This is outstanding, the story average is 4.04 thanks to not one, but two 5 star stories, in Scanners Live In Vain, and Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons.

Smith is one of those amazing throw you in the middle of wonder kind of writers. (This is partly why I like Terry Dowling so much, someone who actually is one of the Lords of the Instrumentality.) These two gentlemen have two of the highest rated SF collections I have ever read, the other being a writer with a different style completely, in Greg Egan.

Absolutely worth reading.

Best of Cordwainer Smith : Scanners Live in Vain - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : The Lady Who Sailed the Soul - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : The Game of Rat and Dragon - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : The Burning of the Brain - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : Golden the Ship Was Oh! Oh! Oh! - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : The Dead Lady of Clown Town - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : Under Old Earth - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : Mother Hitton’s Littul Kittons - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : Alpha Ralpha Boulevard - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : The Ballad of Lost C'Mell - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : A Planet Named Shayol - Cordwainer Smith

Monopoly is bad, and worth doing something about.

5 out of 5

Solo starnaut sheila's suitor.

4 out of 5

Another actual use for a live cat. Fight you little bastard.

4 out of 5

Mind destruction manoeuvre rescue transfer.

4 out of 5

Lost planet female cancer transsexual aggression solution is timeslip cat kill cull.

4 out of 5

Time for war, duckie.

4 out of 5

Witch woman and dead robot animal trial.

4.5 out of 5

Too happy is bad.

3.5 out of 5

Old North Australia's mutant mad mink secret defense doesn't pussyfoot around with thieves and murderers. Or, Stop, You'll Eat Yourself.

5 out of 5

Hard to believe in France.

3 out of 5

Underpeople Lord assisted execution escapage.

4.5 out of 5

Pain punishment makes skin way more deep.

3.5 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/08/best-of-cordwainer-smith-cordwainer.html ( )

A best of Cordwainer Smith, no doubt.

This includes a timeline of The Instrumentality Of Mankind.

To quote the end of John J. Pierce's introduction:
"The work of Cordwainer Smith will always retain its enigmas. But that is part of its appeal."

However, this is outstanding, the story average is 4.04 thanks to not one, but two 5 star stories, in Scanners Live In Vain, and Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons.

Smith is one of those amazing throw you in the middle of wonder kind of writers. (This is partly why I like Terry Dowling so much, someone who actually is one of the Lords of the Instrumentality.) These two gentlemen have two of the highest rated SF collections I have ever read, the other being a writer with a different style completely, in Greg Egan.

Absolutely worth reading.

Best of Cordwainer Smith : Scanners Live in Vain - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : The Lady Who Sailed the Soul - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : The Game of Rat and Dragon - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : The Burning of the Brain - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : Golden the Ship Was Oh! Oh! Oh! - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : The Dead Lady of Clown Town - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : Under Old Earth - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : Mother Hitton’s Littul Kittons - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : Alpha Ralpha Boulevard - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : The Ballad of Lost C'Mell - Cordwainer Smith
Best of Cordwainer Smith : A Planet Named Shayol - Cordwainer Smith

Monopoly is bad, and worth doing something about.

5 out of 5

Solo starnaut sheila's suitor.

4 out of 5

Another actual use for a live cat. Fight you little bastard.

4 out of 5

Mind destruction manoeuvre rescue transfer.

4 out of 5

Lost planet female cancer transsexual aggression solution is timeslip cat kill cull.

4 out of 5

Time for war, duckie.

4 out of 5

Witch woman and dead robot animal trial.

4.5 out of 5

Too happy is bad.

3.5 out of 5

Old North Australia's mutant mad mink secret defense doesn't pussyfoot around with thieves and murderers. Or, Stop, You'll Eat Yourself.

5 out of 5

Hard to believe in France.

3 out of 5

Underpeople Lord assisted execution escapage.

4.5 out of 5

Pain punishment makes skin way more deep.

3.5 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/08... ( )

"The Rediscovery of Man" is a collection of short stories (all set in the same universe at different time periods) by Cortwainer Smith. This universe is largely ordered by the Instrumentality, a governing body spanning centuries and controlling in fine detail the lives of almost every living human.

Like Huxley before him, Smith imagines a world in which genetics and behavioral conditioning sanitize life to the point where individual achievement is nearly meaningless. Smith's Instrumentality extends the control of science over nature somewhat further than Huxley, to the point where everyone is allocated 400 years of life (instead of the roughly 80 years of youth the denizens of Huxley's "Brave New World" lived). They live without fear of disease, weather, aging, hunger or the lack of material goods. Access to history is tightly controlled, and all divisions of language and culture have been more or less erased. At the height of the Instrumentality, the only human individuals not perfectly adjusted to the needs of their society and their own ability to fulfill those needs are extreme aberrations (and extremely rare).

The title "The Rediscovery of Man" refers to the reemergence of chance and diversity as means of allowing the human race continued growth. This relaxation of some of the controls on their society arises in no small part from the study of undermen, animals modified to resemble, interact with, and serve humans. Early in the timeline of the Instrumentality, undermen are slaves, less than human, destroyed when they fail or become inconvenient. They are utterly disposable labor, and only those who are strong, witty, and lucky survive. Thus it is that the various species of underpeople grow while the human race in its perfect control over heredity and environment stagnates.

The reemergence of human progress and the rise of the underpeople are two of the major themes. Minor themes include telepathy, the mob mentality and the progress of societies and technologies over millenia. Like Tolkien's Middle Earth, you get the sense that Smith had a full vision of this universe stretching over millenia, and that each story was just a window into a fully-realized world.

This is a great collection of stories, well worth reading and rereading. I look forward to reading the small collection of additional fiction works by the author. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/997655.htm...

This volume pulls together a dozen of his short stories, all loosely connected through his future history based on the controlling Instrumentality and featuring the planet Norstrilia. I found the style on the whole almost incomprehensible in places and yet weirdly compelling; tales told with utterly unselfconscious conviction, of beings whose consciousness teeters on the edge of human understanding. I may try and find a reader's guide somewhere to help me understand what was going on, and then go back to it. Fascinating stuff. ( )

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.a... ( )