilhelm’s “The Fullness of Time,” which forms the backbone of the July/August issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, is a fine illustration of the strengths of the novella form.

Magazine Monday: Subterranean Magazine, Winter 2014

The Winter 2014 issue of Subterranean Magazine was edited by guest editor Jonathan Strahan, the editor of a popular year’s best anthology and a number of other anthologies. He has good taste, as the stories chosen for this issue demonstrate — with the exception of the longest and last piece, a snarky bit of irreligious, virtually plotless prose by Bruce Sterling (about which more below).

“The Scrivener” by Eleanor Arnason is structured as a fairy tale often is, with three daughters each setting out on an errand prescribed by their father.

SHORTS: Howey, Yeh, Bolander, Ford, Sullivan, Smith

There is so much free or inexpensive short fiction available on the internet these days. Here are a few stories we’ve recently read that we wanted you to know about.

“Peace in Amber” by Hugh Howey (2014, $1.99 Kindle, $3.95 Audible)

“Peace in Amber” is Hugh Howey’s tribute to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, a surrealistic novel in which Vonnegut explores his personal memories of the bombing of Dresden. Like Slaughterhouse-Five, “Peace in Amber” is also a personal reflection: Hugh Howey’s experiences on September 11,

SHORTS: Bolander, Goss, Le Guin, Liu, Ford, Jemisin

SHORTS is our regular short fiction review column (previously SFM or Short Fiction Monday). In today’s column we review several more of the 2019 Locus award nominees in the short fiction categories.

No Flight Without the Shatter by Brooke Bolander (2018, free at Tor.com; 99c Kindle version). 2019 Locus award nominee (novelette).

No Flight Without the Shatter brings together Linnea and her Aunties Ben, Dora, and Martha at the end of the world. Linnea is recognizably human,

The Green Man: Read it slowly

The Green Man edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

In fairy tales, whenever someone journeys into the forest, you just know something strange is about to occur and that the protagonist’s life is going to be changed forever. The same is true of the stories and poems featured in The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest. With this collection, editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling kicked off a series of young adult anthologies, each devoted to a particular theme. Here, the theme is wild nature,

Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Charles De_Lint, Delia Sherman, Ellen Datlow, Emma Bull, Gregory Maguire, Jane Yolen, Jeffrey Ford, Midori Snyder, Neil Gaiman, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Patricia McKillip, Tanith Lee, Terri Windling | Short Fiction, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Salon Fantastique: More uneven than most of Datlow and Windling’s anthologies

Salon Fantastique: Fifteen Original Tales of Fantasy by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling

Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling are the two greatest short fiction editors of fantasy and horror of our time. Their annual collections of the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror provided us, for 16 straight years, with the best short genre and slipstream fiction from all sources. Their anthologies have defined cutting edge fantasy.

Salon Fantastique is more uneven than most of Datlow and Windling’s collections.

Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology

Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology edited by James Patrick Kelly & John Kessel

Is there really any difference between post-modernism, interstitial fiction, slipstream and New Weird? Does anyone know? James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel try to outline the boundaries of slipstream with their anthology, Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, particularly by including a learned introduction and excerpts from a discussion that took place on the subject on a blog a few years ago. Ultimately, like so many things literary,

Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Bruce Sterling, James Patrick Kelly, Jeff VanderMeer, Jeffrey Ford, John Kessel, Jonathan Lethem, Karen Joy Fowler, Kelly Link, Michael Chabon, Ted Chiang, Theodora Goss | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume One

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume One edited by Jonathan Strahan

My first and foremost complaint — and this is really a quibble more than anything else — is that the title doesn’t tell you what year this anthology belongs to. Which isn’t really a problem if you bought it recently but in case you find in the bookstore bin several years down the line, it’s nice to know what era this collection represents (in case you don’t know the answer, the book was printed in 2007). With that out of the way,

The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2007

The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2007

In many ways, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2007 anthology is a difficult book to review. For one thing, to me and a lot of my reading/writing circle, this is easily the definitive bible when it comes to short stories of the genre. For another, many of the stories that are included in this collection have been featured in other anthologies as well, so there’s an overlap in terms of stories featured. But I’ll try and talk about what makes this anthology unique from other similar anthologies.

Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 4 | Catherynne M. Valente, Daniel Abraham, Delia Sherman, Elizabeth Hand, Ellen Datlow, Garth Nix, Jeffrey Ford, Kelly Link, Kij Johnson, Lisa Tuttle, Ted Chiang | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales

The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales is another thematic fantasy anthology by the trio of Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, and Charles Vess. Coyote Road features twenty-six pieces of fiction and poetry. Each story is preceded by art by Vess and ends with a short bio and afterword from the author. In the Introduction, Windling gives us an extensive account of trickster tales around the world.

