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...
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Nov 23, 2007
Robert
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This really is a fantastic collection of short stories. A little background - Cordwainer Smith is a psuedonymn for Paul Linebarger. He was a preeminent military psychologist - he wrote a classic text on psychological warfare. His life story is really interesting; advisor to Chiang Kai-shek, the President of Nationalist China in the 20s, he spoke six languages, was a foreign policy advisor for JFK..
His scifi is much more focused on large sociological structures and individuals in repr More...
His scifi is much more focused on large sociological structures and individuals in repr More...
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Apr 30, 2008
Jason
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If I had to pick just three authors works for the rest of my life. I would pick Cordwainer Smith. This particular volume has every short story that he wrote. He became a Christian partway through his career, and some of his great stories are concerned directly with the faith and with what conversion means in the modern world. Some of my favorites: "The Dead Lady of Clown Town" "The Lady who sailed the Soul" "Scanners live in vain"
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Dec 16, 2009
Marc
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From these short stories alone I'm willing to say that I thing Cordwainer Smith is the greatest science fiction author of all time. The writing, as in almost all great science fiction, can seem a bit stilted at time, however the stories and ideas paint the only future I could even begin to believe if mankind were to exist another 20000 years.
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Apr 12, 2008
Kevin
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Cordwainer Smith is a writer like none other. His prose leaves an entirely different effect on the reader than any of the other masters of science fiction. His imagination is terrifying, and stories like "The Crime and Glory of Commander Suzdal" will leave your eyes wide open and your palms sweating. Excellent, excellent writer.
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Oct 20, 2010
Karen
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I love space, space2, and space3. I love the love stories and the hyperbole and the whole world. I have not met a vaguely Christian sci-fi writer's vision of the future that I would like to inhabit more. I can even get into the mystical personality-overlapping revolution of the underpeople. But I CANNOT HANDLE any more dude writers with their 7-12 year old sexual/not sexual redemptive innocent girls with budding breasts and big limpid sweet eyes saving everything with their sexual/not sexual
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Dec 01, 2008
Tony
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I've always loved the strange and wondrous stories of Paul Linebarger, aka Cordwainer Smith. Like a few other science fiction masters, he constructed a "future history" into which he fit the majority of his stories, as well as his novel "Norstrilia". They're full of odd and uncomfortable concepts, sometimes they're downright creepy and other times they're provocative and thought-provoking. They've been collected into various incomplete anthologies over the years. This to my
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Dec 17, 2009
Nathanielk
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One of the weirdest and most literate of all SF writers. In real life, he was an American specialist in psychological warfare who operated in East Asia. The stories here are almost impossible to categorize.
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Oct 17, 2011
Zachary
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Smith should fall in the top five writers easily for those readers who enjoy class sci-fi/space opera. So many concepts that would later be central to the work of Herbert, Asimov and Banks are laid out here, in Smith's epic series of short stories, all set along the same impossibly long timeline. Issues explored defy description, but include gender identity, drug use, genetic engineering, East vs West, the final fate of economic systems... I could go on. But, really, you owe it to yourself to re
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Jan 16, 2012
George
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Occasionally, I regret that we have genres; that we divide literature up into little parcels such as ‘mainstream’, ‘fantasy’ or ‘science fiction’, for the simple reason that a hierarchical sense of values creeps into our thinking. Every now and then a writer suffers from these classifications, and this is particularly striking in the case of Cordwainer Smith (real name: Paul Linebarger). Because his work has been classified as ‘science fiction’, it has remained confined to aficionados of that ge
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Jul 01, 2010
Stephen
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5.5 stars. I have not read all of the stories in this collection, so my rating is based on the stories reviewed below (I will update periodically as I read additional stories):
Scanners Live In Vain - Classic short story set in the universe of the Instrumentality of Mankind and arguably smith's beat story. Set around 6000 A.D., interstellar travel has been discovered to cause great pain and suicidal tendencies in people. This problem was resolved by having passengers travel stored More...
Scanners Live In Vain - Classic short story set in the universe of the Instrumentality of Mankind and arguably smith's beat story. Set around 6000 A.D., interstellar travel has been discovered to cause great pain and suicidal tendencies in people. This problem was resolved by having passengers travel stored More...
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Sep 29, 2010
Terence
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(Written September 2010): I am at an impasse. I have an enormous pile of fiction on the To-Read pile but I can't figure out which one to go with - Mieville? Sabatini? Himes? Warner? Winterson? Kleist?, und so weiter.
In the interim, while this existential struggle goes on, I have been rereading this collection of short stories from Cordwainer Smith (aka Paul Linebarger). It's hard to characterize Smith. Like Gene Wolfe, he's an author who I either really like or I really don't. The Shadow of the Torturer More...
In the interim, while this existential struggle goes on, I have been rereading this collection of short stories from Cordwainer Smith (aka Paul Linebarger). It's hard to characterize Smith. Like Gene Wolfe, he's an author who I either really like or I really don't. The Shadow of the Torturer More...
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Mar 21, 2008
Eric
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Cordwainer Smith is a name unknown to many, since he died a premature death in the mid 1960's.
These stories were written in the late 50s, early 60s, and are so intelligent and forward thinking, I'm still stunned. I don't know if there's a real connection, but it would seem he had a tremendous influence in the genre, with ripples in Philip K. Dick's work (which itself is legendary) all the way to the present day.
This isn't science-fiction in the sense that there's a lot o More...
These stories were written in the late 50s, early 60s, and are so intelligent and forward thinking, I'm still stunned. I don't know if there's a real connection, but it would seem he had a tremendous influence in the genre, with ripples in Philip K. Dick's work (which itself is legendary) all the way to the present day.
This isn't science-fiction in the sense that there's a lot o More...
Sep 07, 2010
Douglas
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Some of the best science fiction ever written. I've read many stories to my older children and read the whole corpus several times.
Aug 09, 2011
Rebecca
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I only read Alpha Ralpha Boulevard from this collection and didn't get on with it at all - what was that all about LOL
Dec 28, 2008
Wil
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I love Cordwainer Smith's short sci-fi. CS is one of the pen-names of Paul Linebarger. During his time, Linebarger was one of the foremost experts in the world in the field of psychological warfare. It shows in his writing.
I find each of his tales to be individually gripping and astonishing.
I find each of his tales to be individually gripping and astonishing.
Jun 11, 2008
Jay
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NO ONE ELSE writes like this dude. His titles are great: "Mother Hitton's Littol Kittuns," "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard," "The Burning of the Brain," "Under Old Earth," "Golden the Ship Was- Oh! Oh! Oh!," "The Game of Rat and Dragon." Science fiction that draws on Chinese myth and a sense of immense, immovable age. Stories that make me feel whirling and small.
Feb 11, 2012
Jack
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Who is this person? I found this book at a cabin in Rockport, read a few stories, and have checked this book out of the library.
I'd be embarrassed, slightly, if I weren't completely and suddenly kind of obsessed.
I'd be embarrassed, slightly, if I weren't completely and suddenly kind of obsessed.
Oct 24, 2008
Friends told me this is some of the best Sci-fi...incorporating many complex human issues into the scenarios..."Heinlenesque"
Jan 09, 2008
Bob(by)
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I remember liking some of these short stories. I don't remember much other than that.
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