- Mass Market Paperback: 278 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books; First THUS edition (12 Jan 1975)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0345243668
- ISBN-13: 978-0345243669
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 10.7 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,140,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Norstrilia (Gollancz SF collector's edition)
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Product Description
Book Description
'Vividly drawn and wonderfully suggestive... One of science fiction's most original writers' Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
The discovery of stroon, a drug that confers near immortality on humans, has made Old North Australia rich. So rich that when Rod McBan has to flee the planet because someone wants him dead, he buys the Earth. His picaresque adventures on Old Earth offer an exuberant, eccentric and wildly imaginative vision of the universe - a vision like no other.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first read this book at least ten years ago. I keep remembering the huge mutated sheep, C'Mell the lost cat woman (I'd love to find the "Ballad of lost C'Mell"), and the computer that beat the Earth's Weather Machine. I wanted to read Norstrilia again. We should start a Cordwainer Smith revival.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like just about all of his other work, this, Smith's only sf novel, is both unique and highly lyrical. Set within his universe of the Instrumentality of Mankind, it's the story of Rod McBan, 16 year-old heir to his family fortune, which is based on the stroon (a drug that provides near-immortality) his family farm produces from genetically modified giant sheep, if only he can survive the testing that all inhabitants of Norstralia (Old North Australia) must go through to prove their basic competence and genetic purity. But Rod has problems, being a 'broad-band' telepath instead of the normal type, and he can only pass this test after multiple tries. Worse, he's not sure if he really wants to be part of the very conservative Norstralian society, and concocts a scheme in conjunction with his (proscribed) war games computer to manipulate the galactic futures market, with the net result of his suddenly becoming the owner of Old Old Earth, just so Rod can obtain an old postage stamp. And that's just the beginning.
This book sprawls across the landscape that Smith built over the years in various short stories, which are collected in The Rediscovery of Man, and I highly recommend that that volume be read prior to this, as otherwise many items that are only mentioned in passing here will either not make sense or will not provide the intended resonance. Mother Hitton's Little Kittens, Shayol, the various Lords of the Instrumentality, the Underpeople (most especially the cat-girl C'Mell): each of these has a back-story detailed in some of these other stories. And you'll want to catch each of these nuances, for the story here is as engrossing as it is odd, and the universe it details is something you'll wish you could know more about.
There's intrigue and skullduggery, social evils and battling injustice, love, musings on the purpose of life, religion, revolt, and yes, the Store of Heart's Desire, all waiting inside these pages for you to discover and enjoy. All couched in Smith's inimitable style that is like no other author's. Originally published as two rather hacked-up pieces, this volume puts the entire work together again as it was intended to be, a great example of what can be done by a wordsmith of great imagination and great skill.
---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
This book sprawls across the landscape that Smith built over the years in various short stories, which are collected in The Rediscovery of Man, and I highly recommend that that volume be read prior to this, as otherwise many items that are only mentioned in passing here will either not make sense or will not provide the intended resonance. Mother Hitton's Little Kittens, Shayol, the various Lords of the Instrumentality, the Underpeople (most especially the cat-girl C'Mell): each of these has a back-story detailed in some of these other stories. And you'll want to catch each of these nuances, for the story here is as engrossing as it is odd, and the universe it details is something you'll wish you could know more about.
There's intrigue and skullduggery, social evils and battling injustice, love, musings on the purpose of life, religion, revolt, and yes, the Store of Heart's Desire, all waiting inside these pages for you to discover and enjoy. All couched in Smith's inimitable style that is like no other author's. Originally published as two rather hacked-up pieces, this volume puts the entire work together again as it was intended to be, a great example of what can be done by a wordsmith of great imagination and great skill.
---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An Excellent book, almost as good as the Rediscovery of Man. (The Rediscovery of man is a collection of short stories)
Its a fantastic alien picture of our far future with Human derived populations spread across the universe, robots and underpeople serve every need yet human intrigue and danger abound, its very absorbing and believeable. I don't like much science fiction but Cordwainer Smith is as good as Asimov in my book.
Its a fantastic alien picture of our far future with Human derived populations spread across the universe, robots and underpeople serve every need yet human intrigue and danger abound, its very absorbing and believeable. I don't like much science fiction but Cordwainer Smith is as good as Asimov in my book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
My thoughts on this classic fantasy
Cordwainer Smith was one of the best. I do not think it necessary to disparage the modern crowd. Perhaps Terry Pratchett is a C-S fan, who knows. Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2003 by S. Maller
A dark heart to a witty fantasy
Cordwiainer Smith was writing witty, imaginative sf long before Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett et al cheapened the idea. Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2001 by Mr. Adrian R. Fry
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