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Instrumentality of Mankind
Quest of the Three Worlds
The Gem Planet, the Storm Planet, the Sand Planet...one of these marvel worlds held the secret Casher O'Neill sought. Casher had wandered the inhabited the galaxy seeking justice, seeking the cosmic power that would enable him to return to his home world and overthrow its usurper. But in the search he found much more incredible among the stars than he had dreamed of.
This is a new novel by Cordwainer Smith, one of the most strikingly imaginative writers of our time. Packed with concepts not to be found in other writer's work, filled with the widescreen imagery of a universe that is logical, perilous, and yet always truly of the future in every way, the saga of Casher's quest of the three worlds is a constant display of science-fictional fireworks.
Contents:
On the Storm Planet (1965)
On the Gem Planet (1963)
On the Sand Planet (1965)
Three to a Given Star (1965)
This is a new novel by Cordwainer Smith, one of the most strikingly imaginative writers of our time. Packed with concepts not to be found in other writer's work, filled with the widescreen imagery of a universe that is logical, perilous, and yet always truly of the future in every way, the saga of Casher's quest of the three worlds is a constant display of science-fictional fireworks.
Contents:
On the Storm Planet (1965)
On the Gem Planet (1963)
On the Sand Planet (1965)
Three to a Given Star (1965)
174 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
8 people are currently reading
345 people want to read
About the author
Cordwainer Smith
233 books319 followersPseudonym 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
January 30, 2018
I guess I'm missing something such as subtle humor or a message within this story. I just can't find any reason to be interested, even when there was a horse in it. I got about halfway through & just dreaded picking it up again. Moving on. Life is too short.
January 18, 2025
Y para terminar Los Señores de la Instrumentalidad Miquel Barceló lo dio todo y aquí incluye otra mini novela en 3 partes + 1 sobre la búsqueda de 3 planetas y una estrella. Me pareció una especie de Odisea Espacial (de la de Ulises, no de 2001). Como el anterior se disfruta como parte de un conjunto más grande y de la obra de una vida escribiendo sobre un futuro imaginario. Además de esa novela corta incluye todas las historias cortas que quedaban sin publicar del autor. La verdad es que no recuerdo ninguna en especial ahora que escribo esto revisando los títulos:
La guerra número 81-Q
La ciencia occidental es tan maravillosa
Nancy
La flauta de Bodidharma
Angerhelm
Los buenos amigos
Se queda en 3 estrellas ***. Mención especial a mí mismo por el trabajo que me costó conseguir estos libros de segunda mano años y años después de que se editaran.
La guerra número 81-Q
La ciencia occidental es tan maravillosa
Nancy
La flauta de Bodidharma
Angerhelm
Los buenos amigos
Se queda en 3 estrellas ***. Mención especial a mí mismo por el trabajo que me costó conseguir estos libros de segunda mano años y años después de que se editaran.
May 31, 2014
Honestly, I'm a sucker for dashing heroes on a quest of vengeance who wind up becoming superhuman, wipe peoples minds, and become gods. Oh yeah, and forget they're christian even though they secretly still are. I'm a sucker. :) Go Casher, go!
August 9, 2020
5/10 en Diciembre de 2010.
Muuuucho más flojo que los anteriores títulos de la saga. Son sobre todo historias cortas que, dicho sea una vez más, no son lo mio.
Muuuucho más flojo que los anteriores títulos de la saga. Son sobre todo historias cortas que, dicho sea una vez más, no son lo mio.
January 1, 2013
Originally published on my blog here in October 2001.
Four linked short stories, set later in Smith's imaginary future than any of his other completed fiction have been put together to make up this novel. They all concern the character Casher O'Neill, exiled from the planet Mizzer when his uncle, its dictator Kuraf, is deposed. (The names in the stories tend to refer to other things; Casher's sounds like a Cairo street name, Mizzer like the Arabic name for Egypt, and Kuraf is an anagram of that of Faruk, Egypt's last king.) Although Casher didn't approve of his uncle's corrupt regime, he doesn't think much of the man who has taken over either, and begins a quest to try and improve things on his home planet. This leads him to sort out bizarre problems on other worlds in the hope of obtaining help, and these problems are the subjects of the original stories.
These three stories are fascinating, and Casher is an interesting character who grows as a result of his experiences. The final story, originally entitled Three to a Given Star, does not fit in so well, Casher's involvement being tangential and the major tension of the novel already resolved. It is also one of Smith's poorest stories and by appearing as the ending of Quest of the Three Worlds, can only serve to undermine its quality as a novel.
