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The Best Of Cordwainer Smith
''The Best of Cordwainer Smith'' is a collection of science fiction short stories by American author Cordwainer Smith, edited by J. J. Pierce. It was first published in hardback by Nelson Doubleday in July 1975 and in paperback by Ballantine Books in September of the same year as a volume in its Classic Library of Science Fiction. The Ballantine edition was reprinted in October 1977 and July 1985. Phoenix Pick issued a new edition in trade paperback and ebook in April, 2017. A British paperback edition under the alternative title ''The Rediscovery of Man'' was published by Gollancz in June 1988, and reissued in 1999, 2003, and 2010; Gollancz also brought out hardcover and ebook versions in September 1988 and November 2012, respectively. The book has also been translated into German. Summary The book contains twelve short works of fiction by the author, all set in his "Instrumentality of Mankind" future history series, together with an introduction and timeline by editor J. J. P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. For e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Future History
A future history is a postulated history of the future and is used by authors of science fiction and other speculative fiction to construct a common background for fiction. Sometimes the author publishes a timeline of events in the history, while other times the reader can reconstruct the order of the stories from information provided therein. Background The term appears to have been coined by John W. Campbell, Jr., the editor of ''Astounding Science Fiction'', in the February 1941 issue of that magazine, in reference to Robert A. Heinlein's ''Future History''. Neil R. Jones is generally credited as the first author to create a future history.Ashley, M. (April, 1989). The Immortal Professor, Astro Adventures No.7, p.6. A set of stories which share a backdrop but are not really concerned with the sequence of history in their universe are rarely considered future histories. For example, neither Lois McMaster Bujold's ''Vorkosigan Saga'' nor George R. R. Martin's 1970s sho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Planet Named Shayol
"A Planet Named Shayol" is a science fiction story by American writer Cordwainer Smith (the pen name of Paul Linebarger). Like most of his science fiction work, it takes place in his Instrumentality of Mankind setting. It was first published in ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' magazine in October 1961. In other media Audio The story was adapted for radio by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and broadcast in 1986. Plot summary The protagonist, Mercer, who lives within the Empire, has been convicted of "a crime that has no name". He is condemned by the Empire to the planet Shayol, in which he lives in a penal colony whose inhabitants must undergo grotesque physical mutations caused by tiny symbiotes called ''dromozoans''. Most grow extra organs, which the Empire harvests for medical purposes. The bull-man B'dikkat administers the prisoners a drug called super-condamine to alleviate the pain of their punishment and from their surgeries. More than a century pass. Mercer has found ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ballad Of Lost C'Mell
"The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" is a science fiction novella by American writer Cordwainer Smith. It was first published in October 1962 in ''Galaxy Magazine'', and since reprinted in several compilations and omnibus editions. The main characters are Jestocost, a lord of the Instrumentality of Mankind, and C'mell, a beautiful cat-derived "underperson" (an animal given human speech and form but no rights, while retaining some of its inherent genetics -- for example, C'mell's father held the long-jump record at the time) who works as a "girly-girl" (similar to an escort) at the main spaceport. Plot summary The story revolves around Jestocost's ambition to help the oppressed underpeople gain rights without upsetting the established social order. While debating how to make contact, Jestocost telepathically accesses C'mell's thoughts during the funeral of her athlete father, and overhears her call for help to someone named E-telly-kelly. After awkwardly questioning her later (which sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine''. The first issue was titled ''The Magazine of Fantasy'', but the decision was quickly made to include science fiction as well as fantasy, and the title was changed correspondingly with the second issue. ''F&SF'' was quite different in presentation from the existing science fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format: it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, and text in a single column format, which in the opinion of science fiction historian Mike Ashley "set ''F&SF'' apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine". ''F&SF'' qu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpha Ralpha Boulevard
"Alpha Ralpha Boulevard" is a science fiction story by American writer Cordwainer Smith, set in his Instrumentality of Mankind universe, concerning the opening days of a sudden radical shift from a controlling, benevolent, but sterile society, to one with individuality, danger and excitement. The story has been reprinted a number of times, including in ''The Best of Cordwainer Smith'' and ''The Rediscovery of Man'' collections. Ursula K. Le Guin said that " 'Alpha Ralpha Boulevard' (...) was as important to me as reading Pasternak for the first time."MacCaffery, Larry and Gregory, Sinda, ''Alive and Writing: Interviews with American Authors of the 1980s'', p. 177, University of Illinois Press, 1987. "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard" was inspired in part by a painting from Smith's childhood, '' The Storm'' by Pierre-Auguste Cot, of two young lovers fleeing along a darkening path. Additionally, the names of the two principal characters, together with the conscious attempt to revive a Fre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons
