Proteus in the Underworld

Proteus #3

by Charles Sheffield

A series of well-intentioned technologies enable twenty-second-century humans to transform their bodies into any conceivable form, and in the resulting chaos, a dangerous new life form is discovered

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Collections, Ebooks

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

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

[Maddalenah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read the whole series, I have to say that the first one, especially the first part honestly, was by far the best of the three. I grew more and more annoyed by the title choices, though at least this one had more to do with form-change than the second one. Actually, I think that this makes for a better sequel to the first one, and Proteus Unbound seems a little out of place in the narrative (I kept expecting Ransom to be behind at least some of the problems in this book but no, he just escaped and his story it's over). One has to wonder if Sheffield actually had a longer series starring Bey Wolf in mind that just didn't happen; and either way I think if you substitute Proteus with Wolf, both sequels titles make more sense.
I still have issues with the way Sheffield wrote his women, though Sondra and Trudy seem at least a little more characterised than Mary and Sylvia. The ending in particular made little to no sense, though here my main issue lies with Bey's behaviour more than with Sondra's.
Having said all this, there's a peculiar pleasure in reading sci-fi written by a mathematician (I didn't know this about Sheffield when I was younger, and I have to wonder if others of my favourite sci-fi books were written by mathematicians or if it's something else about Sheffield that makes me like them). I love the untangling of the problem, the long and thoughtful explanations, the evident pleasure that his characters feel when facing a really difficult puzzle. Even though I don't find Sheffield writing style particularly fascinating, and though I wasn't really invested in the story, I just couldn't put it down, so there must be some kind of magic at work here.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't believe I have had this book in my library since I was probably 15 (a long time ago), and only within the last couple years got the 1st two books in the series, and read them all. What an interesting character (Bey Wolf) and concept (form change).

[Matthew McClintock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. It passed the time.