Mention Appertaining To Books The Instrumentality of Mankind (Instrumentality of Mankind)
| Title | : | The Instrumentality of Mankind (Instrumentality of Mankind) |
| Author | : | Cordwainer Smith |
| Book Format | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | #27716 |
| Pages | : | Pages: 238 pages |
| Published | : | May 1979 by Del Rey / Ballantine (first published 1979) |
| Categories | : | Science Fiction. Fiction. Short Stories. Anthologies |
Cordwainer Smith
Mass Market Paperback | Pages: 238 pages Rating: 4.12 | 1442 Users | 37 Reviews
Chronicle As Books The Instrumentality of Mankind (Instrumentality of Mankind)
14 short stories set in a universe of scanners, planoforming ships and animal-derived Underpeople.1 No, No, Not Rogov! (1959)
2 War No. 81-Q (1928)
3 Mark Elf (1957)
4 The Queen of the Afternoon (1978)
5 When the People Fell (1959)
6 Think Blue, Count Two (1963)
7 The Colonel Came Back from the Nothing-at-All (1979)
8 From Gustible's Planet (1962)
9 Drunkboat (1963)
10 Western Science Is So Wonderful (1958)
11 Nancy (1959)
12 The Fife of Bodidharma (1959)
13 Angerhelm (1959)
14 The Good Friends (1963)
"First Edition: May 1979" stated on the copyright page.
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| Original Title: | The Instrumentality of Mankind |
| ISBN: | 0345277163 (ISBN13: 9780345277169) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Instrumentality of Mankind, L'Instrumentalité #1 |
Rating Appertaining To Books The Instrumentality of Mankind (Instrumentality of Mankind)
Ratings: 4.12 From 1442 Users | 37 ReviewsAppraise Appertaining To Books The Instrumentality of Mankind (Instrumentality of Mankind)
The blurb on the back cover reads:THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF MANKINDCOMPLETES THE PUBLICATION OF THE SCIENCE FICTION OFCORDWAINER SMITHby Del Rey Bookswith fourteen stories set in his star-spanning futureuniverse of scanners, planoforming shipsthat whisper among the stars, the animal-derivedUnderpeople... perhaps the mostoutstanding and haunting feat of creative imaginationthe field has ever known.Here is the accountof the strange origin of the Vomact family and its rolein founding theIf a young adolescent Phillip K. Dick wrote short stories, I would imagine they would have read something like these very strange, warped, surreal tales.
No one before or since has written like Cordwainer Smith: the strange, soaring stories, with their hints of even further unglimpsed depths and wonders, were one of the delights of my youthful exploration of SF, and are a recurring source of pleasure even now.Unfortunately Smith was ill-served by his early publishers: his one longish novel (Norstrilia) was hacked into two parts (The Planet Buyer and The Underpeople), and the short stories (which originally appeared in magazines like Fantasy &
I love his pseudonym, which means cobbler..from cordovan, a fine leather from Cordoba, Spain. Nice shoes!See also my "Best of..." review for my mixed feelings on Cordwainer Smith. And in my blog, which sometimes gave a running account of my reading, I compared him to Flannery O'Connor in having a moral world view but not always sounding judgmental, just standing back and showing the behavior of people in stressful situations, or people/animal people/and other world people all bumped up against
Cordwainer Smith is a forgotten author these days, but I urge anyone who sees any book by him to pick it up, take it home and read. (Pay for it first!) Each story is a treasure. I've rationed out my Cordwainer Smith stories so I won't run out. This man is brilliant, and needs to be read instead of so much of the claptrap they keep putting out. "Scanners Live in Vain" and "Ballad of Lost C'mell" are amazing. I don't want to say much about the plots, but will only say that they look simple on the
Woahhh this was so good! My first time reading Cordwainer Smith and I feel like it was the perfect introduction. I was surprised that the first half of the short story collection was connected, but it helped me to understand the world he created. Done stories were harder to slog through than others (the parts heavy with technology and military) but each story had a great twist!
What to add to the already glowing praise of Smith? He brought a unique voice to SF, partly because of his Chinese background, partly because I think he had such an amazing mind, almost anything he wrote would have been surprisingly good. If you are an SF Fan and haven't read Smith, I envy you - you have a whole world of surprises awaiting you.
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