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Summary: Is to SF as Tolkien is to Fantasy
Review: "She was a girly-girl and they were True Men, the Lords of Creation. Yet she pitted her wits against them and she won." Who couldn't resist reading a story with an opening line like that ("The Ballad of Lost C'Mell")? Smith is to S.F. as Tolkien is to Fantasy, in that you can immediately sense a huge but complete universe behind the stories, but one that is only revealed through the subtleties of his prose. He doesn't come out and explain it all to you in so many words, but rather leaves you to gain understanding as you make your way from story to story.Anyone who reads this book, and happens to fall in love with C'Mell along the way, should also read "Norstrilia" to find out more about her and other characters from the short stories.
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Summary: If you like CS, you may also like...
Review: ... "The Void Captain's Tale" by Norman Spinrad, since that also has a singular, offbeat, mythic, feeling.
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Summary: Simply brilliant!
Review: 3 years ago, while reading the Norton Book of SF (IIRC), I came across a short story so brilliant that I have, to this day, been looking for more from its author. The story was Alpha Ralpha Boulevard, the author was pen named Cordwainer Smith. I still remember this story as vividely as if I had read it yesterday, which is amazing considering I read a lot of SF. This guy is the very BEST SF author I know; were you to read only 1 SF novel in your life, this is the one you should read, I still shiver as I write this!
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Summary: Where is the which of the what-she-did?
Review: A few years ago I encountered, in an undistinguished anthology of Year's Best Something-Or-Other, a short science fiction story called "The Ballad of Lost C'mell." Love at first sight. I ransacked used book stores, the crowded shelves and dusty boxes of my house, and even libraries to find more short stories written by this miraculous Cordwainer Smith. I managed to assemble eight or nine, all from various anthologies, before my parents took pity on me and gave me "The Rediscovery of Man" for my birthday. Smith's writing is so good, it's intoxicating: you put down his writing with your head full of fantastic images, from underpeople toiling away in the mysterious corridors of Downdeep-downdeep, to star sailors riding the interstellar winds, the indescribable poetry of Space-3 and the strange futile lives of the Scanners. In my eyes Cordwainer Smith has only one fault-he died too soon! How dare he leave such a colorful, complicated, weird and wild future universe unfinished? Fortunately he left these stories, and if you have not already read them, I suggest you waste no further time in discovering the Instrumentality of Mankind and the universe around it. And even if you've read the stories before, read them again. They're just as good the second time around . . . or the fifth . . .or the fortieth . . .
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Summary: Where is the which of the what-she-did?
Review: A few years ago I encountered, in an undistinguished anthology of Year's Best Something-Or-Other, a short science fiction story called "The Ballad of Lost C'mell." Love at first sight. I ransacked used book stores, the crowded shelves and dusty boxes of my house, and even libraries to find more short stories written by this miraculous Cordwainer Smith. I managed to assemble eight or nine, all from various anthologies, before my parents took pity on me and gave me "The Rediscovery of Man" for my birthday. Smith's writing is so good, it's intoxicating: you put down his writing with your head full of fantastic images, from underpeople toiling away in the mysterious corridors of Downdeep-downdeep, to star sailors riding the interstellar winds, the indescribable poetry of Space-3 and the strange futile lives of the Scanners. In my eyes Cordwainer Smith has only one fault-he died too soon! How dare he leave such a colorful, complicated, weird and wild future universe unfinished? Fortunately he left these stories, and if you have not already read them, I suggest you waste no further time in discovering the Instrumentality of Mankind and the universe around it. And even if you've read the stories before, read them again. They're just as good the second time around . . . or the fifth . . .or the fortieth . . .
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Summary: Ultimately the finest writer in science fiction
Review: Arthur C. Clarke for his ability to inspire awe. Isaac Asimov for his unsurpassable cleverness. Robert Heinlein for his thunderous humanity. A host of others for their inspired moments. But ultimately Cordwainer Smith is the finest writer, the best poetic craftsman of the language, ever to write a science fiction story. And that's from someone who never made it through NORSTRILIA, because I don't think Smith could sustain a single extended work. It's the short story cycles he mastered that gave free reign to his bizarre and passionate imagination. If "The Burning of the Brain" doesn't bring together a piece of every human experience, don't read this review.
