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."

Comments

Lived it

[1155]

At least he was able to live his life to the fullest.. or as full as any human can

We should strive to be like Sheffield

[SexyKellyOsbourne]

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.

Re:We should strive to be like Sheffield

[StormShaman]

Wow, sounds like my kinda guy, I love SF, but All I've ever heard of is Asimov (who is pretty good, but outdated), Orson Scott Card (Who is awsome and my current fave), and Heinlein (Who's corny stories suck, and he has a few OK ones). I think I'll go read Sheffield's books now, I need more SF authors.

Re:We should strive to be like Sheffield

[0xdeadbeef]

Wow, you weren't full of shit for a whole two and a half paragraphs. Keep trying, little scamper, you'll get it all, someday.

Sheffield had three wives, four children, and was a physicist before he started writing. His first wife actually died of cancer. His widow is Nancy Kress, also a well known author of science fiction who has won more awards than he has.

You may take a gander at this short autobiography.

Didn't Live It

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Can we have an obituary category?

[AtariDatacenter]

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.

Re:Can we have an obituary category?

[sunspot42]

Yeah dood, I agree! We need to make more room for ruley case mod stories, man. Kewl fake neon lighted, geek-sterilizing, EM-spewing, Lexan-windowed, trailer trash design sense, transparent hard drive mpeg porn servers. Dood, that is where it is AT! /. only posts one or two of those a week, man.

We don't need stories about people who, you know, actually did something worthwhile with their careers in the tech sector. Screw that.

His books live

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Brother to Dragons

[cryms0n]

Brother to Dragons was a great book, the first and only fiction I've been able to read over and over.

Damn.

Re:The nice thing about Slashdot's slowness

[ThufirHawat]

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].

Och, Damn.

[Felix The Cat]

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.

My two cents

[Dirtside]

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.

Re:cat got my tongue

[Otter]

Generally, "cancer" refers to the condition while "tumor" refers to a specific malignant growth. So, "Bill had brain cancer and had to have two tumors removed."

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.

Charles Sheffield, dead at 67

[larry bagina]

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.

Not true..

[phrackwulf]

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.

[-)

Re:The nice thing about Slashdot's slowness

[plover]

[ First, as the moderators have so rightly pointed out, my original post was an overrated troll. I did not post it as flamebait, however. I was going for the "funny" points. Quite a mistake, eh? ]

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?)

City on Mars named after him - Kinda cool

[Embedded Geek]

When I read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series (Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars) I noticed that one of the main cities was named Sheffield. After I saw him mentioned in Robinson's acknowledgements, I always figured that the city was named for him, but was never sure (obviously, Bradbury and other locations were named that way). I never got around to looking into it, but a quick check I ran today shows that is the case.

Kind of a neat way to honor an author you admire, doncha think?

Re:City on Mars named after him - Kinda cool

[squiggleslash]

If you read through those books to the end, you'll see Robinson has Sheffield at the top of his thank you list. I gather Sheffield was consulted on a lot of the technical details or some such, it's been a while.

Absolutely beautiful books, whatever the pseudo-libertarians say.

Can someone suggest a reading list?

[Embedded Geek]

I admit it: Sheffield is one of those authors that I never got around to reading (God knows there's so many). Well, now he's gone and I'm gonna make a point to pick up at least one of his books and give him a try. A quick search got me a list of his works. As with most prolific authors, though, it's difficult for me to figure out where to start.

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

Re:Can someone suggest a reading list?

[Cato the Elder]

I'm going to echo the other respondant and recommend Georgia On My Mind and Other Places. It is chock full of excellent stories, showing both the breadth of his work and the depth of his ideas.

Re:Can someone suggest a reading list?

[gabec]

I've only read a few of his books, but Godspeed was a good one. The premise is that humans learned to control the Einstein-Rosen Bridge (I think that's the right name) where you essentially bend space, push through, and come out on the other side of the universe. Faster-than-light travel. (Like in the movie Event Horizon, only without the retarded evil dimension nonsense.) So because of this we've populated the universe with little human colonies that were all part of this hive network. Then one day the supply ships stopped coming. All the ships they sent out through the ERB never came back, so they had to start fending for themselves. This story follows a group of people from one planet as they attempt to find the rest of human civilization again. pretty cool.

