The Rediscovery of Man

Cordwainer Smith

Orion, Nov 30, 2012 - Fiction - 381 pages

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.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Jean_Sexton - LibraryThing

This is the 1975 collection published by Doubleday/Del Rey and republished by the Science Fiction Book Club. It is a marvelous collection as were all done in that series. It has the following stories ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Stevil2001 - LibraryThing

The Rediscovery of Man collects all of Cordwainer Smith's short science fiction. I previously read a book that collected most of it, When the People Fell, and rereading my review, I find that I ...

About the author

Cordwainer Smith (1913 - 1966)
Cordwainer Smith was the most famous pen name of US foreign policy adviser Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger. Born in Milwaukee in 1913, his godfather was the Chinese revolutionary and political leader, Sun Yat-sen - the result of his political activist father's close ties with leaders of the Chinese revolution. Smith held a PhD in Political Science from Johns Hopkins, served in the US military during the Second World War and acted as an adviser to President Kennedy. Although he only published one novel, Norstrilia, Smith is well regarded for his short fiction, the majority of which is set in his future history of the Instrumentality of Mankind.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Rediscovery of Man; Volume 10 of S.F. MASTERWORKS
• Author: Cordwainer Smith
• Publisher: Orion, 2012
• ISBN: 0575108614, 9780575108615
• Length: 381 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure; Fiction / Science Fiction / General; Fiction / Science Fiction / Hard Science Fiction