Four linked short stories, set later in Smith's imaginary future than any of his other completed fiction have been put together to make up this novel. They all concern the character Casher O'Neill, exiled from the planet Mizzer when his uncle, its dictator Kuraf, is deposed. (The names in the stories tend to refer to other things; Casher's sounds like a Cairo street name, Mizzer like the Arabic name for Egypt, and Kuraf is an anagram of that of Faruk, Egypt's last king.) Although Casher didn't approve of his uncle's corrupt regime, he doesn't think much of the man who has taken over either, and begins a quest to try and improve things on his home planet. This leads him to sort out bizarre problems on other worlds in the hope of obtaining help, and these problems are the subjects of the original stories.
These three stories are fascinating, and Casher is an interesting character who grows as a result of his experiences. The final story, originally entitled Three to a Given Star, does not fit in so well, Casher's involvement being tangential and the major tension of the novel already resolved. It is also one of Smith's poorest stories and by appearing as the ending of Quest of the Three Worlds, can only serve to undermine its quality as a novel.
March 5, 2012
Strange, strange stories that read more like fairy tales than SF. 'On The Gem Planet', 'On The Storm Planet' and 'On The Sand Planet' - gene-engineered tigermen, wayward horses wearing breathing apparatus, charmingly panicky robots, utterly oblique allegories about King Farouk and Gamel Abdul Nasser of Egypt, coded messages within the text of one story about JFK's assassination, an impossibly wealthy but still loveable young girl - all this and more in writing with as high a WTF? factor as any I've read.
August 5, 2011
An under appreciated work of Fiction from a master of prose
February 8, 2023
A junk drawer and a model kit fit together to magically form a really cool thing that you can’t be sure what it is, but man, it’s a really cool thing.
August 2, 2018
I had higher expectations for this. It is fantasy, rather than science fiction. Comparable to Dune in some ways, though much shorter (which is good). I liked the first part best.
January 17, 2023
I, for one, am very glad to see a bit of negative review of the great man's science fiction. Similar people criticized the works of the Roman poet, Vergil, as he published them; they berated and mocked the poems of Stephane Mallarme; and, until recently (that is, within my lifetime, say during the early seventies), they treated the poetry of Wallace Stevens with the most grudging and least respectful criticism. So I am glad to see Cordwainer Smith's science fiction negatively criticized, because that means that he belongs to the appreciative and respectful elite, those who prefer Mallarme's faun to Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo.
No matter how many times I read it, Cordwainer Smith's work is always in the process of blossoming. One sees the first budding in "Scanners Live In Vain." As the stories progress, and as Smith progressively spiritualizes them, the blossom opens, the fragrance begins to waft, and the nectar is made available to those whose palettes can receive and fully taste it. In my opinion, the Casher sequence is not a mere addendum to the main series, as so many have seemed to treat it, but it is a climax to the series. And, due to the unfortunate circumstances that took Dr. Linebarger from us (and, as he and I both believe, took him to his eternal existence in Heaven), we do not know what the final sequence of the series, "The Robot, The Rat, and the Copt" would have been like. The fact that the final word in the final sequential title is derived from a denomination of Christianity, the Coptic Church, suggests to me that the Instrumentality series would have been fully and wholly spiritualized---yes, totally Christianized---in a most satisfactory and enduring climax. Some have suggested that Smith's religious symbolism is heavy-handed, but that accusation was also leveled at Dante's Divine Comedy; and the epithet "heavy handed" is often deployed by lightweights. Dante gave us a Divine Comedy' Balzac gave us a human comedy; and Cordwainer Smith has given us a cosmic comedy as valid, as profound, and as poetic as the previous two. I admit, this is not everyone's preference.
Back in Autumn of 1978, when I was then an aspiring poet (all imagination and no production), a published poet visited our college campus, and I was privileged to give her a campus tour because she had arrived earlier than expected and the English department faculty did not know what to do with her. During our long walk around the bucolic campus, she asked me if I had read Stevens and when I admitted that I avoided his poetry because it was said to be daunting, she told me something I have never forgotten: "He makes you work, but he pays you back for the work." I took her at her word, and have been reading Stevens since that time. The same statement applies to Cordwainer Smith: he makes you work, but he pays you back for the effort. Like any good investment, the dividends take a while to arrive, but when they arrive, they are excellent. I read Stevens for four years before I began to understand the surface of the printed pages. I read Cordwainer Smith for years (beginning 1971 or so) until 1989, when I spent an intense three months reading nothing but his narratives (no, not even Stevens during that time), and finally began to gain some perspective on his great cosmic vision, and the nuances of the Instrumentality. There was a winsome sadness to some of the latter stories; the last line of the last of the Casher stories---Three To A Given Star---is both joyous and sad similtaneously. I can only imagine what the Robot, the Rat, and the Copt would have been. And the best way to imagine that is to look into a clear, cloudless, starclustered night sky, and let the imagination wander. Smith's stories enable this.
