The Rediscovery of Man

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith (ISBN 0-915368-56-0) is a 1993 book containing the complete collected short fiction of science fiction author Cordwainer Smith. It was edited by James A. Mann and published by NESFA Press.

Most of the stories take place in Smith's future history set in the universe of the Instrumentality of Mankind; the collection is arranged in the chronological order in which the stories take place in the fictional timeline. The collection also contains short stories which do not take place in this universe.

Within the context of the future history, the Rediscovery of Mankind refers to the Instrumentality's re-introduction of chance and unhappiness into the sterile utopia that they had created for humanity. Other than Smith's novel, Norstrilia, which takes place in the same future history, the book collects all of Smith's known science fiction writing.

[edit] List of Instrumentality of Man stories

"No, No, Not Rogov!"
"War No. 81-Q" (version 2) (not previously collected)
"Mark Elf"
"The Queen of the Afternoon"
"Scanners Live in Vain"
"The Lady Who Sailed The Soul"
"When the People Fell"
"Think Blue, Count Two"
"The Colonel Came Back from the Nothing-at-All"
"The Game of Rat and Dragon"
"The Burning of the Brain"
"From Gustible's Planet"
"Himself in Anachron" (first publication)
"The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal"
"Golden the Ship Was-Oh! Oh! Oh!"
"The Dead Lady of Clown Town"
"Under Old Earth"
"Drunkboat" (much rewritten version of "The Colonel Came Back from the Nothing-at-All")
"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons"
"Alpha Ralpha Boulevard"
"The Ballad of Lost C'mell"
"A Planet Named Shayol"
The stories which comprise the novel Quest of the Three Worlds:
- "On the Gem Planet"
- "On the Storm Planet"
- "On the Sand Planet"
- "Three to a Given Star"
"Down to a Sunless Sea"