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| The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith | 
 enlarge | Author: Cordwainer Smith
Creator: James A. Mann
Publisher: Nesfa Press
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $19.50
You Save: $5.50 (22%)
New (6) Used (13) from $13.93
Avg. Customer Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 42240
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 671
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.8 x 2.2
ISBN: 0915368560
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780915368563
ASIN: 0915368560
Publication Date: June 1993
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
The third story in this volume takes place 16,000 years in the future. When you realize that the 33 stories are ordered chronologically, you begin to grasp the scale of Cordwainer Smith's creation. Regimes, technologies, planets, moralities, religions, histories all rise and fall through his millennia. These are futuristic tales told as myth, as legend, as a history of a distant and decayed past. Written in an unadorned voice reminiscent of James Tiptree Jr., Smith's visions are dark and pessimistic, clearly a contrast from the mood of SF in his time; in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s it was still thought that science would cure the ills of humanity. In Smith's tales, space travel takes a horrendous toll on those who pilot the ships through the void. After reaching perfection, the lack of strife stifles humanity to a point of decay and stagnation; the Instrumentality of Mankind arises in order to stir things up. Many stories describe moral dilemmas involving the humanity of the Underpeople, beings evolved from animals into humanlike forms. Stories not to be missed in this collection include "Scanners Live in Vain," "The Dead Lady of Clown Town," "Under Old Earth," "The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal," "Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons," and the truly disturbing "A Planet Called Shayol." Serious SF fans should not pass up the chance to experience Cordwainer Smith's complex, distinctive vision of the far future. --Bonnie Bouman
Product Description
Includes 33 stories that represent Cordwainer Smiths entire SF works except for the novel Norstrilia. These stories are "classics" of the field such as "The Dead Lady of Clown Town," "The Game of Rat and Dragon," "Scanners Live in Vain," and "A Planet Named Shayol." Appearing for the first time in print are "Himself in Anachron" and the completely rewritten adult version of his high school story "War No. 81-Q." Introduction by John J. Pierce.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 47 more reviews...
 Step into the fantastic mind of Cordwainer Smith July 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Wow, what a mind. Kind of like the literary verson of Salvador Dali. Get past the first few stories and you're on a wild fantasy ride for 600+ pages. Some people will find his writing too weird but I loved it. Original, creative and like nothing else. I was totally drawn in. I love that kind of escape where you leave earth completely because anything remotely tying you to the world you know is completely gone and replaced with a completely new world.
The stories are written as if Mr. Smith has an entire universe spanning thousands of years in his head and only a very small sampling of that universe finds its way to the stories. Not everything is explained and there are gaps but this doesn't take away from the world he creates, it only serves to add depth and mystery. Apparently he lost his notebook, leaving it in a restaurant, and then he died early so who knows what more he would/could have written.
 For Serious fans and historians of science fiction July 2, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Didn't care for it. The writing just didn't draw me in. The story ideas were sorta good but the authors corny / dumb down naming of objects and peoples cheapens and dates it badly (1955-66). Examples: Fighting Trees (trees used to absorb and neutralize radioactive contamination from past wars), True men, Wise Old Bear (failed bear to human mutation), Unauthorized Men (failed dog to human), Brainbox, Helen America, Mr. Grey-no-more, Sailors (meaning astronauts), "Up-and-Out" (space), "Clown Town the underpeople place" ........
Like others say, and I agree, this is for serious fans of C. Smith and/or historians of science fiction.
Not Free SF Reader January 22, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
A fine idea to put all Smith's short stories together, although the lesser known work is certainly that for a reason. It is still good to see all the Instrumentality of Mankind stories in one place, as some of them are brilliant, and there isn't a bad piece in the lot.
Even with the weaker unrelated stuff at the end, this still manages to average almost 3.75. Very nice.
Rediscovery of Man : No No Not Rogov! - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : War No. 81-Q revised - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Mark Elf [Mark XI Vom Acht sisters] - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : The Queen of the Afternoon [Vom Acht sisters] - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Scanners Live in Vain - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : The Lady Who Sailed The Soul - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : When the People Fell - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Think Blue Count Two - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : The Colonel Came Back from Nothing-at-All - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : The Game of Rat and Dragon - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : The Burning of the Brain - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : From Gustible's Planet - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Himself in Anachron - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Golden the Ship Was Oh! Oh! Oh! - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : The Dead Lady of Clown Town - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Under Old Earth - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Drunkboat - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Alpha Ralpha Boulevard - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : The Ballad of Lost C'Mell - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : A Planet Named Shayol - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : On the Gem Planet [Casher O'Neill] - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : On the Storm Planet [Casher O'Neill] - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : On the Sand Planet [Casher O'Neill] - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Three to a Given Star [Casher O'Neill] - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Down to a Sunless Sea - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : War No. 81-Q - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Western Science Is So Wonderful - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Nancy [The Nancy Routine] - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : The Fife of Bodidharma - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : Angerhelm - Cordwainer Smith
Rediscovery of Man : The Good Friends - Cordwainer Smith
Soviet science couple's brain needle journey.
4 out of 5
Licence to kill, robots, anyway.
4 out of 5
Manhunter not too helpful for old timer.
