I was sad to learn that fantasy and SF author Christopher Stasheff died a few days ago.
I was first exposed to Mr. Stasheff’s work back in 1979. His first book, “The Warlock In Spite Of Himself“, enchanted me (you should pardon the expression), and, with its several sequels, remains one of my favorites to this day.
Later, I discovered his “A Wizard in Rhyme” series, which has been a constant pleasure. Both are in my bookshelves as I write these words. Mr. Stasheff had a wry, snarky sense of humor, and loved to sneak jokes, puns, etc. into his books, so I suppose it’s no wonder I enjoyed his work so much.
Cedar Sanderson and her husband have published a memorial post for Mr. Stasheff on her blog, which I also recommend you read if you’d like to know more about him as a person. Sadly, I never got to meet him.
I’m sorry he’s gone, but I’m grateful he’s left us so many good books to read. If you’ve never read any of his work, start with “The Warlock In Spite Of Himself” and take it from there. You’ll have fun.
Peter
"The Warlock In Spite Of Himself" remains one of my favorite books. In fact, it could easily be a part of Ms. Sanderson's Pixie Noir, or vice-versa.
No matter; he was a talented writer, and we a diminished by his loss.
He also is one of the most ardent pro-Christian science fiction writers of the last 40 years. His use of strong Christian motifs and beliefs made his books all the more believable and enjoyable to me. "Bell, Book and Candle" takes a whole different and more original meaning than that of the revisionistic mystic, druidic witchy movement of the late 19th century, under which we are still suffering from.
I also liked the way he tried to make magic real, like a science, beholden to a set of rules that co-exist with the more hard science rules. Explainable handwavium, so to speak.
I've been thinking about his series, now I'll have to dig them out and read them again, or buy new copies.
Later in his career, he told us when we had the chance to sit and chat with him a couple of year ago, he was shadow-banned from major publishers because of the overtly Christian themes in his books. His son, Edward, a good writer in his own right, was helping his father publish independently these last few years, and those titles can be found only on Amazon.
It was an honor to have gotten to spend time with him, and I was very sorry when he passed that it hadn't been more.
May St Vidicon guide his steps to his reward. He was one of my favorite authors.