No matter how many times I read it, Cordwainer Smith's work is always in the process of blossoming. One sees the first budding in "Scanners Live In Vain." As the stories progress, and as Smith progressively spiritualizes them, the blossom opens, the fragrance begins to waft, and the nectar is made available to those whose palettes can receive and fully taste it. In my opinion, the Casher sequence is not a mere addendum to the main series, as so many have seemed to treat it, but it is a climax to the series. And, due to the unfortunate circumstances that took Dr. Linebarger from us (and, as he and I both believe, took him to his eternal existence in Heaven), we do not know what the final sequence of the series, "The Robot, The Rat, and the Copt" would have been like. The fact that the final word in the final sequential title is derived from a denomination of Christianity, the Coptic Church, suggests to me that the Instrumentality series would have been fully and wholly spiritualized---yes, totally Christianized---in a most satisfactory and enduring climax. Some have suggested that Smith's religious symbolism is heavy-handed, but that accusation was also leveled at Dante's Divine Comedy; and the epithet "heavy handed" is often deployed by lightweights. Dante gave us a Divine Comedy' Balzac gave us a human comedy; and Cordwainer Smith has given us a cosmic comedy as valid, as profound, and as poetic as the previous two. I admit, this is not everyone's preference.
Back in Autumn of 1978, when I was then an aspiring poet (all imagination and no production), a published poet visited our college campus, and I was privileged to give her a campus tour because she had arrived earlier than expected and the English department faculty did not know what to do with her. During our long walk around the bucolic campus, she asked me if I had read Stevens and when I admitted that I avoided his poetry because it was said to be daunting, she told me something I have never forgotten: "He makes you work, but he pays you back for the work." I took her at her word, and have been reading Stevens since that time. The same statement applies to Cordwainer Smith: he makes you work, but he pays you back for the effort. Like any good investment, the dividends take a while to arrive, but when they arrive, they are excellent. I read Stevens for four years before I began to understand the surface of the printed pages. I read Cordwainer Smith for years (beginning 1971 or so) until 1989, when I spent an intense three months reading nothing but his narratives (no, not even Stevens during that time), and finally began to gain some perspective on his great cosmic vision, and the nuances of the Instrumentality. There was a winsome sadness to some of the latter stories; the last line of the last of the Casher stories---Three To A Given Star---is both joyous and sad similtaneously. I can only imagine what the Robot, the Rat, and the Copt would have been. And the best way to imagine that is to look into a clear, cloudless, starclustered night sky, and let the imagination wander. Smith's stories enable this.
November 29, 2022
I can’t believe I come in here and I read negative reviews for one of the best authors in the history of science fiction. I read this book before most of them were born. These stories are actually based upon either Chinese or Arabian tales, this was common with this author, I don’t remember what was the source of these stories. The name “Casher O’Neill” is not actually Irish, it is a re-spelling of an Arabian name. Kasir Al’neel. (I’ll have to check spelling).
Every book by “Cordwainer Smith“ is a cultural treasure. Of course his most famous book was “the boy who bought old earth”, which became the basis for the collection “Norstrilia”, Old North Australia, where they harvest gigantic, sick sheep to dole out immortality to “The Instrumentaliy of Mankind”. This novel here was a collection of three stories from galaxy magazine: “On the gem planet“, “on the storm planet“, and “three to a given star“. I am holding in my hand the original ace edition published in 1966, sold for $.40.
Find out who you are slagging. Cordwainers Smith was actually Dr. Paul Linebarger, you might want to look that person up, these stories are not just science fiction stories. They have deep and profound meaning, and they have inspired other novelists like Harlan Ellison, Who appropriated the name “Cordwainer Bird“ as an alias.
This novel reflects on part of Cordwainer Smith’s future history, of a time when there is a common existence for Humans and Underpeople, which are animals that had been altered to appear human and served previously as slaves. Smith would always write his beloved pets into his stories, the Dog-Woman “D’Alma” appears in this one, just like the Cat-Woman C’Mell had a huge part in Norstrilia. so why wouldn’t Smith write about an immortal horse trapped on a planet of solid gems, and Kasir’s, excuse me Casher’s efforts to save it?
Every book by “Cordwainer Smith“ is a cultural treasure. Of course his most famous book was “the boy who bought old earth”, which became the basis for the collection “Norstrilia”, Old North Australia, where they harvest gigantic, sick sheep to dole out immortality to “The Instrumentaliy of Mankind”. This novel here was a collection of three stories from galaxy magazine: “On the gem planet“, “on the storm planet“, and “three to a given star“. I am holding in my hand the original ace edition published in 1966, sold for $.40.
