El juego de la rata y el dragón

by Cordwainer Smith

Relatos incluidos:
¡No, No, Rogov, No! (No, No, Not Rogov!, 1959)
La Dama que Llevó el Alma (The Lady Who Sailed the Soul, 1960)
Los Observadores Viven en Vano (Scanners Live in Vain, 1950)
El Juego de la Rata y el Dragón (The Game of Rat and Dragon, 1955)
El Abrasamiento del Cerebro (The Burning of the Brain, 1958)
La Nave Era Dorada ¡Oh! ¡Oh! (Golden the Ship Was Oh! Oh! Oh! 1959)
Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (Alpha Ralpha Boulevard, 1961)
Mark Elf (Mark Elf, 1957)

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adventure, Space Opera

191 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Pseudonym of:
Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

Linebarger also employed the literary pseudonyms "Carmichael Smith" (for his political thriller Atomsk), "Anthony Bearden" (for his poetry) and "Felix C. Forrest" (for the novels Ria and Carola).

Linebarger was also a noted East Asia scholar and expert in psychological warfare.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of eight of Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind stories that first appeared in a wide range of genre publications from 1948 to 1961. It's a good sampler of his works, with some classic stories like The Lady Who Sailed the Soul, The Game of Rat and Dragon, Scanners Live in Vain, and Alpha Ralpha Boulevard that I remembered from the "Best Of" volume, along with some that were new to me like No, No, Not Rogov!, The Burning of the Brain, and Mark Elf. Smith was a wonderful writer, far ahead of his time, who showed a human future that was truly alien due to his unique vision of change and development. He mixed masterful characterization and lyrical prose with a uniquely logical and speculative progression of change, combining some of the best traits of Jack Vance, Theodore Sturgeon, Roger Zelazny, R.A. Lafferty, and Michael Moorcock. This 1970 edition has a lovely Paul Lehr cover, and a note on the copyright page acknowledges the assistance of Robert Silverberg.

[Laura L. Van Dam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aunque es el primer libro que leo de Cordwainer Smith, un autor que tengo en la mira hace rato, me voy muy satisfecha. Son todas historias breves situadas en un mismo universo, extrañamente hipnóticas, raras, y según me cuenta un amigo fan del autor, aquí aparecen desordenadas; una relectura de los trabajos de Smith en un orden determinado da una idea cronológica de los sucesos de este universo. Despido 2019 con la idea de revisitar estos relatos en orden para tener una idea más global.

[Paul Magnussen · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one before or since has written like Cordwainer Smith: the strange, soaring stories, with their hints of even further unglimpsed depths and wonders, were one of the delights of my youthful exploration of SF, and are a recurring source of pleasure even now.

Unfortunately Smith was ill-served by his early publishers: his one longish novel (Norstrilia) was hacked into two parts (The Planet Buyer and The Underpeople), and the short stories (which originally appeared in magazines like Fantasy & Science Fiction) were splattered around different compilations at random.

Now Norstrilia has been restored and published intact, and the shorts have all been collected into one properly-edited volume: The Rediscovery of Man (N.B. not the abridged Gollancz paperback of the same title).

This slim volume might reasonably be described as a sampler, and contains the following:

• No, No, Not Rogov!
• The Lady Who Sailed The Soul
• Scanners Live in Vain
• The Game of Rat and Dragon
• The Burning of the Brain
• Golden the Ship Was — Oh! Oh! Oh!
• Alpha Ralpha Boulevard
• Mark Elf

The flyleaf displays the interesting statement: “The chapters in this book originally appeared as magazine pieces and have been specially revised for inclusion here”, with an acknowledgment to Robert Silverberg.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This edition has some of the best short stories of his universe, so quick and fascinating and just plain interesting. His ideas have later on become great staples for other writers, but this is where it all began. Very fertile ground, here. It makes me seriously wish he had a much longer career as a writer, but I'm more than happy to see these still in print.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's one of those books where it feels like the author must have had a lot of fun writing the stories, and in turn, they are a pleasure to read, even if sometimes they edge into the hair-raisingly improbable territory. Some aspects of the world painted in these stories sound familiar after reading Simak's City recently – future people are all telepathic, the partitioning of humans into different kinds of beings, talking animals – but also the format of the stories is more akin to a fable than anything else. Before, I have complained that this genre had been underutilised in science fiction, but perhaps it was here all along, and I was just ignorant of it.

Best stories: Scanners Live In Vain, The Game Of Rat And Dragon, Mark Elf.

You've got to love it for the character names, if not for anything else. Who else could pull off a sincere love story between a girl named Helen America and Mr Gray-no-more? In what other world could Prince Lovaduck become a hero? And while I'm on it, where else do you find cats utilised as telepathic interstellar fighters?

The stories may sometimes end abruptly or not make much sense, but they are a first-grade exercise in imagination, and a fun to read. And beneath the ridiculous plots, there are some serious thoughts hiding.

[Phil Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had not heard of this author until I came across the book and got it entirely based on the cover art. This is sci-fi very different from others I have read. An anthology of short stories that always imply a larger universe than what you are seeing. Hyper advanced technology that often requires the control and consumption of humans in some small way. It will take a while for these stories to settle in my mind. Different and cool. For now it gets a 4. I reserve the right to revise my score up or down after these stories sit with me for a bit.

[Bibliosmia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I saw so many readers calling Cordwainer Smith a forgotten genius that I had to give him a try. And was sincerely let down.
I really tried to give him a fair shake, powering through the whole book to see if something changed. Unfortunately, it seemed like most of his stories went nowhere slow.

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

No, No, Not Rogov! (1959)
The Lady Who Sailed the Soul (1960)
Scanners Live in Vain (1950)
The Game of Rat and Dragon (1955)
The Burning of the Brain (1958)
Golden the Ship Was—Oh! Oh! Oh! (1959)
Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (1961)
Mark Elf (1957)

[Stephen Burridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic stories.

[Mawgojzeta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although not nearly as complete as The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith, most of this set of stories still successfully build up, over a great span of time, the background to the novel Norstrilia.

[Dan Svatek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read and I recommend good reading it.
I hope Lady May is OK.
However I'm saddened by the unfair depiction of three-headed turtles as nazi killing machines. Even if they are actually machines and not real three-headed turtles.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

SciFi - Eight short stories first appearing in magazines between 1948 and 1961 with the theme of deep space travel including the classic "The Game of Rat and Dragon".

[Username]

La edición argentina de Minotauro es una selección de cuentos de Cordwainer Smith, no sólo el cuento que da título a la antología.