I purchased this book of short stories ten years ago and I don’t remember why. It wasn’t because of his name, Cordwainer Smith, that’s for sure. I’d never heard of him, his stories don’t appear in the usual round-ups of the best sci-fi, and there surely hasn’t been a summer blockbuster movie inveigling, “From the mind of Cordwainer Smith…”. I’m glad I finally read this book. It was one entertaining story after another.
The first twenty-seven stories chronicle a future history of mankind spanning over 15,000 years from now through the Ancient Wars that destroyed civilization, through the foundation of utopia guided and governed by the Instrumentality of Mankind, through to the Rediscovery of Man. Rather than “spanning”, I might have said “looping back”. While utopia did end death, hunger, and work, life became bland, each day the same. History ceased. “The nightmare of perfection had taken [mankind] to the edge of suicide.” It was then that “...the Instrumentality dug deep in the treasury, reconstructing the old cultures, the old languages, and even the old troubles.” This is the Rediscovery of Man. The final six stories are unrelated to Smith’s future history, but are just as good.
His ideas are peculiar, and often, the first page or two of a story makes only vague sense. Scanners Live in Vain begins, “Martel was angry. He did not even adjust his blood away from anger. He stamped across the room by judgment, not by sight. When he saw the table hit the floor, and could tell by the expression on Luci's face that the table must have made a loud crash, he looked down to see if his leg was broken. It was not.” Also, terms are used multiple time before being explained, such as “cranch”. When the ideas and terms became clearer, I’d often reread those first few pages and visualize something completely different than I did initially. This adds to the richness of Smith’s universe.Many stories concern space travel. They generally focus more on the psychological issues that arise from space travel rather than on the technology. The greatest hazard to travellers is the mysterious First Effect that causes, in people, the The Great Pain of Space, a “need for death”. To forestall this homicidal impulse, passengers are placed in suspended animation while the spacecraft is crewed by Scanners and Habermans that have had all their senses, except for sight, disconnected from their brains to stave off the First Effect. This psychological condition forms the latticework on which stories such as Scanners Live in Vain and Think Blue, Count Two are built.
Other stories (The Dead Lady of Clown Town, The Ballad of Lost C’mell) concern the underpeople, human-like beings created from animals that labor for mankind, and their struggle to win equal rights, which is clearly a nod to the civil rights movement.
The stories On The Gem Planet, On the Storm Planet, and On the Sand Planet form a novella of just over a hundred pages. It follows Casher O’Neill as he endeavors to regain control of his home planet where a military coup has overthrown its ruler, his uncle. Alone, he travels the stars seeking aid in his mission. I particularly enjoyed this story as it reminded me of a Jack Vance space opera. Smith’s story takes a turn at the end quite unlike the violent resolution I expected as in a Vance story.
There is humor here, too. From Gustible’s Planet recounts Earth’s encounter with the Apicians, intelligent life that “resembled nothing more than oversize ducks, four feet to four feet six in height.” The Apicians follow Gustible, who discovered their planet, back to Earth where they generally make nuisances of themselves through their bottomless stomachs and love of Earth food. I laughed out loud when reading this story partly because of how incongruous the tone was as compared to Smith’s other stories and partly from being genuinely funny. I wondered if this was truly part of his future history or just him poking a little bit of fun of himself.
I’m lucky to have stumbled upon Cordwainer Smith. His unique voice in the world of science fiction makes him a must read. My only regret is that this is his complete short science fiction and only his novel Norstrilia remains for me to be read.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: Cordwainer Smith’s real name was Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (1913-1966). He was more than just a science fiction writer. He grew up in China and through his father’s involvement in Chinese politics, became a confidant of Chiang Kai-shek. In this book’s introduction, John J. Pierce says, “...he became perhaps the world’s leading authority on psychological warfare.” and that “He wrote the book on psychological warfare - under his own name, as with all his non-fiction.” His interest in psychology is clearly why some many of his stories have a psychological rather than a technological bent, which differentiates him from the crowd.
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