Erasmus Magister

by Charles Sheffield

Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of the celebrated naturalist, investigates the sighting of a sea monster, a hidden gold mine, and a legendary beast

Genres: Fantasy

217 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Charles A. Sheffield (June 25, 1935 – November 2, 2002), was an English-born mathematician, physicist and science fiction author. He had been a President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronomical 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 about that very same subject, The Fountains of Paradise, a coincidence that amused them both.

For some years he was the chief scientist of Earth Satellite Corporation, a company analysing remote sensing satellite data. This resulted in 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 his novel Brother to Dragons.

Sheffield was Toastmaster at BucConeer, the 1998 World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore.

He had been writing a column for the Baen Books web site; his last column concerned the discovery of the brain tumour that led to his death.

He was married to writer Nancy Kress.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of Sheffield's earlier books. It's a fix-up of adventures of Erasmus Darwin, Charles' grandfather. It's a nice mix of history and fantasy which has Erasmus encountering Little People and Nessie and other such fun stuff in the 18th century. There's an afterword in which Sheffield explains the boundaries of the facts and fictions of the tales. It's a fun, entertaining read, particularly for Anglophiles and history buffs, with nice demonstrations of scientific thought processes applied.

[Nakedfartbarfer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charles Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmus, has a series of adventures where he trains a naturalist’s eye on British lore such as a loch monster, a lost tribe, and where Celtic people fall along the cephalic index.

[Alex Sarll]

The great Erasmus Darwin, grandfather and fore-runner of Charles, investigates rum and uncanny goings-on (monsters in lochs, little people dancing on the fell and so on) - any book based on that premise would have difficulty wholly sucking. And if Sheffield's not quite enough of a writer to make the book more than the sum of those parts, it's a pleasant enough diversion.

[Selene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Contiene tres historias cortas:
- El demonio de Malkirk
- El tesoro de Odirex
- El inmortal de Lambeth