"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons" is a classic science fiction short story by American writer Cordwainer Smith, first published in ''Galaxy Magazine'' in 1961, and partly based on Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. It is collected most recently in ''The Rediscovery of Man''. It details the methods by which the Norstrilians (or "Old North Australians") of Smith's fictional "Instrumentality of Mankind, Instrumentality" universe maintain their monopoly on the precious immortality drug ''stroon''. The story details part of the background to the novel ''Norstrilia'' (which references the Kittons once in its introduction as a sure method of death). The story has been alluded to in Charles Stross's ''Glasshouse (novel), Glasshouse''. Background Cordwainer Smith is a pseudonym of Paul Linebarger, the noted China expert, who wrote most of his published science-fiction stories within the setting of the Instrumentality of Mankind. For many millennia, the rather static structure of this soci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Dead Lady Of Clown Town
"The Dead Lady of Clown Town" is a science fiction novella by American writer Cordwainer Smith, set in his Instrumentality of Mankind future history. It was originally published in ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' in 1964. It was included in the collection ''The Best of Cordwainer Smith'' and most recently in ''The Rediscovery of Man'' short story collection. A graphic novel adaptation by Elaine Lee and Michael Kaluta was to have appeared in DC Comics during the late 1980s, but never materialized. Background Cordwainer Smith wrote several stories set in a fictional milieu called the Instrumentality of Mankind. Although humanity achieves a utopian state, people live sterile and shallow lives. The ''underpeople'' are animals who have been heavily modified to look human and have human intelligence. Despite this, they have no rights and are treated like animals, to be used and destroyed without qualm. The story takes obvious inspiration from the story of Joan of Arc. There are also points of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Crime And The Glory Of Commander Suzdal
"The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal" is a science fiction short story by Cordwainer Smith, set in Smith's " Instrumentality" universe. It was first published in ''Amazing Stories'' in May 1964, and is collected in ''The Rediscovery of Man'' compendium. Plot Commander Suzdal is a captain of "The Navy and the Instrumentality" sent on a "one man" mission of exploration (in actuality he is accompanied by several generations of "Turtle-People"). He hibernates in cryogenic sleep while long-lived turtle underpeople run the ship, until the need for a "true human" arises. A deep space probe is found. It tells a brilliantly conceived but utterly false story about the plight of a group of settlers calling themselves the Arachosians. Suzdal is deceived and turns his ship towards the planet Arachosia and reenters hibernation. When he arrives he learns the horrible truth. The original settlers nearly became extinct, succumbing to a plague that (in Smith's words) rendered "femininit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amazing Stories
''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances in other magazines, including some published by Gernsback, but ''Amazing'' helped define and launch a new genre of pulp fiction. As of 2018, ''Amazing'' has been published, with some interruptions, for 92 years, going through a half-dozen owners and many editors as it struggled to be profitable. Gernsback was forced into bankruptcy and lost control of the magazine in 1929. In 1938 it was purchased by Ziff-Davis, who hired Raymond A. Palmer as editor. Palmer made the magazine successful though it was not regarded as a quality magazine within the science fiction community. In the late 1940s ''Amazing'' presented as fact stories about the Shaver Mystery, a lurid mythos that explained accidents and disaster as the work of robots named deros, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
If (magazine)
''If'' was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn. The magazine was moderately successful, though for most of its run it was not considered to be in the first tier of American science fiction magazines. It achieved its greatest success under editor Frederik Pohl, winning the Hugo Award for best professional magazine three years running from 1966 to 1968. ''If'' published many award-winning stories over its 22 years, including Robert A. Heinlein's novel ''The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress'' and Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". The most prominent writer to make his first sale to ''If'' was Larry Niven, whose story "The Coldest Place" appeared in the December 1964 issue. ''If'' was merged into ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' after the December 1974 issue, its 175th issue overall. Publication history Although science fiction had been published in the United States before the 1920s, it di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Game Of Rat And Dragon
"The Game of Rat and Dragon" is a science fiction short story by American author Cordwainer Smith, written in 1954J.J. Pierce (ed.), ''The Best of Cordwainer Smith'' (1975), p. 67. and published in ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' in 1955. It is set in the far future, though no date is given. It occurs in the same universe as other Cordwainer Smith novels, with a passing reference to the super-powerful regulatory 'Instrumentality'. The "dragons" are mysterious aliens which attack human starships and drive the inhabitants insane. Cats guided by telepaths are used to fight the "dragons", because of their very quick reactions. They see the aliens as giant rats, hence the story title. The human telepaths form very strong bonds with these cats, seeing them as almost human. Non-telepaths sometimes mock them for this. Plot Human travel in outer space is threatened by strange creatures known as the Dragons. Imperceptible to ordinary people, Dragons are experienced as nothing but a sudden deat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
