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Concordance to Cordwainer Smith
Cordwainer Smith's universe of the Instrumentality is one of the most complex, beautiful and fascinating every created. The Concordance to Cordwainer Smith lists and identifies all the people, places, and things in his huge future history. Where known, the origin of the name, place, or thing is given. Many previously unknown references have been added as well as entries from the revised version of "War No. 81- Q.". The book also includes an annotated timeline of the Instrumentality, and an expanded and updated bibliography to the fiction of Paul M. A. Linebarger (Cordwainer Smith, et al.).
- GenresReferenceScience Fiction
190 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2000
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 28, 2017
As I mentioned in my review of The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith, Cordwainer Smith's "Instrumentality of Mankind" has always exercised a fascination with me. The words conjure a vast machine manipulating human events, and it's a shame that Smith (aka Paul Linebarger) didn't live longer to write more stories about his future history. [How can you
not
feel a frisson of awe from the name alone?]
Reference books about fantasy or SF realms also grab my attention. I'd rather read about the people and world of Westeros than read the novels; the same is true of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. Not so much J.R.R. Tolkien or R. Scott Bakker - I still enjoy their works but I love delving into their appendices.
So I was interested in a Cordwainer Smith concordance.
However, Anthony Lewis' effort to bring a measure of order and explanation to Smith's universe is disappointing. It often reads like a first draft of a concordance, not the published product. For every entry that provides useful information or clarification (q.v., "Instrumentality of Mankind," p. 81) it seems that there're are two that are utterly uninformative ("clobber," p. 41) or are simply rough notes taken while reading the stories ("Old Strong Religion," p. 117).
I may have to do what another reviewer here mentions - annotate my copy with my own notes.
There is good stuff here, particularly the chronology, which puts each story in context and fleshes out the background history (to an extent). And there are interesting notes going into the sources for names, characters and the themes that keep popping up in Smith's work.
Due to its specialized nature, I can only recommend this (guardedly) to the already-converted Smith fan.
Reference books about fantasy or SF realms also grab my attention. I'd rather read about the people and world of Westeros than read the novels; the same is true of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. Not so much J.R.R. Tolkien or R. Scott Bakker - I still enjoy their works but I love delving into their appendices.
So I was interested in a Cordwainer Smith concordance.
However, Anthony Lewis' effort to bring a measure of order and explanation to Smith's universe is disappointing. It often reads like a first draft of a concordance, not the published product. For every entry that provides useful information or clarification (q.v., "Instrumentality of Mankind," p. 81) it seems that there're are two that are utterly uninformative ("clobber," p. 41) or are simply rough notes taken while reading the stories ("Old Strong Religion," p. 117).
I may have to do what another reviewer here mentions - annotate my copy with my own notes.
There is good stuff here, particularly the chronology, which puts each story in context and fleshes out the background history (to an extent). And there are interesting notes going into the sources for names, characters and the themes that keep popping up in Smith's work.
Due to its specialized nature, I can only recommend this (guardedly) to the already-converted Smith fan.
March 27, 2014
Program! Program! Get a program! You can't tell the players without a program!
The majority of Cordwainer Smith's science fiction output takes place in a future universe of vast complexity, filled with unusual (to say the least) places, people, things and institutions. This concordances serves as a very useful guide to aficionados of Smith's work, showing how the characters, concepts and locations link to the stories and how the stories link to each other. It also investigates Smith's very fertile imagination as well as his knowledge of history & current events by explaining the connection of the names and terms he chose to populate his universe to real-world persons and events.
If you want to understand how the universe of the Instrumentality hangs together, you need this book.
(NOTE: I ranked it "4 stars" because, hey, it's a reference book! It's intensely useful to enjoy the Instrumentality of Mankind. But it isn't something that can exist outside of Smith's work.)
The majority of Cordwainer Smith's science fiction output takes place in a future universe of vast complexity, filled with unusual (to say the least) places, people, things and institutions. This concordances serves as a very useful guide to aficionados of Smith's work, showing how the characters, concepts and locations link to the stories and how the stories link to each other. It also investigates Smith's very fertile imagination as well as his knowledge of history & current events by explaining the connection of the names and terms he chose to populate his universe to real-world persons and events.
If you want to understand how the universe of the Instrumentality hangs together, you need this book.
(NOTE: I ranked it "4 stars" because, hey, it's a reference book! It's intensely useful to enjoy the Instrumentality of Mankind. But it isn't something that can exist outside of Smith's work.)
March 28, 2012
Cordwainer Smith, the science fiction writers writer. He's the name top science fictions drop in interviews. And this is an introduction to the worlds that he created. Not only that, but it is a through investigation of all the people, places, and things in his stories are noted. For both those new to Cordwainer and those who know of his works, there's something for you in these pages. Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger is Cordwainers real name, Cordwainer is one used for his science fiction stories that share a common future history. The man himself and the things that he did on this earth are as varied and interesting as his stories were.
October 18, 2011
I did really like it, but I've added a lot of my own notes in my copy. How could there ever be a really thorough concordance of Cordwainer Smith?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews