Product Description

The discovery of stroon, a drug that confers near immortality on humans, has made Old North Australia rich. So rich that when Rod McBan has to flee the planet because someone wants him dead, he buys the Earth. His picaresque adventures on Old Earth offer an exuberant, eccentric and wildly imaginative vision of the universe - a vision like no other.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #821283 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Cordwainer Smith was the pseudonym of Dr Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (1913-1966). He grew up in China, Japan, France and Germany and had learned six languages by his late teens. He worked with his father as an adviser to Chiang Kai-shek and served as an intelligence officer in China and Korea. He wrote an authoritative book on psychological warfare and became a member of the Foreign Policy Association and a professor of Asiatic Politics at John Hopkins University.

Customer Reviews

Unforgettable
I first read this book at least ten years ago. I keep remembering the huge mutated sheep, C'Mell the lost cat woman (I'd love to find the "Ballad of lost C'Mell"), and the computer that beat the Earth's Weather Machine. I wanted to read Norstrilia again. We should start a Cordwainer Smith revival.

A dark heart to a witty fantasy
Cordwiainer Smith was writing witty, imaginative sf long before Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett et al cheapened the idea. At the heart of Cordwainer Smith's future history lies the Instrumentality of Mankind; a benovolent force able to see beyond the considerations of easy liberalism. I think that the authors experience of the Far East and Pentagon subterfuge informs his work as he often attempts to explain the motivation of rulers, spies and mystics This book has many faults, being whimsical, episodic and leaving much unexplained. But it still constitutes a major imaginative achievement unlike any other in sf or fantasy.

My thoughts on this classic fantasy
Cordwainer Smith was one of the best. I do not think it necessary to disparage the modern crowd. Perhaps Terry Pratchett is a C-S fan, who knows. Also be careful with the interpretation, maybe he is more liberal than you think. The Lords of the Instrumentality were not the good guys, exactly. Note also that there is some religeous undertones (thankfully very inexplicit), the fish represents Christianity. (Paul Linebarger, aka C-S was Christian). Despite this, as a non believer, I find it bewitching and enthralling. Have done for many years. In answer to an earlier post, the Balland of Lost C'Mell is in the collection Rediscovery of Man. I think it is. But I don't have it. Here is my attempt at recollection from many years ago .. "This is the ballad of what she did, Hid the Bell with a blot she did, but she fell in love with a hominid, where is the which of the what she did ?" Or something like that...