Stasheff, Christopher: - "Christopher Stasheff (1944 - 2018) was a teacher, thespian, techie, and author of science fiction & fantasy novels. One of the pioneers of "science fantasy," his career spanned four decades, 44 novels (including translations into Czech, German, Italian, Russian, and Japanese), 29 short stories, and seven 7 anthologies. His novels are famous for their humor (and bad puns), exploration of comparative political systems, and philosophical undertones. He always had difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality and tried to compensate by teaching college. When teaching proved too real, he gave it up in favor of writing full time. He tended to pre-script his life, but couldn't understand why other people never got their lines right. This caused a fair amount of misunderstanding with his wife and four children. He wrote novels because it was the only way he could be the director, the designer, and all the actors too. Chris died in 2018 from Parkinson's Disease. He will be remembered by his friends, family, fans, and students for his kind and gentle nature, his willingness to guide and mentor any who asked, and for his witty sense of humor. His terrible puns, however, will be forgotten as soon as humanly possible."