From uucp Sun May 21 02:56 SST 1989 >From matoh Sun May 21 02:56:33 1989 remote from majestix.ida.liu.se Received: by sssab.se (smail2.5) id AA19470; 21 May 89 02:56:33 SST (Sun) Received: from majestix.ida.liu.se by sunic.sunet.se (5.61+IDA/KTH/LTH/1.53) id AAsunic04149; Sun, 21 May 89 00:35:44 +0200 Received: by majestix.ida.liu.se; Sun, 21 May 89 00:35:35 +0200 Date: Sun, 21 May 89 00:35:35 +0200 From: Mats Ohrman Message-Id: <8905202235.AA19215@majestix.ida.liu.se> To: matoh@sssab.se Status: RO Path: liuida!sunic!kth!mcvax!uunet!lll-winken!ames!hc!pprg.unm.edu!unmvax!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!rutgers!bourbaki.mit.edu!nazgul From: nazgul@BOURBAKI.MIT.EDU Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers Subject: Sheffield is back! Message-ID: <8905121354.AA19661@tarski.mit.edu> Date: 12 May 89 13:54:08 GMT Sender: daemon@rutgers.rutgers.edu Lines: 36 Those of you who, like me, were disappointed by "Trader's World" and only mildly entertained by "The Nimrod Hunt", will be glad to hear that with "Proteus Unbound" Charles Sheffield has returned to the solid hard-sf areas that are his greatest strengths. Though Behrooz Wolf is the main character, the book is not really a sequel to "Sight of Proteus"---it actually has much stronger ties to "The McAndrew Chronicles". The time is years or decades after "Sight of Proteus", which may be one or two centuries after McAndrew. Most of the action takes place out beyond the Halo, in what we would call the Oort Cloud. Ships using the McAndrew inertialess :-) drive permit transit times to be measured in weeks instead of years, but there is as yet no significant contact with other star systems. Kernels and physics figure more promenently than form change, which is why I place this book closer to McAndrew than to "Sight of Proteus". If you have read this far without being a Sheffield fan, you are probably wondering if this guy is for you. If you enjoy hard sf for the sake of the science, the answer is yes. Sheffield is one of the few authors I know of who creates future societies which do not simply consist of 20th century people using a few neat gadgets. He permits his characters' attitudes and physical forms to be altered by the technology and environments they live with---somewhat like Varley's Occupied Earth stories, but with more emphasis on science and a bit less writing skill. (Don't get me wrong, the writing's not horrible; he's certainly much better at it than Forward, for instance.) His plots tend to be a bit scattered, with occasional digressions to show off some new idea or gadget. For a good introduction try "The McAndrew Chronicles", which is a set of connected short stories. These have links to the "Proteus" books and several of his other stories. Also excellent are "The Web Between the Worlds" and "Between the Strokes of Night", which are not connected to the same future history. Louis nazgul@math.mit.edu From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 6 17:14:44 1993 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!uhog.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!nobody From: Rex Croft Subject: "The Mind Pool" by Charles Sheffield Message-ID: <9305030256.AA12597@presto.ig.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Date: Mon, 3 May 1993 16:15:05 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) Lines: 48 "The Mind Pool" by Charles Sheffield - reviewed by Rex Croft ccc_rex@waikato.ac.nz One can't go wrong with any of Charles Sheffield's books. All of his books that I have read have been excellent, which is why he is on my "to buy" list. _The Mind Pool_ was originally a somewhat different and shorter book called _The Nimrod Hunt_. From the introduction by the author: "Enter Jum Baen, publisher of _The Nimrod Hunt_. In August of 1991, Jim called to say that he was going to reissue the book, with a new cover. Was I interested in changing, deleting, or adding anything? Was I! Of course I was, and my task sounded easy: remove the red herring, restore the original subplot, and make the homage to Alfred Bester less intrusive. ... The one-week easy fix become the two-month concentrated effort. I found that I had produced a different book." It is a while ago since I read _The Nimrod Hunt_ so that only now and then did I recognize parts of the book. The ending is supposed to be different. The head of security of the solar system started a project to develope something to patrol to perimeter of explored space looking to enemies. Unfortunately something went horribly wrong and one escaped to the remote planet Tranancore. Teams of one human along with one each of the three known intelligent aliens are formed to dispose of this menace. The book follows the exploits of the first two teams and the actions of the two heads of security. The ending is unexpected. Recommended. The book also has a very attactive cover featuring a large spaceship amongst asteroids. %A Charles Sheffield %T The Mind Pool %I Baen %C New York %D April 1993 %O paperback, US$4.99 %P 420 pp. %G ISBN 0-671-72165-8 %O Cover art by David Mattingly %O A different version of the book was first published as "The Nimrod Hunt" From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat May 22 07:44:01 1993 Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!news.funet.fi!news.tele.fi!uunet!newsflash.concordia.ca!nstn.ns.ca!psinntp!psinntp!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: CCC_REX@waikato.ac.nz (Rex Croft) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: "Transcendence" by Charles Sheffield Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand Message-ID: <1993May17.095116.16398@waikato.ac.nz> Date: 21 May 93 02:10:04 GMT Lines: 30 "Transcendence" by Charles Sheffield - reviewed by Rex Croft ccc_rex@waikato.ac.nz Highly recommended. SciFi in the grand universe spanning tradition. This is the third book in "The Heritage Universe", the first two being called "Summertide" and "Divergence". We have a galaxy populated by huge artificial constructs created by a long gone alien race. I must admit to enjoying plots involving ancient artefacts and humans exploring them. Another series that comes to mind is the "Heeshee Trilogy" by Pohl. In this book, our intrepid explorers (including some intriguing aliens), have to track down the Zardalu that were released from stasis in the previous book. A great mixture of science, wonder and adventure. As I mentioned before, you can't go wrong buying a book by Charles Sheffield. %A Charles Sheffield %T Transcendence %I Del Rey %C New York %D April 1993 %O paperback, US$4.99 %P 293 pp. %G 0-345-36982-3 %S The Heritage Universe %V 3 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Jun 3 12:59:26 1993 Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!lunic!eru.mt.luth.se!enterpoop.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!nobody From: sheol!throopw@dg-rtp.dg.com (Wayne Throop) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Cold as Ice by Charles Sheffield Message-ID: <738984410@sheol.UUCP> Date: 2 Jun 93 22:14:31 GMT Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Organization: Lines: 104 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) I expect many to disagree (since this is one of the perennial discussion topics upon which people never seem to agree), but I think Charles Sheffield is one of the best hard sf authors at describing extremely intelligent people. In fact, it is almost a hallmark of his work, from _Web_Between_the_Worlds_ right up to _Cold_as_Ice_. Sometimes he does it quite well, as in _The_McAndrew_Chronicles_, and sometimes he does it indifferently, as (it seems to me) in his "Heritage Universe" series, or in _The_Nimrod_Hunt_/_The_Mind_Pool_ recently released rewrite. Another hallmark of Sheffield's is the description of devious political/ social maneuverings behind the scenes, the sort of wheels-within-wheels feeling I associate with the first of Herbert's _Dune_ series, or Glen Cook's _The_Dragon_Never_Sleeps_. Yet another: Sheffield's normal position is one of largely ignoring the "Vinge Singularity", that is, ignoring the presumed impact of AI on the rate of "progress". It's as if he writes all his stories based on the idea that we are in the Slow Zone, indeed as if the whole universe is in the Slow. AI constructs are limited, and never seem to reach even human competence in Sheffield universes. We see some possible notion in _The_Mind_Pool_ that his position may be related to Penrose's _The_Emperor's_New_Mind_, which would make a certain amount of sense, but it also shows up in this story in the (it seems to me from other contextual details) relatively primitive state of AI personal assistants (called "Faxes" in the story). Of course, there's also the possibility of a Butlerian Jihad situation that limits the I-ness of AIs in _Cold_as_Ice_, which is mentioned in the story (and there's even an AI as one of the characters). Sheffield introduces the (IMO great (when taken in context)) slogan "Smart is Stupid" in this regard. These issues aren't explored deeply, but this does highlight the richness of this story, that it throws in some thoughts on AI into a work already posessing more thoughts on more subjects than you can shake a stick at. I think Sheffield has put these elements together in an excellent mixture in _Cold_as_Ice_, shaken, not stirred. He has ended up with a book I vastly prefer to his "Heritage" series and other recent works. The book is set a couple of decades after the Great War between earth and the belt. In this war, 3/4 of all humans on earth died, and the social, technological, and psychological effects are still echoing through the surviving members of humanity. The story takes place primarily among the moons of Jupiter, where societies that were isolated and "backward" before the war rode it out in relative neutrality. Out here is where the action is nowadays... as one character put it (roughly) "the system from the belt in is dead" (meaning culturally dead, but all too nearly most sincerely dead). A group of people is drawn to the various moons of Jupiter from all over the system. It is fairly obvious that *some*body behind the scenes is pushing them around the scenery like pieces on a game board, but the real reason behind this, and even who is responsible, is at best obscure. (In some ways, this is a weakness in the book, because the people being moved around show little curiosity in the who and why, and allow pretty sketchy reasons to placate them for major disruptions of their personal and professional lives, but this is only a marginal quibble... it hangs together well enough.) But plausible or not, into the mix goes Rustum Battachariya, a Nero Wolf analog, who never leaves his Bat Cave, and lets all information come to him in its own time; Cyrus Mobarak, the inventor of the "Moby" series of compact fusion power systems upon which much of the technological infrastructure is based; Hilda Brandt, head of the science team that is investigating the Europan subsurface sea (as Sheffield says in the front matter: "borrowed from Arthur C. Clarke), and proponent of keeping Europa as a "wilderness preserve" for scientific purposes; Camille Hamilton and David Lammerman, astrophysicists from the Distributed Observing System (atronomical instrument of unparalleled power), dragged away from their work just as it nears a culmination; Jon Perry, deep sea expert from earth, relocated to Europa because of his expertise in deep submersibles; Nell Cotter, "broadcast journalist" tagging along with Jon Perry because she smells politics in the air; Wilsa Sheer, keyboardist and composer at the start of a brilliant career; and an additional cast of thousands. A diverse crew of multifaceted characters. These people go through an intricate dance directed by Sheffield's plot, and touch upon the most interesting background details one could ever wish to find as scenery along the way. Finally, Rustum Battachariya, as the detective of the peice, leaves the Bat Cave to stage a classic confrontation with all the "suspects". But the book has been supplying third-person clues right along, and we aren't really surprised by what he reveals. Yet we can appreciate his figuring it out from his position within the story, not having access to the internals of the other characters' thoughts, or to the omnicient view of the story. Get it. Read it. It's good for what ails you. %T Cold as Ice %A Charles Sheffield %C New York, NY %D June 1992 %G ISBN 0-812-51163-8 %I Tor %O paperback, $4.99 US %P 372 -- Wayne Throop throopw%sheol@concert.net -- --Alan Wexelblat, Reality Hacker and Cyberspace Bard Media Lab - Advanced Human Interface Group wex@media.mit.edu Voice: 617-258-9168, Pager: 617-945-1842 wexelblat.chi@xerox.com "I see masterpieces of anarchy..." From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Dec 15 17:51:01 1993 Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!news.intercon.com!udel!news.sprintlink.net!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: SEB@lns592.lns.cornell.edu (Selden E Ball Jr) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: _Godspeed_, by Charles Sheffield, a micro-review Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <01H6H88R0BC28WVYI4@LNS592.LNS.CORNELL.EDU> Date: 15 Dec 93 02:15:52 GMT Lines: 27 _Godspeed_, by Charles Sheffield, a micro-review by Selden Ball Save your money, read the original text: _Treasure_Island_ by Robert Louis Stevenson. I really don't understand how Sheffield got this past his editors. I wouldn't have minded reading about similar circumstances, but the first half of this book seemed to follow the original almost scene for scene. Leaving out Blind Pew was the biggest difference that I noticed. Sheffield then failed to follow through with the societal implications of some of his own contributions. Having the POV character be an inexperienced prepubesent teen is no excuse. Oh, well. Hopefully his next novel will be back up to his usual quality. %T Godspeed %A Charles Sheffield %D November, 1993 %G ISBN 0-312-8517-3 %I Tor *minor spoilers* follow The POV character never even mentions knowing anyone else his own age. There is no discussion of what kind of schooling he might have had, or what he might have needed to become a spaceship crew member. Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!news.tele.fi!uunet!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: ecl@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper) Subject: FUTURE QUARTET by Bova, Pohl, Pournelle, and Sheffield Message-ID: <9502071606.ZM18745@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Organization: The Internet Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 22:51:51 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 78 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:725 rec.arts.books.reviews:294 FUTURE QUARTET by Ben Bova, Frederik Pohl, Jerry Pournelle, and Charles Sheffield AvoNova, ISBN 0-380-71886-3, 1995, 294pp, US$5.50 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper Well, since the directive given to the authors here was for each to write a "speculative