Find out who you are slagging. Cordwainers Smith was actually Dr. Paul Linebarger, you might want to look that person up, these stories are not just science fiction stories. They have deep and profound meaning, and they have inspired other novelists like Harlan Ellison, Who appropriated the name “Cordwainer Bird“ as an alias.
This novel reflects on part of Cordwainer Smith’s future history, of a time when there is a common existence for Humans and Underpeople, which are animals that had been altered to appear human and served previously as slaves. Smith would always write his beloved pets into his stories, the Dog-Woman “D’Alma” appears in this one, just like the Cat-Woman C’Mell had a huge part in Norstrilia. so why wouldn’t Smith write about an immortal horse trapped on a planet of solid gems, and Kasir’s, excuse me Casher’s efforts to save it?
August 20, 2017
Let's go ahead and call this "Penultimate Smith."
Don't start here, but get here eventually.
Don't start here, but get here eventually.
September 14, 2025
This book confused me when I found it - I had always heard that Cordwainer Smith only ever had one novel published - Norstrilia - and even that a fix-up. This one however presented itself as a novel, erroneously.
In fact, it is a series of stories, all kind of consecutive with a main character in common but not really a novel as such. In brief, Casher O'Neill is traveling the galaxy in search of weapons or something to help free his planet of Mizzer from an oppressor. The individual stories are presented as 'part I' 'part II' ect rather than the titles of the stories they were originally published under, but that is pretty much it in attempting to make this into a novel.
As a novel I think it does not work at all well, because the styles of writing between the parts/stories are too dissimilar in style and goals to integrate. The first one and the last one being good, classic SF and the middle ones being messianic, allegorical religious mythology - a style I can, at times, enjoy but not when I am expecting science fiction. So, as stories:
Introduction by John J. Pierce 1978
Despite being complimentary, even gushing, it was not very forthcoming in information and kept blithering on about religion, which one understood by the end of the book but made little sense at the time.
Part I / "On the Gem Planet" 1963.
This was a great story, a 4* easily. Casher is on a planet with little soil or air, he is pleading for assistance and is promised a huge emerald as a laser weapon, but only if he can solve the problem of the horse. This horse is an Earth horse, but in the instrumentality 'animals' are normally animal/people, created using advanced biological genetic manipulations. No one can understand that the horse is a real animal nor what to do with him. GREAT story! as good as any of the author's other work.
Part II / "On the Storm Planet" 1965.
Starts GREAT; with a wild storm razed planet with a diminishing population and a mad governor. This crazy governor will give Casher a warship but only if he murders a little girl who lives in a house he will be chauffeured to. The mystery started off well, then it got a little tedious and finally fell into repetitious drivel. I disliked this story. It was so disappointing after the strong start. The 'little girl' is a hundreds or thousands year old animal-person, created from a turtle and with the name of Ruth so T'Ruth. Ha ha.
This story was messianic enough to irritate me on that score but it is intensely, ludicrously repetitious. The longest story in the collection, it could have been slashed in half if only T'Ruth had told us her origin story a mere 3-4 times instead of more than ten, over and over and over and over did we have to read about how she came from little turtle.
Also, she has phenomenal cosmic powers, making her the Deus ex Machina character to end them all and THEN just when things could not get any worse, she bequeaths these ultimate powers to Casher so he can be his own Dues Ex Machina in future.
2* is generous for this one.
The only attempt to make this a novel (other than removing the story names) is that the end of Part II is actually the start of Part III.
Part III / "On the Sand Planet" 1965.
Casher has been transported through L-Space (or whatever) by T'Ruth's godlike whatever powers. Now he can use those incwedible, incwedible powers to transform the dictator into a nice guy. After he has waved his magic wand (or whatever) to do this he goes on a long messianic trip through the thirteen Niles on some mystical journey with various New Testament mythology that was so heavy handed I practically developed a nervous tic from all the wincing. Radical Christians will probably love it, not sure anyone else will.
The only part of this story that COULD have been fun is if the author had bothered to do some bioscience about how the dictator gets changed - but no, it was just waving a magic wand. Or whatever. 1 * is being generous.
Part IV / "Three to a Given Star" 1965.