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Two

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Two edited by Jonathan Strahan

The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Two is one of several anthologies that collects the best science fiction and fantasy of 2007. I’ve read many of the stories included, yet revisiting them actually made me appreciate them more rather than feel exhausted. One thing I noticed is that there’s a stronger science fiction balance in this anthology compared to the previous volume, although that might also be because the lines between science fiction and fantasy easily get blurry.

The Living Dead: Zombies aren’t the point

The Living Dead edited by John Joseph Adams

I never knew there were so many ways to tell a zombie story. I pretty much thought that the George Romero version was it — dead people wandering around holding their arms out in front of them and calling out “braaaaaaains,” looking to munch on the living. I never did know why they had to hold their arms that way, but they all did — I thought.

John Joseph Adams has chosen his material wisely in The Living Dead,

Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Clive Barker, George R.R. Martin, Harlan Ellison, Jeffrey Ford, Joe Hill, Joe R. Lansdale, Kelly Link, Laurell K. Hamilton, Neil Gaiman, Robert Silverberg, Stephen King | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology

The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology by Gordon Van Gelder (ed.)

The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology is an excellent collection of 23 stories picked from the treasure trove of short fiction that’s been published in the eponymous magazine over the past 60 years. Editor Gordon Van Gelder — also the editor of the magazine since 1997 — has done an admirable job, picking stories that illustrate the diversity of both the genre and the magazine.

Stefan Raets´s rating: 4.5 | Harlan Ellison, Jeffrey Ford, John Kessel, Michael Swanwick, Neil Gaiman, Peter S. Beagle, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, Roger Zelazny, Stephen King, Ursula K. Le-Guin | Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Book of Dreams: A small but satisfying collection

The Book of Dreams edited by Nick Gevers

The Book of Dreams is a small but satisfying collection of short stories that are thematically, albeit loosely, connected by the theme of “dreams.” The book features original stories by Robert Silverberg, Lucius Shepard, Jay Lake, Kage Baker and Jeffrey Ford, and was edited by Nick Gevers for Subterranean Press.

Somewhat surprisingly,

The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm

The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling

The Faery Reel is an indispensable tome for anyone who has a mania for faeries. Aside from the short stories in this anthology, the comprehensive introduction of Terri Windling on the fey and the illustrations by Charles Vess are worth the price of admission in themselves. Moreover, the last few pages feature a Further Reading section on the topic of faeries. The typography of the book is appropriate to the faery theme and makes the text quite readable.

Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded

Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded is the second steampunk anthology edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, following 2008’s first installment. It contains about twice as many stories as its predecessor, but unlike the first collection the quality is more uneven here, resulting in a less impressive but still fascinating anthology that should please fans of the genre.

While the first anthology only contained one story I was less than happy with, there are at least four or five in Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded that I could have done without.

Stefan Raets´s rating: 3.5 | Caitlín R. Kiernan, Catherynne M. Valente, Cherie Priest, Daniel Abraham, Jeff VanderMeer, Jeffrey Ford, Lisa Mantchev, Margo Lanagan, Stephen Baxter, William Gibson | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 14 comments |

The Secret History of Fantasy: Stories that redefine the genre

The Secret History of Fantasy edited by Peter S. Beagle

The basic premise of the SECRET HISTORY anthologies (there’s also a science fiction one, The Secret History of Science Fiction, which I haven’t read) is that there’s a type of writing that got missed or buried because other things were more popular, more commercial, or dodged the spec-fic labeling. Certainly that’s the thrust of Peter S. Beagle‘s introduction, and the two other non-fiction pieces by Ursula K. Le Guin and editor David G.

Mike Reeves-McMillan´s rating: 4 | Francesca Lia Block, Gregory Maguire, Jeffrey Ford, Jonathan Lethem, Kij Johnson, Maureen McHugh, Michael Swanwick, Neil Gaiman, Patricia McKillip, Peter S. Beagle, Robert Holdstock, Stephen King, Susanna Clarke, Terry Bisson, Ursula K. Le-Guin | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Supernatural Noir: A Datlow anthology

Supernatural Noir edited by Ellen Datlow

Ellen Datlow suggests in her introduction to Supernatural Noir that noir fiction and supernatural fiction, with its roots in the gothic, have a lot in common. The main character in each tends to be a hard-living guy, usually down to his last flask of scotch, haunted by a sexy dame whose middle name is trouble. So it seemed natural to her to combine the two genres for an original anthology.

