Download or read book Norstrilia written by Cordwainer Smith and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When his ultra-logical computer tells him that to survive he must become the richest man in the universe, Rod McBan the hundred and fifty-first thought he had a good plan. A telepathic cripple, rejected by many of his people, owner of the Station of Doom, the safety of wealth would keep him safe. In one crowded, unbelievable night he achieved the impossible, became the richest boy in the galaxy. But Rod McBan will soon discover that money brings trouble. A galaxy of people and other beings - out to rob him, use him or kill him!
Download or read book The Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith written by Karen L. Hellekson and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-07-06 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This critical work concentrates on the science fiction writings of Paul Linebarger, who wrote under the pseudonym Cordwainer Smith, as well as other pseudonyms he created to reflect his different writing styles. His writings give voice to concerns about humanity and personal struggle; his ideas about love, loss, alienation, and psychic pain continue to resonate today. This work begins with a brief biographical sketch of Cordwainer Smith, linking elements of his past to his writing and focusing on his contributions to science fiction as well as his concern with humanity. Also discussed are Smith's published and unpublished novel-length non-science fiction, his revision process, the true man-underpeople dichotomy in his published and unpublished short fiction, and his only published novel-length science fiction work Norstrilia.
Download or read book Norstrilia written by Cordwainer Smith and published by Nesfa Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the only novel Cordwainer Smith ever wrote during his distinguished career. It tells the story of a boy form the planet Old North Australia (where rich, simple farmers grow the immortality drug Stroon), how he bought Old Earth, and how his visit to Earth changed both him and Earth itself. "Vividly drawn and wonderfully suggestive...confirms that Cordwainer Smith was one of science fiction's most original writers." -- "Science Fiction: The Best 100 Novels" "Better than any writer we've yet seen, Smith represents the sense of awe and wonder that is the heart of science fiction." -- Scott Edelman, "Science Fiction Age"
Download or read book Best of Cordwainer Smith written by Cordwainer Smith and published by Phoenix Pick. This book was released on 2017-04-26 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "No one ever wrote like Smith, with his special blend of intense myth-making and rich invention "--Publishers Weekly Cordwainer Smith was one of the original visionaries to think of humanity in terms of thousands of years in the future,
Download or read book The Rediscovery of Man written by Cordwainer Smith and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2012-11-30 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Welcome to the strangest, most distinctive future ever imagined by a science fiction writer. An interstellar 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.
Download or read book We the Underpeople written by Cordwainer Smith and published by Baen. This book was released on 2008-07-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a far-flung future, planoforming ships knit together a galaxy ruled from Earth by the ruthless benevolence of the mysterious Lords of the Instrumentality, who presided over a utopia without death, danger—or freedom. The Underpeople, humanlike beings created from animals to do the work of utopia, had no rights, and could be disposed of at the whim of a human. But they had become more humanlike than their creators, and their leader, the cat woman C’Mell, had a plan for gaining their freedom—which made her much too dangerous a person to be permitted to live. Elsewhere in the galaxy, the planet Norstrilia had power of its own, for it was the only source of stroon, the drug which arrested aging and made humans immortal. Its inhabitants were wealthy beyond comprehension, and one of them, a boy named Rod McBan, with the help of his computer, had manipulated the galactic economy until he completely owned the planet Earth—which made him much too dangerous a person to be permitted to live. But when Rod came to Earth and joined forces with C’Mell and the Underpeople, the petrified utopia of the Instrumentality began to crack and fall apart as freedom was reborn in the galaxy. . . .
Download or read book The Boy Who Bought Old Earth written by Cordwainer Smith and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-07-21 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a fascinating science fiction novel about Rod McBan, a wealthy kid from the most prosperous planet in the galaxy, Norstrilia. He buys earth without even realizing what he has done. It is a fun, imaginative, and fast-paced novel, a must-read for science fiction fans.
Download or read book How Much Does Chaos Scare You Politics Religion and Philosophy in the Fiction of Philip K Dick written by Aaron Barlow and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2005 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A series of essays on the writing and ideas of Philip K. Dick presented in eight chapters. This in-depth look at the philosophies behind Dick's SF and mainstream novels is based on Barlow's 1988 doctoral dissertation at the University of Iowa.
Download or read book Empire Burlesque written by Daniel T. O'Hara and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2003-04-09 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Empire Burlesque traces the emergence of the contemporary global context within which American critical identity is formed. Daniel T. O’Hara argues that globalization has had a markedly negative impact on American cultural criticism, circumscribing both its material and imaginative potential, reducing much of it to absurdity. By highlighting the spectacle of its own self-parody, O’Hara aims to shock U.S. cultural criticism back into a sense of ethical responsibility. Empire Burlesque presents several interrelated analyses through readings of a range of writers and cultural figures including Henry James, Freud, Said, De Man, Derrida, and Cordwainer Smith (an academic, spy, and classic 1950s and 1960s science fiction writer). It describes the debilitating effects of globalization on the university in general and the field of literary studies in particular, it critiques literary studies’ embrace of globalization theory in the name of a blind and vacant modernization, and it meditates on the ways critical reading and writing can facilitate an imaginative alternative to institutionalized practices of modernization. Drawing on Lacanian psychoanalytical theory, it diagnoses contemporary American Studies as typically driven by the mindless abjection and transference of professional identities. A provocative commentary on contemporary cultural criticism, Empire Burlesque will inform debates on the American university across the humanities, particularly among those in literary criticism, cultural studies, and American studies.