Is actually a science fiction story again, thank goodness, and it is a good one about three people who have been transformed into constructs by the Instrumentality to travel to a far planet and deal with the threat to mankind that may exist there. Redeemed my faltering faith in Cordwainer Smith. 4*
In fact, it is a series of stories, all kind of consecutive with a main character in common but not really a novel as such. In brief, Casher O'Neill is traveling the galaxy in search of weapons or something to help free his planet of Mizzer from an oppressor. The individual stories are presented as 'part I' 'part II' ect rather than the titles of the stories they were originally published under, but that is pretty much it in attempting to make this into a novel.
As a novel I think it does not work at all well, because the styles of writing between the parts/stories are too dissimilar in style and goals to integrate. The first one and the last one being good, classic SF and the middle ones being messianic, allegorical religious mythology - a style I can, at times, enjoy but not when I am expecting science fiction. So, as stories:
Introduction by John J. Pierce 1978
Despite being complimentary, even gushing, it was not very forthcoming in information and kept blithering on about religion, which one understood by the end of the book but made little sense at the time.
Part I / "On the Gem Planet" 1963.
This was a great story, a 4* easily. Casher is on a planet with little soil or air, he is pleading for assistance and is promised a huge emerald as a laser weapon, but only if he can solve the problem of the horse. This horse is an Earth horse, but in the instrumentality 'animals' are normally animal/people, created using advanced biological genetic manipulations. No one can understand that the horse is a real animal nor what to do with him. GREAT story! as good as any of the author's other work.
Part II / "On the Storm Planet" 1965.
Starts GREAT; with a wild storm razed planet with a diminishing population and a mad governor. This crazy governor will give Casher a warship but only if he murders a little girl who lives in a house he will be chauffeured to. The mystery started off well, then it got a little tedious and finally fell into repetitious drivel. I disliked this story. It was so disappointing after the strong start. The 'little girl' is a hundreds or thousands year old animal-person, created from a turtle and with the name of Ruth so T'Ruth. Ha ha.
This story was messianic enough to irritate me on that score but it is intensely, ludicrously repetitious. The longest story in the collection, it could have been slashed in half if only T'Ruth had told us her origin story a mere 3-4 times instead of more than ten, over and over and over and over did we have to read about how she came from little turtle.
Also, she has phenomenal cosmic powers, making her the Deus ex Machina character to end them all and THEN just when things could not get any worse, she bequeaths these ultimate powers to Casher so he can be his own Dues Ex Machina in future.
2* is generous for this one.
The only attempt to make this a novel (other than removing the story names) is that the end of Part II is actually the start of Part III.
Part III / "On the Sand Planet" 1965.
Casher has been transported through L-Space (or whatever) by T'Ruth's godlike whatever powers. Now he can use those incwedible, incwedible powers to transform the dictator into a nice guy. After he has waved his magic wand (or whatever) to do this he goes on a long messianic trip through the thirteen Niles on some mystical journey with various New Testament mythology that was so heavy handed I practically developed a nervous tic from all the wincing. Radical Christians will probably love it, not sure anyone else will.
The only part of this story that COULD have been fun is if the author had bothered to do some bioscience about how the dictator gets changed - but no, it was just waving a magic wand. Or whatever. 1 * is being generous.
Part IV / "Three to a Given Star" 1965.
Is actually a science fiction story again, thank goodness, and it is a good one about three people who have been transformed into constructs by the Instrumentality to travel to a far planet and deal with the threat to mankind that may exist there. Redeemed my faltering faith in Cordwainer Smith. 4*
September 21, 2022
I found this in a trawl of second hand bookshops in Wigtown and mostly picked it up because I'm a big fan of Cordwainer Smith and a quick perusal of the back cover suggested that it wasn't actually set in his Instrumentality of Man future history, since I think I've read everything he ever wrote in that. As it turns out, it actually does collect three linked stories set in the Instrumentality, but since I had no memory of any of them, I read the whole thing anyway.
I'm very fond of Smith's prose style. It's maybe a bit purple, but it's poetic and soaring and I love that. The rough plot involves Casher O'Neill's travels through the stars, searching for weapons to help him retake his home planet after a coup. The first story has him travelling to a planet where gems are common and soil is rare, and helping to deal with an immortal horse that an eccentric brought to the world. There's some glorious description and the feeling of a deep history - that this history exists somewhere in space and time. But it's also distinctly tongue in cheek, Smith pointing out the absurdities of life, using a planet where a bucket of soil is worth more than a gemstone the size of your head.
The second sees Casher travel to a world where he's asked to kill a girl, in exchange for a busted space cruiser. It's no spoiler to say that he can't kill her and ends up becoming a sort of disciple. This one was a bit creepy in places, as O'Neill sexualises this person, named T'ruth, who looks like a prepubescent child. There's also a bunch of Christian symbolism that I don't remember in Smith's writing before and didn't really know what to do with.
