Readers’ Choice: Cordwainer Smith’s The Rediscovery of Man

This week’s Readers Choice, which comes to us from SF Gateway forum member, The Star Plunderer, is Cordwainer Smith‘s The Rediscovery of Man.

Welcome to the strangest, most distinctive future ever imagined by a science fiction writer.

An insterstellar empire ruled by the mysterious Lords of the Instrumentality, whose access to the drug stroon from the planet Norstrilia confers on them virtual immortality.

A world in which wealthy and leisured humanity is served by the underpeople, genetically engineered animals turned into the semblance of people.

A world in which the great ships which sail between the stars are eventually supplanted by the mysterious, instantaneous technique of planoforming.

A world of wonder and myth, and extraordinary imagination.

Originally published as The Best of Cordwainer Smith, this collection is central to the author’s ‘Instrumentality of Mankind’ universe, and is described by The Star Plunderer as:

Fourteen trips into the strangest and most inventive future ever envisioned: a frenetic melange of time travel, telepathy, golden starships and eternal life.

The Rediscovery of Man is available as an SF Masterworks paperback and an SF Gateway eBook.

You can read more about Cordwainer Smith in his entry at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, and find more of his books on his author page at SF Gateway.