Charles Sheffield


Charles Sheffield was an English-born mathematician, physicist and science fiction writer who served as a President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronautical Society.
His novel The Web Between the Worlds, featuring the construction of a space elevator, was published almost simultaneously with Arthur C. Clarke's novel on the subject, The Fountains of Paradise, a coincidence that amused them both. Excerpts from both Sheffield's The Web Between the Worlds and Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise have appeared recently in a space elevator anthology Towering Yarns.
Sheffield served as Chief Scientist of Earth Satellite Corporation, a company that processed remote sensing satellite data. The association gave rise to many technical papers and two popular non-fiction books, Earthwatch and Man on Earth, both collections of false-colour and enhanced images of Earth from space.
He won the Nebula and Hugo awards for his novelette "Georgia on My Mind" and the 1992 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for his novel Brother to Dragons.
Sheffield was Toastmaster at BucConeer, the 1998 World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore.
Before he died, he was writing a column for the Baen Books web site; his last column concerned the discovery of the brain tumour that led to his death.

Personal life

Charles Sheffield attended St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Double First in Mathematics and Physics. During his studies he met and later married his first wife, Sarah Sanderson, whose death in 1977 became the catalyst for his writing career. They had a son, Charles Christopher, and a daughter, Ann Elizabeth. The family soon after moved to the United States, where Sheffield began working in the field of practical physics, a career that would lead him to a consultancy with NASA and the role of chief scientist at the Earth Satellite Corporation in Washington.
In response to the traumatic grief from the death of his wife Sarah to cancer, Sheffield began a second career as a science fiction author, winning both the prestigious Nebula and Hugo awards and serving as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He maintained two successful careers, consulting for various scientific corporations while earning fame for his "Hard SF". During this period he lived in Washington, DC, and met and married Linda Zall, a fellow scientist, and had two daughters, Elizabeth Rose and Victoria Jane.
At the time of his death, he was married to writer Nancy Kress, and lived with his children in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Fiction

Series

Behrooz Wolf

  1. Sight of Proteus, Ace September 1978; revised, NEL January 1989 – book version of the following linked stories:
  2. *"Sight of Proteus", Amazing May 1978
  3. *"Legacy",Galaxy June 1977
  4. *"The Grooves of Change", *; reprinted in Amazing Feb. 1979
  5. Proteus Unbound, Analog August 1988 / NEL Jan. 1989 / Ballantine Del Rey March 1989
  6. Proteus in the Underworld, Baen May 1995
Volumes 1 and 2 were reprinted in omnibus version Proteus Manifest and later in a revised omnibus version Proteus Combined

The Heritage Universe

  1. Summertide, Ballantine Del Rey Feb. 1990 – loosely based on
  2. *"Summertide", Destinies, August 1981
  3. Divergence, Ballantine Del Rey, February 1991
  4. Transcendence, Ballantine Del Rey, April 1992
  5. Convergence, Baen April 1997
  6. Resurgence, Baen November 2002
Volumes 1, 2 and 3 were reprinted in omnibus version The Heritage Universe ; Volumes 1 and 2 were reprinted in revised omnibus version Convergent Series ; Volumes 3 and 4 were reprinted in revised omnibus version Transvergence

Cold as Ice

  1. Cold as Ice, Tor June 1992
  2. The Ganymede Club, Tor December 1995
  3. Dark as Day, Tor March 2002

    Chan Dalton

  4. The Mind Pool, Baen, April 1993 – revised and expanded from an earlier version:
  5. *The Nimrod Hunt, Baen, August 1986
  6. The Spheres of Heaven, Baen, February 2001

    Jupiter (Young Adult Novels)

  7. Higher Education, Analog February 1996 / Tor June 1996 – revised and expanded from
  8. *"Higher Education", Charles Sheffield & Jerry Pournelle, Future Quartet: Earth in the Year 2042: A Four-Part Invention, Ben Bova, Frederik Pohl, Jerry Pournelle and Charles Sheffield, AvoNova 1994
  9. The Billion Dollar Boy, Tor April 1997
  10. Putting Up Roots, Tor September 1997
  11. The Cyborg from Earth, Tor March 1998

    Supernova Alpha

The Compleat McAndrew was preceded by two earlier versions: The McAndrew Chronicles, and One Man’s Universe ; also, Sheffield later wrote an additional McAndrew story:
Sheffield wrote about this series:
  1. Space Suits ; a collection of linked stories:
  2. *"Marconi, Mattin, Maxwell", Galaxy May 1977;
  3. *"Dinsdale Dissents", Galaxy July 1977
  4. *"The Deimos Plague", Stellar No. 4, ed. Judy-Lynn del Rey, Ballantine 1978;
  5. *"Perfectly Safe, Nothing to Worry About", Galaxy August 1977
  6. *"The Decline of Hyperion", Analog mid-Dec. 1992
  7. *"The Dalmatian of Faust", Galaxy September 1978
  8. *"A Certain Place in History", Galaxy October 1977
  9. *"Parasites Lost", Proteus: Voices for the 80s, ed. Richard S. McEnroe, Ace May 1981
  10. *"Fifteen-Love on the Dead Man’s Chest", Amazing May 1993
  11. *"With the Knight Male", The Chick is in the Mail, ed. Esther Friesner, Baen October 2000
  12. *"Space Opera", Analog mid-December 1988

    Erasmus Darwin (Grandfather of Charles Darwin)

  13. The Amazing Dr. Darwin, Baen June 2002 – a collection of linked stories:
  14. *"The Devil of Malkirk", F&SF June 1982;
  15. *"The Heart of Ahura Mazda", AHMM November 1988
  16. *"The Phantom of Dunwell Cove", Asimov's August 1995
  17. *"The Lambeth Immortal", AHMM June 1979
  18. *"The Solborne Vampire", AHMM January 1998
  19. *"The Treasure of Odirex", Fantastic July 1978
  20. *Appendix- Erasmus Magister: Fact and Fiction, Erasmus Magister, Ace 1982
The Amazing Dr. Darwin was preceded by an earlier version, Erasmus Magister ; also, Sheffield later wrote an additional Erasmus Darwin story:
  1. How to Save the World, ed. Charles Sheffield, Tor Sep. 1995

    Short stories