Slashdot Mirror
RIP: Charles Sheffield
uberdood writes "Dr. Charles Sheffield, noted for such SF works as the Heritage Universe series, Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Higher Education, The Ganymede Club, Brothers to Dragons, Cold As Ice, and The Mind Pool, has died of brain cancer at the age of 67. Sheffield will be remembered for colorful characters such as McAndrew - and the wealth of short stories that helped make SF pulp rags so enjoyable. More information can be found via the Washington Post article. One of my favorite authors, dammit."
At least he was able to live his life to the fullest.. or as full as any human can
Charles Sheffield was a man who did everything we all wanted to do.
He took the usual path of life, went and got a job, got married, and had children. But when he turned 40 and was in Iran doing business for a huge multinational corporation, something in him snapped -- and after reading a Sci-Fi novel, he decided to become a writer himself.
He left his high-paying job, and later his wife left him because he couldn't pay the bills. After miserable failure, he still persisted, and eventually got published and became a famous and respected Sci-Fi writer.
He's gone now, but at least he didn't go through the last years of his life a zombie like everyone else: an overworked corporate zombie with a wife for show, someone who, on the inside, is truly happy but is too afraid to challenge it.
Let's be honest - he was only 67. He didn't get to live his life to the fullest. His life was taken from him by a brain tumor. If you follow his news on his web site or any of various places he published his thoughts, he still had a lot of writing ahead of him.
I met him years ago and he seemed far younger than his actual age. He was a brilliant man and an author who deserved far more recognition than he received. Sheffield was, perhaps, THE finest writer of SCIENCE fiction during his time. He carried a regular job as Chief Scientist at the Earth Sciences Corporation and was more prolific than most full time writers. In a field that barely pays a fair rate for adult novels, he also wrote short stories and novels for young adults. His name should have been ranked with Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke.
Perhaps now that he's gone the SF community will realize what they've lost - or perhaps they'll just go back to reading Star Wars and Star Trek books.
Kermit
I appreciate that this man has made significant contributions to Science Fiction, however, I really don't want to use headline space for every person who dies who is of interest to the Slashdot crew. Actresses, potentially transgendered computer sciences (remember that one?), etc.
And generally, a great deal of disrespect is generated with stories, such as these. A spinning grave icon, indeed. But this isn't news for nerds.
For those of you who haven't read his books, you have a treat coming. Many of them are available in open etext formats at http://www.webscription.net as part of Baen Books' wonderful webscriptions. His latest novel "Resurgence" just showed up in full there two weeks ago, and I have my usual library-donation hardcopy sitting on my desk as I type this.
I think there's a difference between brain-cancer and a brain tumor. A brain tumor is a mass solid lump of cancerous cells that is actually removable by surgery if caught in time. cancer in itself isn't always identitfied by a tumor, and therefore may exist simply in an area or the body, without growing into a mass of solid cancerous tissue.
This may be what Sheffield died from. Brain cancer.
"It's not a tumor"
*p.s. don't think me a coward, I just don't have the time to register at this moment! Feel free to email me back at cybergothgirlie@yahoo.com*
Sandra
Brother to Dragons was a great book, the first and only fiction I've been able to read over and over.
Damn.
You're not heretical-you probably lacked many basic nutrients in your diet.
I am not an American, but not to consider a man who was a renowned scientist and science-fiction writer an American icon means that you must have been abducted by aliens 40 years ago, forced to watch only US commercials, Tony Blair footage and Ally McBeal having a romantic fit, to see how long would your neuronal structures survive to this onslaught!!!
He was so kind to grant me a special authorisation to copy an out of print book of his, Trader's World, as I was using it in a graduate course I was teaching in an American university.
Had more Americans read this book, probably there would be by now a different administration in the White House, as it is a novel that furthers tolerance and understanding, rather than sending in the Special Forces to solve international conflicts...
Of my 18 bright graduates students not a single one thought he was not a very good writer [and they didn't even know what he had achieved as a scientist an a technologist].
Thufir Hawat
Part-time Mentat
What do you call cancer found in other parts of the body? Here (the US) we say lung cancer, throat cancer, skin cancer, etc. While I personally don't know, I just can't see people saying throat tumor or skin tumor, but that may just be the American in me, :P. Sure, I've seen the term "brain tumor" used here in the US but it seems to have been supplanted with the cancer label, as I have not seen any type of cancerous condition referred to as tumors anytime recently. Perhaps the label change has something to do with the whole political correctness movement that has had such a huge impact on the way we speak, but I don't know. Because I know next to nothing about modern medicine, perhaps there is another reason this label changed from tumor to cancer...?
Getting back on topic, I agree his death is truly a great loss and a shame.
As a long-time fan of his McAndrew stories (I'm in the middle of "The Compleat McAndrew" right now), this really saddens me. With these stories, Dr. Sheffield showed that he really knew how to take an esoteric scientific subject (like Kerr-Newman black holes) and explain it in layman terms (through McAndrew trying to explain it to Captain Roker). I haven't read any of his other works, but if they're as good as the McAndrew stuff, I'm probably missing out on some good stuff.
