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Welcome to the strangest, most distinctive future ever imagined by a science fiction writer. An interstellar empire ruled by the mysterious Lords of the Instrumentality, whose access to the drug stroon, from the planet Norstrilia, confers on them virtual immortality. A world in which wealthy and leisured humanity is served by the underpeople, genetically engineered animals turned into the semblance of people. A world in which the great ships which sail between the stars are eventually supplanted by the mysterious, instantaneous technique of planoforming. A world of wonder and myth, and extraordinary imagination.
This critical work concentrates on the science fiction writings of Paul Linebarger, who wrote under the pseudonym Cordwainer Smith, as well as other pseudonyms he created to reflect his different writing styles. His writings give voice to concerns about humanity and personal struggle; his ideas about love, loss, alienation, and psychic pain continue to resonate today. This work begins with a brief biographical sketch of Cordwainer Smith, linking elements of his past to his writing and focusing on his contributions to science fiction as well as his concern with humanity. Also discussed are Smith's published and unpublished novel-length non-science fiction, his revision process, the true man-underpeople dichotomy in his published and unpublished short fiction, and his only published novel-length science fiction work Norstrilia.
When his ultra-logical computer tells him that to survive he must become the richest man in the universe, Rod McBan the hundred and fifty-first thought he had a good plan. A telepathic cripple, rejected by many of his people, owner of the Station of Doom, the safety of wealth would keep him safe. In one crowded, unbelievable night he achieved the impossible, became the richest boy in the galaxy. But Rod McBan will soon discover that money brings trouble. A galaxy of people and other beings - out to rob him, use him or kill him!
"No one ever wrote like Smith, with his special blend of intense myth-making and rich invention "--Publishers Weekly Cordwainer Smith was one of the original visionaries to think of humanity in terms of thousands of years in the future,
This remarkable science-fiction explores the story of Sto Odin, a Lord of the Instrumentality, and his two robots, who are imprinted with the minds of dead men. The story follows their travel in search of Gebiet, an underground city without the dull, enforced happiness of the surface world.
The Store Of Heart's Desire' is a gripping story of planet Norstrilia. It is a semi-arid planet where an immortality drug called stroon is harvested from huge, virus-infected sheep, weighing more than 100 tons. Norstrilians were nominally the wealthiest people in the galaxy and protected their immensely valuable stroon with advanced weapons. Yet, high taxes ensured that everyone on the planet lived a rural life, like the farmers of old Australia, to keep the Norstrilians tough.