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The best of cordwainer smith6/8/2023 Quite a departure from the fixation on cats that appeared in most of the previous stories. His godfather was Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China. citizen, he grew up mostly in China, Japan, France, and Germany. Putting aside for the moment some amusement about a member of the Mercer family being sent to eternal punishment for treasonous crimes, this is an excellent examination of the notion of retribution, and of the cruelty and humanity that organically arise within any system of justice. Cordwainer Smith was the pen name of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, born in Milwaukee in 1913. The highlight of the collection is the final story, A Planet Named Shayol. They say that fifty thousand a year were killed on the roads alone. Think of the millions of vehicles that ran on those roads, the people filled with greed and rage and hate, rushing past each other with their engines on fire. So much of it is so dated or so innocent that one gets caught off-guard by the occasional critique of modern life: Don't think about the roads. I don't go in for short stories or mythical far future stuff to begin with. At first I just found it not my cup of tea. Whoa, I file this under giving-sci-fi-a-bad-name. The most complete collection of Smith's stories is The Rediscovery of Man. Pretty odd stuff, a lot of it downright silly - like the existence of mind-destroying monsters in the space between stars, and mankind's use of cats to combat them. Review: The Best of Cordwainer Smith (Instrumentality of Mankind) User Review - Rebecca Edwards - Goodreads.
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