Windows is the Acme of computing -- in the Wile E. Coyote sense.
I'm not very widely read when it comes to SF, and I can honestly say I'd never heard of Charles Sheffield before I saw this article. Now that I know about him, though, I'll be sure to look him up at the bookstore.
As long as we're talking about SF authors, I can recommend two authors you may not have read: Alfred Bester and Greg Egan. Bester's two most well-known novels are The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination, which really are great classics from the 50s. Egan is a current writer; his books involve a lot of nanotech and quantum physics (some of it even comprehensible), like Permutation City and Diaspora, although I would really recommend Diaspora as his best book so far.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Just want to say that Tomorrow and Tomorrow was a damn fine book. Shame that such a skilled and imaginative SF writer had to leave us.
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
It may be a difference of US/UK usage, but I've worked with a lot of British biologists and never noticed it that way.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
I just heard the news on slashdot -- noted SF author Dr. Charles Sheffield, died of brain cancer. No other details were available (unless you clicked on the washington post link!).
Even if you didn't enjoy his books such as "Tomorrow and Tomorrow", "Higher Education", and "The Ganymede Club" (not to be confused with "The Gay Men Club"!), you probably enjoyed watching his son, Gary Sheffield, help the Florida Marlins win the world series. Truly a geek icon.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Dr. Sheffield continued to work with Earth Satellite Corporation after he turned 40 and his mathematical work was the basis for a lot of Earthsat's early success. He's definitely made a mark in the geology/remote sensing community. Mr. Doug Hall, CEO of Earthsat, sent out a very moving e-mail addressing the man's achievements, which I don't think would be appropriate to post here. Maybe Chris Peterson, of Earthsat, is a slashdotter and could comment further. In answer to the troll above, don't bother. You're obviously far too dumb to know much about geology or the widely varied disciplines Dr. Charles Sheffield worked in. Reminds me of my own field of study, Materials Science. You've probably never heard of that either.
[-)
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
But I fancied myself more as a Rocket Queen, anyways.
Oh, and did you know that there's actually a metal tribute album to ABBA?
Rock on!
Right or wrong, icon would imply being prominent in the public eye. Dr. Sheffield was brilliant. He was known and respected in the sciences as well as the science fiction circles. I have no doubt that he treated you and everyone he came in contact with kindly.
But, he was not "pop culture." He was not a Hollywood name. He was not a Spice Girl or a member of N'Sync. He didn't have music videos. He didn't do a posthumous duet with Elvis or John Lennon. (Well at least he didn't voluntarily do one during his lifetime.) He didn't appear on Leno or American Bandstand. He didn't host Saturday Night Live (well he might have, but nobody's watched it in the last 10 years anyway.)
I am not saying that these are good things. I'm just listing off the crap required to be an "American Icon (TM)" in the true P.T. Barnum tradition of "never underestimating the taste of the American public."
(And is caffeine a basic nutrient or a food group?)
John
Science Fiction. I have to take the chance that you are actually asking a legit question here, and I noticed that you had been modded down to 0 Troll.
I just discovered Dr. Sheffield's marvelous writing two weeks ago. I have been getting back to massive consumption of SF, after a 10 year break while I raised my son who is now 20. One can't read a book a night when a single parent. So lately, I have been looking for fresh new hard sf. The first book I read was not fiction. It was "The Borderlands of Science". I followed that with several of his Jupiter Novels. I very much enjoyed his writing. To bad Science has not advanced far enough to provide better solutions to cancer.
I've only read a little of his work. A SFBC compilation called "The Proteus Manifest". It contains Sight of Proteus and Proteus Unbound.
I actually got it as a filler during one of the times I've joined the Club in the past 25 years.
I've read and enjoyed it several times but never took the time to read any of his other work. I suppose I will now.
R.I.P.
Ursula Andress, Catherine Deneuve, and Charo, twice...
Kind of a neat way to honor an author you admire, doncha think?
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
So, here's my question: Does anyone who has read him have a suggestion on which book would be a good one as a first read? Not necesarrily his best (as that might include his series) but a single novel or collection that would give me a feel for his work and let me know if I would like to dig further into his collected works.
Thanks
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
I read several of Sheffield's novels in middle school; although I loved his books, I thought that he was just some obscure author that nobody else knew about. Flash forward many years...imagine my surprise when I happened to stumble upon this headline on Slashdot.. I had no idea that he was such a prolific and amazing individual. Rest in peace, Mr. Sheffield.
In any case, Locus Magazine has acknowledged the fact and dedicated a link to it. If you have a favorite who has passed away recently, you might want to look there and then click on their obituaries. You just might discover something you didn't know about your favorite author.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Sheffied was a worthy contributor to the "hard" science fiction genre. One of his most famous works, The Web Between The Worlds, came out within weeks of Arthur C. Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise, both of which championed the idea of a space elevator, then an virtually unknown concept. Clarke and Sheffield, in very different styles, brought this concept to a wide audience. This coincidence was to be referenced by Kim Stanley Robinson in his superb Mars series, for which Sheffield is credited as a major influence. In Red Mars, the elevator is tethered at a city called Sheffield, and the wieght at the other end is called Clarke.
Sheffield's books were thought provoking and often humourous - I'm convinced the character of Bat, introduced in Cold of Ice, is more than a little inspired by the same characters that brought us "Comic Store Guy" in the Simpsons, for instance. But themes from drug use, the use and abuse of genetics, as well as the basic generic science and technology standard for everyone in this field, haunt his novels and are investigated in ways rarely seen elsewhere.
This is a great loss to science fiction. Charles Sheffield was an original one-of-a-kind thinker, who wrote books anyone could enjoy. RIP, Charles Sheffield.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Charles Sheffield is dead. He died (most probably, brain tumors almost always are) a horrible death. He had lived through some very hard times (especially given that his first wife died of cancer) and nevertheless managed to be a successful author and a very respectable scientist - surpassing me and 99% of the /. readers when it comes to such things as experience, intelligence, creativity, academic skills and success in life. One of the saddest things probably is that he still had much potential and that is now lost forever. (Well the saddest thing is that some people have to die so horribly so soon and with all our technology we still can't do anything about it.)
So what the f*ck is going on here? In this thread I see ACs trolling and flaming all over the place. Allright, maybe you haven't read his works but so what? What's wrong with you people, if anything else doesn't matter to you then there is still the matter that someone is actually dead! Where is the respect for that? Whether you have read his stories or not, whether you liked them or not, this is a sad loss. (And yes, I know that other people die, too, and that's also a loss.)
For what it's worth:
Charles Sheffield remarried Nancy Kress, a very talented SF writer in her own right.
I came across his writing in Analog, as usual. Higher Learning is the first one that made me remember his name.
He didn't have any books in the current batch of books in the Baen Free Library, but there are a few Borderlands of Science columns at Baen.com
I wouldn't exactly call Analog a "plup rag".
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
John, I hear you.
Hopefully I may be forgiven for believing, possibly because of my wobbly English, that you were actually being unfair to him. This is what I thought deserved a dissenting voice.
Your vivid description of an "American icon" seems to me quite truthful-being an "American icon" does not seem anything to write home about, though...
[And yes, it looks like your pals are more powerful than mine, as your karma gets bumped up so much, whilst I have to struggle to get a miserly 2...].
Also, I believe that caffeine is a basic nutrient, but it might be considered a food group on the sole condition that the user be a night-prowling hardcore geek. Unfortunately I don't qualify...
Thufir Hawat
Part-time Mentat
I was most pleased to hear of your marriage some years after I met Charles at the ConAdian World SF Convention in Winnipeg in 1994. I believe it was Oscar Wilde who described second (or in this case third) marriages as "the triumph of hope over experience", and I wish you and your stepchildren well. I only met him once and spoke with him for about ten minutes, but I enjoyed everything he wrote and published, including his on-line autobiography. Our thoughts are with you.
I've been a sf fan over 35 years now- since I was 10, and since the late '70s Charles Sheffield's work has been a constant favorite. I first became aware of his stories reading Analog- he had several of his early novels serialized [Proteus Unbound, Between the Strokes of Night], and quite a few shorter length works [the individual Trader's World & McAndrew stories] in it during early years of his career
Having read almost all of his sf titles, I unequivocally state that Sheffield offered a rare blend of unique extrapolations of current science & technology with interesting & well-paced plots.
I was lucky enough to meet & talk with him at a number of east cost sf cons over the last few years, at which he was a regular panelist and reader. Impressive, to say the least. If you like any kind of science-y sf, then I recommend you read any Sheffield you can get your mitts on!
My sympathies to his family, friends and fans.
silent lurker
There's also that keyword there, "malignant". There are benign, non-cancerous tumors as well, and while they aren't a good thing by anybody's definition, they're not cancerous either.
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
Truth is, I was kinda scared when I saw the message about your reply at my message center ("But I know Robinson must've acknowledged him somewhere!"). Human nature to assume the worst, I guess. :)
Odd, that I never thought to call those books "beautiful," and yet they absolutely are. You hit the nail right on the head. It's a shame that there aren't more works that deserve that label.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
fuck you rocket queen
SexyKellyOsborne Is A Troll (fuck you, i dont care if i spelled your name wrong whore)
My heart plunged as I read the Slashdot headline. Sheffield was one of the greats. I always looked forward to reading a new short story or novel of his.
Not since Heinlein has there been an author who so successfully pulled off the "SF for teenagers" sub-genre. Sure the plots were re-hashes, or, more charitably, tributes, but darn it they were good clean fun. Well plotted, characters you cared about, and great settings - you can't ask for more than that.
So long Doc. I'll miss you.
I am very good friends with his daughter Ann. She was with him quite a lot these past few months.
My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
-F-
Brian Kernighan has an automobile which he helped design.
Unlike most automobiles, it has neither speedometer, nor gas gauge, nor
any of the numerous idiot lights which plague the modern driver.
Rather, if the driver makes any mistake, a giant "?" lights up in the
center of the dashboard. "The experienced driver", he says, "will
usually know what's wrong."
- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...