essay" and a story set in 2042, one very pessimistic, one very optimistic, and two in between, it's not surprising that what resulted was pretty didactic and preachy. After all, that's basically what was asked for. It is certainly possible to write stories set in the future that are entertaining first and give the reader a message almost as a side effect--but that was not the path taken here. Bova leads off with "2042: A Cautiously Pessimistic View," supposedly a speech given by the Chairman of the World Council in 2042, and follows with "Thy Kingdom Come" (which has the Chairman as a character). The story has speeches almost at the level of the essay/speech itself, and I was somewhat irked that all the main characters found their common heritage (rather conveniently for the plot, I might add) in the Lord's Prayer. Yes, it's possible, but given that the Chairman is Vietnamese with a Chinese name, it seems contrived (in my opinion). Frederik Pohl's essay, "A Visit to Belindia," is as much a story as his official story, "What Dreams Remain," but again, both spend a lot of time in lectures and speeches by various characters. Pohl says he was chosen to give the most pessimistic future, but even here there much have been a lower limit, as he doesn't postulate any massive nuclear, chemical, or biological wars. And just as Bova MAKES his future "cautiously pessimistic" with his particular story ending, so does Pohl make his pessimistic. The worlds the two of them draw could be swapped, or become optimistic, without much change to the stories, so in that sense they aren't drawing their society to order--they're meeting their goal only in how they end their story. Charles Sheffield's "Report on Planet Earth" would lead the reader to believe his future was to be the most optimistic one, yet his "Price of Civilization" is not what I would call a positively portrayed future, but rather a fascist one of superior and inferior classes, secretly enforced anti-miscegenation policies, and so on. Whether Sheffield realized what a negative picture he was painting is not clear, since superficially his characters seem to be the best off of those in any of the four scenarios. And finally there is Jerry Pournelle's "Democracy in America in 2042" and "Higher Education." This is the "cautiously optimistic" scenario, but it reads like a lot of other science fiction: rookies being trained in the dangerous job of asteroid mining. And true to what one friend predicted, it has a character who explains it all to the young newcomers. This book might work as a catalyst for discussions about the future in a high school classroom, but even there one can find better stories to trigger discussion. These are merely preachy, and not at all satisfying. %A Bova, Ben %A Pohl, Frederik %A Pournelle, Jerry %A Sheffield, Charles %T Future Quartet %I AvoNova %C New York %D February 1995 %G ISBN 0-380-71886-3 %P 294pp %O paperback, US$5.50 [1994] -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | Evelyn.Leeper@att.com "No one is ever fanatically devoted to something they have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They *know* it is. Whenever someone is fanatically devoted to a set of beliefs or dogmas or goals, it is only because those beliefs or goals are in doubt." --Robert M. Pirsig Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!news.stealth.net!news.ibm.net.il!arclight.uoregon.edu!nntp.primenet.com!news.sgi.com!uhog.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!news!wex From: agapow@latcs1.cs.latrobe.edu.au (p-m agapow) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: "The Ganymede Club" by Charles Sheffield Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 28 Oct 1996 15:17:21 GMT Organization: Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Biologists Lines: 53 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu Keywords: author= p-m agapow "The Ganymede Club" by Charles Sheffield A Postview, copyright 1996 p-m agapow The Great War shattered the solar system, killing half the human race and leaving the future in the hands of those off-planet. But among the powerful in post-Earth history is a shadowy organisation that brutally attacks anyone who eve suspects their existence. Lola, a refugee from Earth and therapist on Ganymede, is propelled into their orbit when one of her patients turns out to be a man who cannot exist. Although set in the same universe as Sheffield's earlier "Cold As Ice," this book is largely separate and doesn't rely upon you having read its predecessor. Unfortunately "The Ganymede Club" also doesn't quite live up to the reputation of "Cold As Ice." That is not to say it's a bad book, just that it is perhaps less than it could have been. There's no one big gaping flaw with the book, just a general falling short of its goals. For example, you'll probably pick the nature of the conspiracy well before it's unveiled. I can't believe that no-one tumbled to the conspiracy's existence before. Are these people blind? Similarly, Lola is aided by two teenage