The Garments of Caean
by Barrington J. Bayley
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Description
"Back on Old Earth there was a saying that clothes make the man. But on the world called Caean this became literally true. On that colonized planet there was a material called Prossim. If your body was in contact with Prossim your personality changed. You became handsome, you had vast charisma, you had total self-confidence--you were always the power center of every enterprise. So throughout the inhabited galaxy clothing from Caean was the sure key to success and men would kill to get such a show more suit. Peder Forbarth was such a man, prepared to turn space pirate to get his hands on some. But instead he found that--at the risk of worlds--the very secret of Prossim cloth itself was about to open before his eyes..."--Pg. [4] of cover. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
This is one of those odd little gems that has stood out in my memory as a really sublime sf novel. On the outset, it's a book about a psychic suit that bonds with, controls, and manipulates its wearer for amazing reasons which gradually unfold through the novel.
But the book is so much more than that: It freewheels through a variety of spacefaring human cultures who have evolved and adapted to their respective environments, and dissects with remarkable precision not only the role of fashion in human society, but also our concepts of body image and our sense of self, and how these these things impact our understanding of what it means to be human. (The best sort of scifi, in other words.)
Underlying all those great themes is the plot show more itself, which builds on those foundations to introduce its trickiest question: what we consider to be intelligence, and how our human centric perception shapes interaction with other lifeforms.
It really is a stellar read, an inspired and very original novel, combining two things i like (scifi and fashion) and putting it under a literary microscope in the context of cultural examination. Plus, I'm willing to bet you've never read the word "sartorial" so many times in a scifi novel before!
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But the book is so much more than that: It freewheels through a variety of spacefaring human cultures who have evolved and adapted to their respective environments, and dissects with remarkable precision not only the role of fashion in human society, but also our concepts of body image and our sense of self, and how these these things impact our understanding of what it means to be human. (The best sort of scifi, in other words.)
Underlying all those great themes is the plot show more itself, which builds on those foundations to introduce its trickiest question: what we consider to be intelligence, and how our human centric perception shapes interaction with other lifeforms.
It really is a stellar read, an inspired and very original novel, combining two things i like (scifi and fashion) and putting it under a literary microscope in the context of cultural examination. Plus, I'm willing to bet you've never read the word "sartorial" so many times in a scifi novel before!
#bookstagram #instareads #bookaholic #bookcollection #collectiblebooks #booklover #bookporn #bookcommunity #booklife #bookaddiction #bibliophile #booksofinstagram #bookworm #bookcollecting #instabooks #booknerd #bookcovers #sciencefiction #scifi #retroscifi #scifiart #scifibooks #bookstagrammer #bookreviews #bookreview #5star #5starbook show less
A truly unique book and is the kind of thing that could only be written by Bayley. Conversely, the Daw edition features absolutely the worst cover on any SF novel I've ever seen.
Don't let the cover chase you away. This is a fascinating concoction about space armor,cyborgs, and the consideration of clothing as technology. You would never guess what a good novel this is from the doofy, coloring book, Scholastic book type DAW cover.
***1/2
Don't let the cover chase you away. This is a fascinating concoction about space armor,cyborgs, and the consideration of clothing as technology. You would never guess what a good novel this is from the doofy, coloring book, Scholastic book type DAW cover.
***1/2
Clothes make the man in this adventure story. A con artist is our hero.
Really! I swear I'm an intellectual! I mean I only read this stuff when I'm weak or drunk or something!
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63+ Works 1,924 Members
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- De klederen van Cajan
- Original title
- The Garments of Cajan
- Original publication date
- 1976
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Members
- 153
- Popularity
- 209,258
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.41)
- Languages
- 5 — Dutch, English, Italian, Japanese, Latin
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 4
