Charles Sheffield

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”.

And this one is definitely a horror story, although the real horror doesn’t become obvious until the end.

The central character, Gilden, is a voyeur. And he’s the best there is.

Earth and its colonies are ruled by a tyrant known as The Mentor. Gilden sends a tiny robot into the bedchamber of The Mentor Presumptive to record his wedding night, which is rather twisted in itself.

Of course Gilden’s little excursion into the boudoir is discovered after the fact. The story opens with him being tortured. It’s a computer generated torture that takes place in his mind with all the pain but perfect regeneration of any damage so he can experience the agony over and over.

He’s offered a lifetime of this or a chance at forgiveness. An alien ship has landed on a colony world. Communication was going fine until all of a sudden the two aliens went into their ship and cut off most but not all communications. All Gilden has to do is figure out a way to spy on what’s happening inside their ship. Succeed and all is forgiven. Fail and he returns to a lifetime of torment.

He agrees to try, not that he has much choice.

Accompanying Gilden to the planet are a biologist who is just as much a prisoner as he is and an agent who is their keeper.

I’ll not tell you any more. The solution to the problem is logical, well-thought out, and downright disturbing. Check this one out.

First published in the November 1994 issue of Asimov’s, “The Bee’s Kiss” is currently available in Georgia on my Mind and Other Places.