The final story in the main arc sees Casher, now armed with huge psychic powers, finally return to his homeworld and, after he completes his lifelong mission, goes off on a journey. This was the strangest of all the stories here, and I had little clue of what was going on and what Casher was looking for at the source of the "Thirteenth Nile". This really felt like the weakest of the stories in the collection. I can see that Smith didn't necessarily want to do the straight big fight/end of the hero's journey thing that's so common, but his replacement felt a bit incoherent to me.
There's a fourth story in the book, which is only tangentially related, in that the plot is kicked off by Casher, but we follow three living weapons sent by the Instrumentality to deal with a very distant planet from where a psychic hatred of humanity was detected. I enjoyed this a lot, but Casher was only in it as a distant observer, providing some exposition when needed. It helps to expand the universe of the Instrumentality, rather than Casher's story.
If I'd realised that I already owned the stories in the book I wouldn't have bought it, but it was fun returning to Smith's vast future history, and since I didn't remember any of them, I can't say it wasn't worth it.
I'm very fond of Smith's prose style. It's maybe a bit purple, but it's poetic and soaring and I love that. The rough plot involves Casher O'Neill's travels through the stars, searching for weapons to help him retake his home planet after a coup. The first story has him travelling to a planet where gems are common and soil is rare, and helping to deal with an immortal horse that an eccentric brought to the world. There's some glorious description and the feeling of a deep history - that this history exists somewhere in space and time. But it's also distinctly tongue in cheek, Smith pointing out the absurdities of life, using a planet where a bucket of soil is worth more than a gemstone the size of your head.
The second sees Casher travel to a world where he's asked to kill a girl, in exchange for a busted space cruiser. It's no spoiler to say that he can't kill her and ends up becoming a sort of disciple. This one was a bit creepy in places, as O'Neill sexualises this person, named T'ruth, who looks like a prepubescent child. There's also a bunch of Christian symbolism that I don't remember in Smith's writing before and didn't really know what to do with.
The final story in the main arc sees Casher, now armed with huge psychic powers, finally return to his homeworld and, after he completes his lifelong mission, goes off on a journey. This was the strangest of all the stories here, and I had little clue of what was going on and what Casher was looking for at the source of the "Thirteenth Nile". This really felt like the weakest of the stories in the collection. I can see that Smith didn't necessarily want to do the straight big fight/end of the hero's journey thing that's so common, but his replacement felt a bit incoherent to me.
There's a fourth story in the book, which is only tangentially related, in that the plot is kicked off by Casher, but we follow three living weapons sent by the Instrumentality to deal with a very distant planet from where a psychic hatred of humanity was detected. I enjoyed this a lot, but Casher was only in it as a distant observer, providing some exposition when needed. It helps to expand the universe of the Instrumentality, rather than Casher's story.
If I'd realised that I already owned the stories in the book I wouldn't have bought it, but it was fun returning to Smith's vast future history, and since I didn't remember any of them, I can't say it wasn't worth it.
July 5, 2024
(FYI I tend to only review one book per series, unless I want to change my scoring by 0.50 or more of a star. -- I tend not to read reviews until after I read a book, so I go in with an open mind.)
I'm finally going through my physical library owned book list, to add more older basic reviews. If I liked a book enough to keep then they are at the least a 3 star.
I'm only adding one book per author and I'm not going to re-read every book to be more accurate, not when I have 1000s of new to me authors to try (I can't say no to free books....)
First time read the author's work?: Yes
Will you be reading more?: Yes
Would you recommend?: Yes
------------
How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)
All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked
Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)
I'm finally going through my physical library owned book list, to add more older basic reviews. If I liked a book enough to keep then they are at the least a 3 star.
I'm only adding one book per author and I'm not going to re-read every book to be more accurate, not when I have 1000s of new to me authors to try (I can't say no to free books....)
First time read the author's work?: Yes
Will you be reading more?: Yes
Would you recommend?: Yes
------------
How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)
All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked
Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)
July 19, 2025
Cordwainer Smith ha ambientato in un remoto futuro quasi tutte le sue storie di sf del ciclo della Strumentalità e in questo "Sabbie, tempeste e pietre preziose" ("Quest of the Three Worlds", 1966; Urania Mondadori, 2017; trad. di Ugo Malaguti) sono raccolti i tre racconti con protagonista l'avventuriero Casher O'Neill, "vagabondo delle stelle".
Questa è la storia di una vendetta, narrata come fosse una leggenda: il protagonista avrà a che fare con dittatori e tiranni, robot e subumani (animali trasformati in esseri quasi umani) per assemblare gli strumenti per forgiare la propria vendetta ma incapperà in poteri straordinari e in una vecchia religione. E trascenderà oltre la propria umanità per cominciare un nuovo tipo di ricerca.
