[1] Johnson's writing career was launched with his first book of poetry, The Palanquin Ropes, which co-won the John Cowie Reid Memorial Competition in 1981.
[6] Because of its mixed genre nature, Johnson's work is not considered a part of mainstream New Zealand literature.
Dr David Dowling, writing in the prestigious Landfall magazine on Johnson's first novel, Lear, comments: ‘Johnson makes an original contribution to the literature of disaster, and certainly to the nation's literature that still struggles beneath the mantle of social realism; he does it by the sheer intensity of his poetic vision, combined with an adroit metafictional sense ...
'[8] Siobhan Harvey, prominent poet and critic, writes about Johnson's last book of poetry, To Beatrice Where We Cross the Line, 'A skilled practitioner at whatever literary craft he turns his hand to...Johnson is a writer at one with the word, its power, its airy finesses and everyday solidities, its resourcefulness, its craft.
'[9] Writing in the New Zealand Herald on Johnson's critically well-received English to English translations of the Dang Dynasty poet, Li He (The Vertical Harp – the selected poems of Li He) writer and critic Iain Sharp wrote: ‘Mike Johnson is the most underrated of all living New Zealand authors.
Paul Little described the book as, 'a door-stopping piece of dystopian fiction whose large and colourful cast includes the zombie-like driftdead of the title.