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Summary: At last! All of Cordwainer Smith's short works together
Review: At the age of thirteen, I fell on a beat up copy of Norstrilia, and fell in love with Smith's works. I soon got a copy of "The Best of Cordwainer Smith" and it vanished on a summer camp trip. It took me years to replace it. Imagine my delight to have all those loved stories in one (heavy) volume, unlikely to go astray! As you probably know, Smith was actually Dr. Paul M.A. Linebarger, a Johns Hopkins professor and specialist in Asian affairs. He was a master of psychological warfare. His stories fit no easy category. They are not fantasy, they are not hard science fiction, they are not alternative history. They incorporate bits and pieces of Asian culture and myth. They are often troubling, haunting. "The Dead Lady of Clown Town" ends with most of its characters dead or with their minds wiped, yet it is a happy ending for all that, with Joan's views obviously spreading through the underpeople. "Under Old Earth" is a fascinating tale, filled with allusions that must be beyond the scope of this note. Even "War No. 81-Q", the original version of which was written by Smith as a teenager, is an excellent story. "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard" is simply one of the great SF short stories of all time. I could go on, but . . . The volume also includes the Casher O'Neill trilogy, that I had read of, but not seen before. If you haven't read Smith before, this is how to buy his stories, so that you have them all. If you have--well, again, you'll have them all. It's worth it. Buy it.
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Summary: At last! All of Cordwainer Smith's short works together
Review: At the age of thirteen, I fell on a beat up copy of Norstrilia, and fell in love with Smith's works. I soon got a copy of "The Best of Cordwainer Smith" and it vanished on a summer camp trip. It took me years to replace it. Imagine my delight to have all those loved stories in one (heavy) volume, unlikely to go astray! As you probably know, Smith was actually Dr. Paul M.A. Linebarger, a Johns Hopkins professor and specialist in Asian affairs. He was a master of psychological warfare. His stories fit no easy category. They are not fantasy, they are not hard science fiction, they are not alternative history. They incorporate bits and pieces of Asian culture and myth. They are often troubling, haunting. "The Dead Lady of Clown Town" ends with most of its characters dead or with their minds wiped, yet it is a happy ending for all that, with Joan's views obviously spreading through the underpeople. "Under Old Earth" is a fascinating tale, filled with allusions that must be beyond the scope of this note. Even "War No. 81-Q", the original version of which was written by Smith as a teenager, is an excellent story. "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard" is simply one of the great SF short stories of all time. I could go on, but . . . The volume also includes the Casher O'Neill trilogy, that I had read of, but not seen before. If you haven't read Smith before, this is how to buy his stories, so that you have them all. If you have--well, again, you'll have them all. It's worth it. Buy it.
Rating:
Summary: At last! All of Cordwainer Smith's short works together
Review: At the age of thirteen, I fell on a beat up copy of Norstrilia, and fell in love with Smith's works. I soon got a copy of "The Best of Cordwainer Smith" and it vanished on a summer camp trip. It took me years to replace it. Imagine my delight to have all those loved stories in one (heavy) volume, unlikely to go astray! As you probably know, Smith was actually Dr. Paul M.A. Linebarger, a Johns Hopkins professor and specialist in Asian affairs. He was a master of psychological warfare. His stories fit no easy category. They are not fantasy, they are not hard science fiction, they are not alternative history. They incorporate bits and pieces of Asian culture and myth. They are often troubling, haunting. "The Dead Lady of Clown Town" ends with most of its characters dead or with their minds wiped, yet it is a happy ending for all that, with Joan's views obviously spreading through the underpeople. "Under Old Earth" is a fascinating tale, filled with allusions that must be beyond the scope of this note. Even "War No. 81-Q", the original version of which was written by Smith as a teenager, is an excellent story. "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard" is simply one of the great SF short stories of all time. I could go on, but . . . The volume also includes the Casher O'Neill trilogy, that I had read of, but not seen before. If you haven't read Smith before, this is how to buy his stories, so that you have them all. If you have--well, again, you'll have them all. It's worth it. Buy it.
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Summary: Rediscover Cordwainer Smith
Review: Cordwainer Smith began publishing science fiction in the fifties when Amazing Stories and other science fiction fanzines primarily flew rockets to outer space and beyond. Smith, however, took the common themes of pulp science fiction and made them into something alien and new. Ships did travel through space, but they were hunted by beings of pure malevolence, and saved by cats chasing imaginary mice. People themselves become alien adjusting their physiology to fit worlds that otherwise could not support life. Animals and robots become more than human by acting with intelligence, compassion, and love often exceeding that of their masters. Smith's stories are not hard science; they read more like fairy tales or myths. However, The Rediscovery of Man is the myths of mankind's future, myths showing the potential for both dreams and nightmares to come true. These are stories for children thousands of years hence, and for adults today. Just like myths and fairy tales, Smith's stories have great truths in them that are often hidden by an entertaining story. This collection is a fascinating glimpse into the human mentality. Individually, a few of these stories stand out as his best writing, but the collection as a whole is a beautiful work that leads you through one of the most imaginative minds in science fiction.
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