I also read Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which started out really cool but probably should have been a short story. Basically this classical musician's wife dies of a rare sickness and so he has her cryogenically frozen so that she can be fixed and reborn. But he wants to be there when she wakes up, so he has to come up with a bunch of money in order to freeze himself too as well as keep them both on ice for the duration... He also realizes that no one is just going to decide to wake him and his wife up because they're nice people. They're going to need a reason to wake him up. (Which I thought was a very astute observation.) So he spends the next few years making uninteresting (to him) movie soundtracks and so on that sell well for money then once he has enough he goes around and interviews everyone he thinks will become 'the 21st century Mozart/Shakespeare/etc.'

Anyway, he spends the rest of the book racing through time trying to wake his wife. My opinion through most of it was that it was very well done and a fantastically interesting vision of the future, but in the end the main character was overwhelmingly obsessed with his lovly late wife. :/ But that aside, it was really cool.

Re:Can someone suggest a reading list?

[rde]

I'd suggest the Web Between the Worlds. It's about space elevators, and came out around the same time as Clarke's Fountains of Paradise (same topic). So close in time did they come out, in fact, that my copy has an afterword by Clarke commiserating with Sheffield on the unfortunate timing, and assuring us readers that no ripoffery took place.

A caveat, though: don't read his co-written books. They're terrible. So's the collection Erasmus Magister. Rather than bitching about these, I prefer to congratulate him. He's a hard science writer, and the fantasy/horror he wrote may have been bad, but he at least made the attempt at broadening his horizons. He could've just kept to the hard science and no-one would complain, but in going for books like the Judas Cross (terrible, terrible book) he showed us that he was willing to experiment.

SF Author Necrology (Somewhat OT)

[Embedded Geek]

Sheffield is just the latest of a large number of SF authors pass on in the past two years. It just a consequence of demographics, but still a little sad.

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.

A far-sighted author

[squiggleslash]

What a pity most of the replies so far have been trolls and bad taste attacks. *sigh*

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.

Re:A far-sighted author

[squiggleslash]

Oh absolutely. I've been to Arisia. That's what I was saying by suggesting the same characters inspired the creations of both Bat and CSG.

As an aside, Cold as Ice has an extra level of humour if you read Bat's pronouncements in a CSG-type voice (not difficult, Bat has just the right air of arrogance)

Ok, well I mentioned two books in the above, so I better link to 'em:

• The Web Between the Worlds - Sheffield's take on space elevators, genetic engineering, drug misuse, and gung-ho capitalism. An easy read, but my favourate part has to be the factual description of elevator dynamics tacked onto the end of the story. Incidentally, if you enjoy it, check out Clarke's Fountains of Paradise at the same time. Completely different approach to the same idea, and one of Clarke's best books.
• Cold as Ice - A take on a future post-solar-system-war-type-scenario which includes discussions of the potential for life on other worlds, the future of weaponry, and Sheffield's love of the topic genetic engineering comes in there again. Once you tune to Sheffield's wavelength, very funny, and insightful. (Erm, +3 Funny, +5 Insightful, -2 Flamebait ;-)

There are, of course, many more, but those two struck me as particularly readable, and the former is historically very important. The latter is more recent, and the beginning of a series of books using the same characters. God help us ;-)

Time to bitch around

[thasmudyan]

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.)

Re:Time to bitch around

[AtariDatacenter]

This is the primary reason why Slashdot should NOT do obituaries. These types of stories don't spur much in the way of discussion or add much other than a post-it note: "This guy died and I liked him. If you're curious, you might check out some of his works."

You'll have 20 or so redundant "Wow. He did great stuff. I'll miss him." messages. And then you'll have just as many complete trolls, "He didn't really die! He cross-gendered into a woman and his family is just morning the public passing of his old persona!" or "I'm still here! The reports of my death are greatly exagerated!"

The fact that this particular person is shown disrespect is nothing new. Attempt to search back (with the lack of a obit category) on similar stories previously posted. You'll see a trollfest far greater than you have here.

Sad, but a true statement of the way things are here.

Remarried Re:We should strive to be like Sheffield

[StefanJ]

For what it's worth:

Charles Sheffield remarried Nancy Kress, a very talented SF writer in her own right.

Some sample writing

[EvilBastard]

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

Re:cat got my tongue

[david duncan scott]

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.

Thanks (OT)

[Embedded Geek]

Thanks. I knew he was high on the acknowledgements/thank yous/whatever, but I don't have my copies of red/green/blue at work. I was kinda winging it from memory.

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.

This is extremely sad news!

[fialar]

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-