That’s not to say that some of it isn’t really sexist and racist. But, well, he *was* a white SF writer in the 50s working for the US Government. He could have been writing some sort of military, Kill the Commie Gooks kind of stories (of which there’s *kinda* one in TRoM). Instead, he seems acutely aware of the changes in cultural weather that move culture time and again.

Unfortunately, a literate (one might hope) thief broke into my apartment years later and among other things, made off with all of my books including many first editions as well as my cherished leather bound lord of the rings.

I search used bookshops for years to replace my Cordwairner Smith. Most never heard of him.

I was thrilled when the reprinted all of the short stories in The Rediscovery Of Man and Norstrilia in its novel form.

There goes the neighborhood!

From the Ballad of Lost C’mell

i’ve just finished to re-re-re-read Shock: and i was just “hey, i’ll check his blog should i ?”

and then, there is that quote of cordwainer smith.

he is one of my “auteur de chevet”, just had to say it :-)

Well, like a lot of science fiction, it’s a series of short stories. In this case, they were written over 15 years or so, so some are definitely better than others. Nonetheless, the overall book is great, despite the occasional 50s descent into sexism and racism.

The stories span thousands upon thousands of years and represent a huge history of cultures. It’s certainly interesting. My only regret is that the stories are in order of internal chronology, rather than order of publication, which means that sometimes things are obviously supposed to be hints that have already been explained.