Download or read book Skiffy and Mimesis written by Damien Broderick and published by Wildside Press LLC. This book was released on 2010-05-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second anthology of the best of Australian SF Review includes pieces by Gregory Benford, Janeen Webb, Lucius Shepard, Jenny Blackford, George Turner, Yvonne Rousseau, Douglas Barbour, and others--writing about Watchmen, cyberpunk, steampunk, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Lucius Shepard. Complete with introduction, bibliography, and index.
Download or read book Norstrilia written by and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Science Fiction Literature through History 2 volumes written by Gary Westfahl and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021-07-19 with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides students and other interested readers with a comprehensive survey of science fiction history and numerous essays addressing major science fiction topics, authors, works, and subgenres written by a distinguished scholar. This encyclopedia deals with written science fiction in all of its forms, not only novels and short stories but also mediums often ignored in other reference books, such as plays, poems, comic books, and graphic novels. Some science fiction films, television programs, and video games are also mentioned, particularly when they are relevant to written texts. Its focus is on science fiction in the English language, though due attention is given to international authors whose works have been frequently translated into English. Since science fiction became a recognized genre and greatly expanded in the 20th century, works published in the 20th and 21st centuries are most frequently discussed, though important earlier works are not neglected. The texts are designed to be helpful to numerous readers, ranging from students first encountering science fiction to experienced scholars in the field.
Download or read book SF in Dimension written by Alexei Panshin and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays displays the talent and insight that make the Panshins the obvious and worthy successors to Damon Knight and James Blish in the field of science fiction and fantasy criticism. The Panshins document the evolution of a new and fruitful paradigm and offer a challenge to all conventional opinion about science fiction. They demonstrate that the conception of science fiction as fiction about science was fatally compromised from the outset. They trace the continuity of science fiction with man's most ancient and meaningful stories, the great fantasy of the past, and find this continuity in symbols of transcendent mystery. Nearly half of this book is devoted to studying the works of Robert Heinlein, extending and reconsidering the analysis begun in Heinlein in Dimension, and concluding with a long discussion of "The Number of the Beast--." The Panshin team applies theories of human psychological development to show the deeper meanings of the stories of Heinlein and other authors. They say: "In the mirror of a science fiction story may be seen a reflection of the author. In the mirror of science fiction stories may be seen a reflection of an era. And in our reading of science fiction--the stories we choose and what we make of them--may be seen a reflection of ourselves. We read science fiction to know ourselves better."
Download or read book The Planet Buyer written by Cordwainer Smith and published by Sphere. This book was released on 1964 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A boy considered to be defective may be executed to avoid overpopulation on his planet. He uses an ancient computer to come up with a plan to become wealthy, then uses the wealth to buy planet Earth.
Download or read book Concordance to Cordwainer Smith written by Anthony R. Lewis and published by . This book was released on 2000-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book In The Heart Or In The Head written by George Turner and published by Gateway. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Heart or in the Head is a brilliant literary memoir in which George Turner chronicles his chaotic growing-up in a family for whom fact and fantasy were equally acceptable and often indistinguishable. It is also the record of his development as one of Australia's finest novelists and his entanglement with science fiction.
Download or read book Uncovering Lives written by Alan C. Elms and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-05-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Psychobiography is often attacked by critics who feel that it trivializes complex adult personalities, "explaining the large deeds of great individuals," as George Will wrote, "by some slight the individual suffered at a tender age--say, 7, when his mother took away a lollipop." Worse yet, some writers have clearly abused psychobiography--for instance, to grind axes from the right (Nancy Clinch on the Kennedy family) or from the left (Fawn Brodie on Richard Nixon)--and others have offered woefully inept diagnoses (such as Albert Goldman's portrait of Elvis Presley as a "split personality" and a "delusional paranoid"). And yet, as Alan Elms argues in Uncovering Lives, in the hands of a skilled practitioner, psychobiography can rival the very best traditional biography in the insights it offers. Elms makes a strong case for the value of psychobiography, arguing in large part from example. Indeed, most of the book features Elms's own fascinating case studies of over a dozen prominent figures, among them Sigmund Freud (the father of psychobiography), B.F. Skinner, Isaac Asimov, L. Frank Baum, Vladimir Nabokov, Jimmy Carter, George Bush, Saddam Hussein, and Henry Kissinger. These profiles make intriguing reading. For example, Elms discusses the fiction of Isaac Asimov in light of the latter's acrophobia (fear of heights) and mild agoraphobia (fear of open spaces)--and Elms includes excerpts from a series of letters between himself and Asimov. He reveals an unintended subtext of The Wizard of Oz--that males are weak, females are strong (think of Scarecrow, Tin Man, the Lion, and the Wizard, versus the good and bad witches and Dorothy herself)--and traces this in part to Baum's childhood heart disease, which kept him from strenuous activity, and to his relationship with his mother-in-law, Matilda Joslyn Gage, a distinguished advocate of women's rights. And in a fascinating chapter, he examines the abused childhood of Saddam Hussein, the privileged childhood of George Bush, and the radically different psychological paths that led these two men into the Persian Gulf War. Elms supports each study with extensive research, much of it never presented before--for instance, on how some of the most revealing portions of C.G. Jung's autobiography were deleted in spite of his protests before publication. Along the way, Elms provides much insight into how psychobiography is written. Finally, he proposes clear guidelines for judging high quality work, and offers practical tips for anyone interested in writing in this genre. Written with great clarity and wit, Uncovering Lives illuminates the contributions that psychology can make to biography. Elms's enthusiasm for his subject is contagious and will inspire would-be psychobiographers as well as win over the most hardened skeptics.