Cordwainer Smith fonde la narrazione orientale col proprio afflato religioso, creando un universo unico, esotico, talvolta alieno ma inevitabilmente umano.
In appendice un racconto di Valeria Barbera e un lungo articolo speculativo di Fabio Feminò su cosa mangeremo nel futuro (un futuro sempre più prossimo).
Questa è la storia di una vendetta, narrata come fosse una leggenda: il protagonista avrà a che fare con dittatori e tiranni, robot e subumani (animali trasformati in esseri quasi umani) per assemblare gli strumenti per forgiare la propria vendetta ma incapperà in poteri straordinari e in una vecchia religione. E trascenderà oltre la propria umanità per cominciare un nuovo tipo di ricerca.
Cordwainer Smith fonde la narrazione orientale col proprio afflato religioso, creando un universo unico, esotico, talvolta alieno ma inevitabilmente umano.
In appendice un racconto di Valeria Barbera e un lungo articolo speculativo di Fabio Feminò su cosa mangeremo nel futuro (un futuro sempre più prossimo).
May 14, 2022
Smith's work is generally not particularly good, satisfying or remarkable in any classical sense. At the same time, it's appealingly weird and oblique - you are generally unlikely to run into any hoary old cliches or ideas done better a thousand times in other places - and he's certainly easy to read. And all of those things are absolutely the case here. Most of this is basically sci-fi-flavored mysticism, and I think going into it with that attitude probably helps. And Smith is really good at giving a sense of the staggering age / scope / scale / weirdness of his universe, which helps make up for a lot of the novel's flaws and somewhat old-fashioned weirdness.
April 24, 2020
La baja puntuación es más por la editorial que por el autor, que ha forzado este cuarto y último volumen del todo innecesario e inconexo con al colección. Fuera de la Instrumentalidad y con un tono completamente distinto. Solamente los 4 primeros cuentos se engloban en la Instrumentalidad y bien los podrían haber incluido en los 3 primeros volúmenes.
Alguna pincelada de ingenio pero todo él muy inferior a lo que estaba acostumbrado.
Mal sabor de boca tras una larga relación con el autor.
Una lástima la decisión de la editorial.
Alguna pincelada de ingenio pero todo él muy inferior a lo que estaba acostumbrado.
Mal sabor de boca tras una larga relación con el autor.
Una lástima la decisión de la editorial.
February 12, 2023
Casher O'Neill is looking for aid to liberate his home world Mizzer. Doing so brings him to some interesting places. O'Neill eventually comes to world where he is asked to kill a young girl. There O'Neill may find what he needs or his own destruction. Like the title says a quest story. There are some great twists. The last part was fascinating even though it is loosely tied to the other parts. Another interesting part of this universe.
October 1, 2023
I'm glad I read these in just two sittings because So maybe closer to 2.5. These are more loosely related to the Instrumentality stories and not as good but I decided to read all the works while I'm here and will read Norstrilia next to finish it off.
January 29, 2018
Afús. Otra castaña kafkiana.
April 23, 2021
What?... What?
November 5, 2024
Love his work
he was a truly creative thinker and writer well head of his time and had an enormous impact on readers and writers who followed
he was a truly creative thinker and writer well head of his time and had an enormous impact on readers and writers who followed
August 10, 2025
A jovial odyssey of a prodigal nephew’s quest that unravels and takes a hard left turn at the 90% mark and left me cold and lost.
December 24, 2023
Apart from part 4 pretty much nothing noteworthy negative. Even then it enhances the world and the fairy tale like feeling of this book. I would give 4 stars but if negatives make sense within the story then I find it difficult to fault the book.
March 9, 2017
I've liked Cordwainer Smith's stuff in the past, but this was definitely not one of his better works. A mash up of a few short stories, they feature Casher O'Neill, the son of a tyrant on a quest to free his people. The first story is exactly that, Casher goes to a rich planet to get support, and comes out with a girl he can't marry and a giant gem to make a laser with.
Then it gets weird, and he meets a turtle girl that's the re-incarnation of a character that seems to be meant to be Space Joan of Arc, and gets all kinda of weird powers. He goes home and uses them to alter the body chemistry of the dictator and saves the day... but that's only 2/3 of the book. They last 1/3 is a weird vision quest, where he and his new wife find a planet of chicken people and send explorers to conquer them... so yeah, pretty weird at the end.
There are some fun bit of his 'Instrumentality of Man' universe in there, especially the parts about how religion in general and Christianity in particular are treated, but otherwise it's a little to out there.