3.5 out of 5
Suspended animation Underpeople awakening gives girl an Instrumentality role.
3.5 out of 5
Monopoly is bad, and worth doing something about.
5 out of 5
Solo starnaut sheila's suitor.
4 out of 5
Chinese Venusian megadrop.
3 out of 5
I am sailing, I am spoiling, across the stars, should be freezed.
3.5 out of 5
Lost soul pinlighting.
4 out of 5
Another actual use for a live cat. Fight you little bastich.
4 out of 5
Mind destruction manoeuvre rescue transfer.
3.5 out of 5
I wish they'd duck off.
3.5 out of 5
Time enough for love Knot.
4 out of 5
Lost planet female cancer trannie aggression solution is timeslip cat kill cull.
4 out of 5
Time for war, duckie.
4 out of 5
Witch woman and dead robot animal trial.
4.5 out of 5
Too happy is bad.
3.5 out of 5
Rage through space, really fast to dreams out of space.
4.5 out of 5
Old North Australia's mutant mad mink secret defense doesn't pussyfoot around with thieves and murderers. Or, Stop, You'll Eat Yourself.
5 out of 5
Hard to believe in France.
3 out of 5
Underpeople Lord assisted execution escapage.
4.5 out of 5
Pain punishment makes skin way more deep.
3.5 out of 5
Test dictated for horse help.
3 out of 5
Turtle girl's longevity vigil requires warrior assistant.
4 out of 5
Comeback confrontation dictated.
3.5 out of 5
Cackle-gabble telepathy search eating solution.
3.5 out of 5
Sacrifice power.
4 out of 5
Licence to kill, robots, anyway.
4 out of 5
Fascinated Martian chat.
3 out of 5
Virus life.
4 out of 5
Dainty noise weapon.
2.5 out of 5
Funny voice medium.
3 out of 5
No party mission.
3 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
Talk of a hidden gem January 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I encountered Cordwainer Smith many many years ago, in a Fantasy-Science Fiction magazine in my home country; by the way, with an introduction by a scholar of CS! Do you know of anyone in the US?. It was "Under Old Earth", which has haunted my soul ever since like no other piece of literature, haute or 'low-brow'. In contrast to my second-favorite SF writer, Phillip K. Dick, CS conveys a sense of poetry and subtlety absent in the rough-edge writing of PKD, while bringing about the unique strength of SF, that of exploring the inner and outer limits of the human experience.
After all these years, I still wonder why CS remains such a hidden treasure. It is perhaps the built-in disdain of literary critics and scholars for SF, understandable but not less a prejudice.
As I write my comments, Kafka keeps popping up in my mind: just change Samsa's bed and the castle for harvested organs and the Instrumentality. Or was the Old Man also a Fantasy writer?
The Glory That Was Cordwainer June 21, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Cordwainer Smith was unique. Although the contents of this volume represent more than half of his entire science-fictional output, what he lacked in quantity he made up for in superb and very different quality. His prose is colored by some very non-standard phrasing and imagery, at least some of which came from his close connections with Chinese culture (his god-father was Sun Yat-sen, and he was a close confidant of Chiang Kai-shek). There is a feeling, an ambience to his stories that I have never seen even approximated by any other author. But the themes he tackled in his stories are ones that everyone can relate to, covering prejudice, greed, lust for power, crime and appropriate punishment, and the seeming boundless desire to go where no man has gone before.
Perhaps the main highlight of this collection is "The Dead Lady of Clown Town", which is a very forceful retelling of the Joan of Arc story. I ended up in tears at the end of this one when I first read it, and subsequent re-reads haven't lessened its impact. I've had this one in my top ten `best of sf' short fiction list since my first encounter with it.
"A Planet Named Shayol" will make you do some heavy thinking about just what can or should be done to punish a society's law (or custom) breakers, or if punishment is ever even really justifiable at all, and will give you a nightmare vision of just what hell on Earth (or any other planet) just might be like.
"The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" may be the centerpiece of his entire envisioned future history, as the Instrumentality of Mankind, which for centuries has managed the human population to avoid disease, war, or hard labor (for which tasks the Underpeople were created), is driven to the conclusion that a viable civilization must have some dark elements, as championed by Lord Jestocost and girly-girl Cat-person C'Mell.
Almost all of the stories here are part of Smith's envisioned universe governed by the Instrumentality, a vision that stretches from near-Earth future to a very distant far-future galaxy where humanity has spread almost everywhere. Smith clearly has some overriding messages: his fear of all-powerful ruling bodies, his attachment to all forms of life and the respect that each individual should have, and a basic belief in the power and utility of religion. All the details of this universe are not filled in, and it is sometimes the tantalizing glimpses of what he does not describe that will capture your imagination, and your wish that there were more stories about this unique world. His Underpeople are marvelous creations, showing not only those traits normally associated with the best of humanity, but also characteristics of their underlying animal heritage, whether it be cat, dog, or turtle.
Not every story here is a gem, most especially those not set in his Instrumentality universe or those dealing with the very near future. But they are all very readable, and the overall level of quality here is absurdly high. Read this first. Then take on his only sf novel, Norstrilia. You won't regret it.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
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