4 ms·

I really like Cordwainer Smith. Those books are quite strange though. I wouldn't even call them ahead of their time, I would call them sui generis. Completely i

I really like Cordwainer Smith. Those books are quite strange though. I wouldn't even call them ahead of their time, I would call them sui generis. Completely idiosyncratic. One brilliant weirdo's brain. I keep spare copies of The Instrumentality of Mankind and The Best of Cordwainer Smith around, and a couple months ago somebody asked me about them. I hesitated before lending them to him, because it's impossible to guess whether a given person will like them or not.

tetris11 3y ago
A.k.a The guy who is positively obsessed with cats, and may be the unknowing member (grandfather?) of a certain deviant demographic gaining mainstream appeal today (no judgement, it's just not for me). That being said, I loved Mother Hittons Little Kittons
_a_a_a_ 3y ago
Like being dropped into a very other world. I'll have to dig some out and read again. The feel is like it's written by someone not sane. Gormenghast, a least the first 2 books, felt the same - not-quite-sane leaking through. Then again I may not have been at the time so maybe a bit of projection. Anyway thanks for the reminder!
- Freak_NL 3y ago
  Book three of the Gormenghast trilogy of course being the one were the reader is figuratively wading in a deluge of not-quite-sane. Anyone interested in the weird world-building of Gormenghast: don't feel bad about skipping the third book. I enjoyed Cordwainer Smith's Norstrilia (1975). Australians in space, and utterly weird things to do with sheep (sorry, that may sound a bit iffy, but the book is cool).
  - AceJohnny2 3y ago
    There was a French comic book series (whose name escapes me), which I think is heavily inspired by Gormenghast. It followed a girl/young lady who had been kidnapped/sold off to the (illusive) lord of the house, and her discovery of the unique rules of the house, which seems to have a life of its own, and the petty (to this new outsider) squabbles of its inhabitants, servants and "nobles" alike. I'm having a hard time finding that comic book series across the translation barrier.
bouvin 3y ago
His style is something else – there are not many SF authors (and fewer still of his generation) that I would describe as lyrical, but he in one of them.
- fmajid 3y ago
  Try Ted Sturgeon.
  - iainmerrick 3y ago
    Depending on your interpretation of “lyrical”, I think there are a few classic SF authors you could put in the same bucket. R A Lafferty, Alfred Bester, maybe Algis Budrys? And a bit later, James Tiptree Jr. Definitely agree with Sturgeon.
    - pmoriarty 3y ago
      Another Lafferty fan here. I second this recommendation.
    - fmajid 3y ago
      And I agree with Bester.
fmajid 3y ago
One of the greatest of the Golden Age writers with Ted Sturgeon, unlike the insipid and grossly overrated Heinlein. NESFA Press has excellent omnibus reissues of The Rediscovery of Man and Norstrilia. I just wish they had eBook versions as well like they recently did for Fredric Brown. I myself first read his work in French translation when I was 12 or so (unlike the US, classics like Cordwainer Smith or Fredric Brown never went out of print in France, thanks to Denoël's excellent Présence du Futur imprint).
schoen 3y ago
I read most of the related stories online after seeing the reference to "think blue, count two" when trying to remind myself what Serial Experiments Lain was about. It is very idiosyncratic. A heavy role for psionics, uplifted animal species, and animal brains conditioned to perform tasks and then preserved in something like a circuit board. And space, economics, politics, and a civil rights movement for the uplifted animals. "Oh yeah, I'm here on another planet having a telepathic chat with an uplifted cat who is mad about the oppression of her species." But engaging writing and worldbuilding that makes that feel more plausible. I think you could say that it's space opera that puts organisms' bodies and minds at the heart of things, rather than machines. Electronic devices with any kind of important agency in the stories are rather few and far between, but stuff about bodies and minds, and what Cordwainer Smith could imagine them doing and wanting, kept coming back again and again and again.
swayvil 3y ago
I libgenned those within 20 seconds of reading your reply. Thank you very much. Either good scifi is getting harder to find or I'm turning into a right snob.
- Jtsummers 3y ago
  Sturgeon's Law: Ninety percent of everything is crap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law It's always easier to find good material after the fact, going back in time and letting others filter it, instead of trying to figure out which of the present day material is not crap.
- karaterobot 3y ago
  Hope you like them! And if you are looking for more, consider giving R.A. Lafferty a shot as well. Another very unique, intelligent SF author without a lot of peers who wrote like him.
jodrellblank 3y ago
I never finished "The Rediscovery of Man" anthology, yet "The Lady Who Sailed the Soul" remains one of the most memorable sci-fi stories I've read and one I think about relatively often. (I don't want to re-read it now years later and find that I don't like it anymore).
- navbaker 3y ago
  That was a book that I read, thought was brilliant, and never want to read again. I can’t put into words how it made me feel.

tetris11 3y ago

A.k.a The guy who is positively obsessed with cats, and may be the unknowing member (grandfather?) of a certain deviant demographic gaining mainstream appeal today (no judgement, it's just not for me). That being said, I loved Mother Hittons Little Kittons

_a_a_a_ 3y ago

Like being dropped into a very other world. I'll have to dig some out and read again. The feel is like it's written by someone not sane. Gormenghast, a least the first 2 books, felt the same - not-quite-sane leaking through. Then again I may not have been at the time so maybe a bit of projection. Anyway thanks for the reminder!

Freak_NL 3y ago
Book three of the Gormenghast trilogy of course being the one were the reader is figuratively wading in a deluge of not-quite-sane. Anyone interested in the weird world-building of Gormenghast: don't feel bad about skipping the third book. I enjoyed Cordwainer Smith's Norstrilia (1975). Australians in space, and utterly weird things to do with sheep (sorry, that may sound a bit iffy, but the book is cool).
- AceJohnny2 3y ago
  There was a French comic book series (whose name escapes me), which I think is heavily inspired by Gormenghast. It followed a girl/young lady who had been kidnapped/sold off to the (illusive) lord of the house, and her discovery of the unique rules of the house, which seems to have a life of its own, and the petty (to this new outsider) squabbles of its inhabitants, servants and "nobles" alike. I'm having a hard time finding that comic book series across the translation barrier.

bouvin 3y ago

His style is something else – there are not many SF authors (and fewer still of his generation) that I would describe as lyrical, but he in one of them.

fmajid 3y ago
Try Ted Sturgeon.
- iainmerrick 3y ago
  Depending on your interpretation of “lyrical”, I think there are a few classic SF authors you could put in the same bucket. R A Lafferty, Alfred Bester, maybe Algis Budrys? And a bit later, James Tiptree Jr. Definitely agree with Sturgeon.
  - pmoriarty 3y ago
    Another Lafferty fan here. I second this recommendation.
  - fmajid 3y ago
    And I agree with Bester.

fmajid 3y ago

One of the greatest of the Golden Age writers with Ted Sturgeon, unlike the insipid and grossly overrated Heinlein. NESFA Press has excellent omnibus reissues of The Rediscovery of Man and Norstrilia. I just wish they had eBook versions as well like they recently did for Fredric Brown. I myself first read his work in French translation when I was 12 or so (unlike the US, classics like Cordwainer Smith or Fredric Brown never went out of print in France, thanks to Denoël's excellent Présence du Futur imprint).

schoen 3y ago

I read most of the related stories online after seeing the reference to "think blue, count two" when trying to remind myself what Serial Experiments Lain was about. It is very idiosyncratic. A heavy role for psionics, uplifted animal species, and animal brains conditioned to perform tasks and then preserved in something like a circuit board. And space, economics, politics, and a civil rights movement for the uplifted animals. "Oh yeah, I'm here on another planet having a telepathic chat with an uplifted cat who is mad about the oppression of her species." But engaging writing and worldbuilding that makes that feel more plausible. I think you could say that it's space opera that puts organisms' bodies and minds at the heart of things, rather than machines. Electronic devices with any kind of important agency in the stories are rather few and far between, but stuff about bodies and minds, and what Cordwainer Smith could imagine them doing and wanting, kept coming back again and again and again.

swayvil 3y ago

I libgenned those within 20 seconds of reading your reply. Thank you very much. Either good scifi is getting harder to find or I'm turning into a right snob.

Jtsummers 3y ago
Sturgeon's Law: Ninety percent of everything is crap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law It's always easier to find good material after the fact, going back in time and letting others filter it, instead of trying to figure out which of the present day material is not crap.
karaterobot 3y ago
Hope you like them! And if you are looking for more, consider giving R.A. Lafferty a shot as well. Another very unique, intelligent SF author without a lot of peers who wrote like him.

jodrellblank 3y ago

I never finished "The Rediscovery of Man" anthology, yet "The Lady Who Sailed the Soul" remains one of the most memorable sci-fi stories I've read and one I think about relatively often. (I don't want to re-read it now years later and find that I don't like it anymore).

navbaker 3y ago
That was a book that I read, thought was brilliant, and never want to read again. I can’t put into words how it made me feel.