Charles Sheffield (1935-2002) was born on this date, June 25. It has been nearly two decades since his death. Sadly his work has fallen into obscurity. And that’s a shame because he was one of the best writers of hard science fiction in that closing years of the Twentieth Century. Hard sf, or scientifically rigorous science fiction as I think it should be called, has a reputation in some circles as having cardboard characters and being long on description. In fairness, there is some truth to this, especially in some of the older sf.
That some people tar all of this subgenre with that brush is unfortunate. There are a number of writers who observe scientific rigor in their works while creating living, breathing characters. Charles Sheffield was one. His characters were fully functioning human beings, not caricatures from central casting. An example is the scientific horror story “The Bee’s Kiss”. Continue reading