technology savants who as caricatures are far too familiar. You'd think by now that supervillians would live in fear of adolescent uber-hackers. Will they never learn? Add in a few outrageous coincidences and the effect is to stifle the book somewhat. But Sheffield manages to save the book despite these faults. The post-war devastated solar system is an intriguing backdrop for the story and it's unfortunate it couldn't be explored more. Then again, "Cold as Ice" has done this territory already. The characterisation is restrained but effective. The book is not light hearted but it is non-pretentious and well-intentioned, which makes up for a lot. A quote from "Locus" on the inside cover compares it en passant to a juvenile novel, which is about right - unambitious, perhaps unoriginal but solid. Those who might be thinking of this as a book for a young adult should note there is some low level sex and violence. This review may seem faintly damning, but that is not the intention. This is a minor work for Sheffield, an entertaining read, and his more ambitious works are still worth a look. [**/ok] and holiday reading on the Sid and Nancy scale. %A Charles Sheffield %B The Ganymede Club %I Tor %C New York %D 1996 %G ISBN 0-812-54460-9 %P 342pp %O paperback, Aus$13.95 paul-michael agapow (agapow@latcs1.oz.au), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse [archived at http://www.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~agapow/Postviews/] Path: news.ifm.liu.se!genius.dat.hk-r.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!worldfeed.gte.net!eecs-usenet-02.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!not-for-mail From: doug reeder Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: "Proteus Unbound" by Charles Sheffield Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 02 Jul 1998 11:10:39 -0400 Organization: none Lines: 62 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:1969 Proteus Unbound by Charles Sheffield Review Copyright 1998 P. Douglas Reeder _Proteus Unbound_ is a hard SF mystery-adventure in the tradition of 50's SF, but with a modern feel and modern science. It takes place in a solar system divided into two federations and a anarchic borderland. The Inner System extends to Pluto, the Outer System exists among the Oort Cloud of cometary material extending out a light year or two, and the Kernal Ring is a fictitious intermediate area rich in small rotating black holes -- kernals -- from which energy is extracted. The Cloulanders, the inhabitants of the Outer System, have been having trouble with their "forms-change" equipment, which allows one to change one's body shape, and so recruit an expert from the Inner System, Behrooz Wolf. He is aided by several Cloudlanders: Leo Manx is a psychologist with an interest in Wolf's mental problems, Aybee Smith is a arrogant young polymath, Sylvia Fernald, the chief of programming, and Cinnabar Baker, the head of Outer System security. The problems soon broadens, and the characters must prevent war and save the solar system. The mystery involves black holes, entropy and Black Ransome, the mysterious, half-legendary leader of a Kernal Ring group with poorly understood objectives. The writing is adequate but uninspired; while one can identify with the characters enough to follow the book, they never really come alive. There are lots of hints as to how the book will turn out, and I was able to predict the ending in general terms. The characters make some progress toward understanding the mysteries, but most of them are foolishly captured by the villains, but then turn the tables by clever use of forms- change equipment, but this clever use is a fairly obvious, and the villain and indeed all society should have safeguards against this obvious tactic. There are lots of potentially interesting elements in Sheffield's future, but most of them are inadequately used, leaving his cultures uninteresting. One of the better bits involves people's reactions to the unreliability of forms-change, which has superceeded all other medical skill and technology. People turn to "neo-Asclepians" with their pills of dubious value. However, this episode is dismissed in a few paragraphs and never mentioned again, and the main characters continue to use forms- change equipment without any problems. Also, I wondered why no reporters showed up for a major disaster in an apparently open society of the not-too-distant future. Devotees of hard SF and adventure (and perhaps those unfamiliar with black holes and entropy) should find this book at least an adequate read, but others will want to pass it by. P. Douglas Reeder Lecturer, Computer. Science. Dept., Ohio State Univ.. reeder@cis.ohio.state.edu http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~reeder/reeder.html GE/S d+ s+:- a- C+$ UH+ P+ L E W++ N+ o? K? w !O M+ V PS+ PE Y PGP- t 5+ !X R>+ tv+ b+++>$ DI+ D- G e+++ h r++>+++ y+>++ %T Proteus Unbound %A Charles Sheffield %I Del Ray/Ballantine %D copyright 1989 %O paperback $3.95 %P 262 pp %G ISBN 0-345-34434-0