John M. Ford

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-09-07

John Milo "Mike" Ford was born April 10, 1957, in East Chicago, Indiana, and raised in nearby Whiting. He attended Indiana University Bloomington in the mid-1970s, where he was active in science fiction fan and gaming clubs, and published his first short story in Analog magazine in May 1976. Around 1978, Ford moved to New York to work at Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, becoming one of its most frequent contributors between 1977 and 2002, before relocating to Minneapolis around 1990. Known for a sharp wit, he was celebrated on the science fiction convention circuit for improvised poetry, literary pastiches, and his comic "Ask Dr. Mike" panel appearances. Ford's major novels include The Dragon Waiting (1983), an acclaimed alternate-history fantasy combining vampires and Wars of the Roses-era English politics, which won the 1984 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel; the early cyberpunk novel Web of Angels (1980); and Growing Up Weightless (1993), which won the Philip K. Dick Award in 1993. His short story "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station" won a second World Fantasy Award in 1989. Ford was also a prolific contributor to tie-in fiction, writing Star Trek novels, and to tabletop role-playing games including GURPS and Paranoia, for which he wrote acclaimed supplementary material. He died September 25, 2006, in Minneapolis at age 49 from complications of diabetes and kidney failure, following a 2000 kidney transplant, leaving behind a body of work still admired for its stylistic range and inventiveness.

Universe(s)

Books

• The Dragon Waiting (1983) · The Dragon Waiting Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 1 book
• Award recognitions across all universes: 0 (None recorded)

← All authors