Despite my general rule that any anthology edited by Ellen Datlow is one I want to read,

Terry Weyna´s rating: 5 | Caitlín R. Kiernan, Elizabeth Bear, Ellen Datlow, Gregory Frost, Jeffrey Ford, Joe R. Lansdale, John Langan, Laird Barron, Nick Mamatas | Horror, Shirley Jackson Award | SFF Reviews | no comments |

After: Like panning for gold

After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia by editors Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling

When I saw the new Datlow and Windling anthology After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia, I was so excited. I love YA fiction, I love dyslit, I love short story anthologies and I love Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling as editors, so I figured it was a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, my reading experience didn’t live up to my expectations.

After is an anthology of short stories set after.

Ruth Arnell´s rating: 2.5 | Caitlín R. Kiernan, Carrie Ryan, Ellen Datlow, Garth Nix, Genevieve Valentine, Gregory Maguire, Jane Yolen, Jeffrey Ford, Katherine Langrish, N.K. Jemisin, Nalo Hopkinson, Richard Bowes, Sarah Rees Brennan, Terri Windling | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Oz Reimagined: You might not even find yourself in Oz

Oz Reimagined edited by John Joseph Adams

Oz Reimagined is a collection of tales whose characters return as often, if not more often, to the “idea” of Oz as opposed to the actual Oz many of us read about as kids (or adults) and even more of us saw in the famed MGM version of the film. As its editors, John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen, say in their introduction: “You might not even find yourself in Oz, though in spirit, all these stories take place in Oz,

Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Charles Coleman (C.C.) Finlay, Jane Yolen, Jeffrey Ford, Jonathan Maberry, Kat Howard, Ken Liu, Orson Scott Card, Rachel Swirsky, Seanan McGuire, Simon R. Green, Tad Williams, Theodora Goss | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination: For a dose of crazy genius

The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination edited by John Joseph Adams

The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination is the latest themed anthology edited by John Joseph Adams — and it’s another good one. This time, Adams has collected a set of short stories featuring the hero’s (or often superhero’s) traditional antagonist: the mad genius, the super-villain, the brilliant sociopath who wants to remold the world in his own image — or occasionally, maybe, just be left alone in his secret lair to conduct spine-tingling experiments that,

Stefan Raets´s rating: 3.5 | Alan Dean Foster, Austin Grossman, Ben H. Winters, Carrie Vaughn, David D. Levine, David Farland, Diana Gabaldon, Genevieve Valentine, Harry Turtledove, Jeffrey Ford, L.A. Banks, L.E. Modesitt_Jr, Laird Barron, Marjorie M. Liu, Mary Robinette Kowal, Naomi Novik, Seanan McGuire, Theodora Goss | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

The Monstrous: You can’t go wrong with Datlow

The Monstrous edited by Ellen Datlow

Whenever I see Ellen Datlow’s name as editor on the cover of an anthology, I know I’m in good hands. Datlow has a made a thirty-plus year career of choosing good stories and developing collections that take different aims at the theme. The theme of The Monstrous is monsters, and Datlow makes sure to explore all facets of that word with this mostly-reprint anthology from Tachyon Press.

There are twenty stories in the book. One is original to the anthology.

Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | A.C. Wise, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Carole Johnstone, Ellen Datlow, Gardner Dozois, Gemma Files, Glen Hirshberg, Jeffrey Ford, John Langan, Peter Straub, Sofia Samatar | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Next SFF Author: John M. Ford

Previous SFF Author: Matt Forbeck

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SFF Author: Jeffrey Ford

The Physiognomy: Sometimes brilliant, always bizarre

Memoranda: Original and thought-provoking

The Beyond: Not as inventive as its predecessors

The Portrait of Mrs Charbuque: Couldn’t put it down

The Empire of Ice Cream: Dynamic range and dynamic prose

The Drowned Life: Each and every story is rich

The Shadow Year: Little slices of life

The Urban Fantasy Anthology: Not what I expected it to be

Ahab’s Return: A well-crafted novel that didn’t quite compel

Magazine Monday: Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2012

Magazine Monday: Subterranean Magazine, Winter 2014

SHORTS: Howey, Yeh, Bolander, Ford, Sullivan, Smith

SHORTS: Bolander, Goss, Le Guin, Liu, Ford, Jemisin

The Green Man: Read it slowly

Salon Fantastique: More uneven than most of Datlow and Windling’s anthologies

Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume One

The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2007

The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Two

The Living Dead: Zombies aren’t the point

The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology

The Book of Dreams: A small but satisfying collection

The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm

Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded

The Secret History of Fantasy: Stories that redefine the genre

Supernatural Noir: A Datlow anthology

After: Like panning for gold

Oz Reimagined: You might not even find yourself in Oz

The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination: For a dose of crazy genius

The Monstrous: You can’t go wrong with Datlow

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