Then it gets weird, and he meets a turtle girl that's the re-incarnation of a character that seems to be meant to be Space Joan of Arc, and gets all kinda of weird powers. He goes home and uses them to alter the body chemistry of the dictator and saves the day... but that's only 2/3 of the book. They last 1/3 is a weird vision quest, where he and his new wife find a planet of chicken people and send explorers to conquer them... so yeah, pretty weird at the end.
There are some fun bit of his 'Instrumentality of Man' universe in there, especially the parts about how religion in general and Christianity in particular are treated, but otherwise it's a little to out there.
December 3, 2022
The "Casher O'Neill" stories:
On the Gem Planet (1963)
On the Storm Planet (1965)
On the Sand Planet (1965)
Three to a Given Star (1965)
I'm a fan of "Cordwainer" but the three linked novellas may be, page for page, his weakest writing. The first novella seemed mid-level Cordwainer but about half way through the second novella, after an intriguing beginning, my mind was wandering as it was sorta being stretched out, and throughout the third, pains me to say it, my eyes were skimming the pages. Funny, though, how many proto-Dune ideas are in here once you start looking - planets with distinctively homogeneous and extreme ecologies, one of which is a desert planet populated by a reminiscently middle eastern -ish people who use air vehicles with flapping wings (ornithopters) for transport, two other planets with environmental conditions so harsh humans require specialized gear to survive, religious overtones aplenty including a population in need of a returning messiah, a person who has had "imprinted" within themself Bene Gesserit -style the lives of deceased people and adopted their skills as his own ... probably more but that is already a lot for two writers that hardly resemble one another at all ...
On the Gem Planet (1963)
On the Storm Planet (1965)
On the Sand Planet (1965)
Three to a Given Star (1965)
I'm a fan of "Cordwainer" but the three linked novellas may be, page for page, his weakest writing. The first novella seemed mid-level Cordwainer but about half way through the second novella, after an intriguing beginning, my mind was wandering as it was sorta being stretched out, and throughout the third, pains me to say it, my eyes were skimming the pages. Funny, though, how many proto-Dune ideas are in here once you start looking - planets with distinctively homogeneous and extreme ecologies, one of which is a desert planet populated by a reminiscently middle eastern -ish people who use air vehicles with flapping wings (ornithopters) for transport, two other planets with environmental conditions so harsh humans require specialized gear to survive, religious overtones aplenty including a population in need of a returning messiah, a person who has had "imprinted" within themself Bene Gesserit -style the lives of deceased people and adopted their skills as his own ... probably more but that is already a lot for two writers that hardly resemble one another at all ...
January 2, 2008
This is a sci-fi story written in the mid-sixties about an end-of-time hero, Casher O'Neill, who must overthrow an unruly ruler so he can return to his home planet and fulfill his own destiny. Does that sound vague? Well, as I started reading this, all was going well in good science fiction fashion; visits to strange planets, encounters with unusual characters and so on. Then, all of a sudden, the author must have swallowed some magic mushrooms or else gotten manuscript drafts mixed up because the characters changed and so did the plot for no apparent reason... strange stuff, even for science fiction!
Well, as it turns out, the author, Cordwainer Smith (pseudonym for Paul M.A. Linebarger) wasn't a hippie or influenced by drugs. He was just an odd character. Here is an excerpt from his daughter's recollections:
"Luckily, I don't remember another early event. My mother told me that when the war ended, he wanted to give me a tremendous spanking so that I would always remember the end of the war. Mom didn't agree with that approach to child-rearing, and the spanking didn't happen..."
Well, as it turns out, the author, Cordwainer Smith (pseudonym for Paul M.A. Linebarger) wasn't a hippie or influenced by drugs. He was just an odd character. Here is an excerpt from his daughter's recollections:
"Luckily, I don't remember another early event. My mother told me that when the war ended, he wanted to give me a tremendous spanking so that I would always remember the end of the war. Mom didn't agree with that approach to child-rearing, and the spanking didn't happen..."
May 17, 2016
There were a few years, when I was in grade school, when I rarely read anything but science fiction. And I would read any kind of SF that I came across, by any writer, indiscriminately. One author whose work stood out for its ineffable strangeness was Cordwainer Smith. His stories never seemed to be quite like the other science fiction I encountered. Weird, grave, darkly humorous, oddly obscure, as if every tale was drawn from a future history which hid secrets that might or might not ever be revealed. I picked this book to post here because I remember its cover, and I'm pretty sure I owned it for several years. But everything I ever read by the pseudonymous Smith was like some sort of impenetrable magic.
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