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Instrumentality of Mankind
The Planet Buyer
Cover Artist: John Schoenherr
156 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1964
2 people are currently reading
497 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 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 15, 2016
The Planet Buyer is a comparably intelligent 60's SF novella. While it is still plot-driven, Smith manages to develop an original world brimming with whacky ideas on a mere 140 pages in the German translation.
The most interesting part is the economic concept. One year before the far more popular Dune he developed a similar world, Norstrilia. It's the only world in the universe where Stroon, the immortality drug, can be harvested. Stroon is the product of a virus infesting mutated 1,000 ton sheep. Astonishingly similar to Arrakis and its Spice. As a result, the farmers on Norstrilia are exceedingly wealthy by standards of the universe. But to keep them grounded, the government imposes import taxes of a few million percent. Simple items of daily use cost millions. Accordingly, the Norstrilians are leading humble lifes dominated by work. Luxury is banished, computers abolished as far as they are not needed for defense purposes.
Another interesting concept is population control being a necessity in a world where the average citizen lives for a 1,000 years. Children are tested after puberty with only the most able surviving the telepathy-based test. A skill which the Norstrilians have developed over the course of many generations and grown by their mechanism of selection. Pure darwinism. Genetical engineering is taken up in other places. Underpeople serve as servants, intelligent beings that are a cross between various animals and humans. They are banned from Norstrilia. Animals can be engineered to be used as weapons or tools.
A fascinating universe that could have benefitted from a longer form. The Planet Buyer is only the first half of a story that was later published together with the succeeding volume The Underpeople as Norstrilia. Smith's ideas rival Herbert's while being more whimsical and less developed which probably explains why the same grand premise led to a huge success in one case and obscurity in the other.
The most interesting part is the economic concept. One year before the far more popular Dune he developed a similar world, Norstrilia. It's the only world in the universe where Stroon, the immortality drug, can be harvested. Stroon is the product of a virus infesting mutated 1,000 ton sheep. Astonishingly similar to Arrakis and its Spice. As a result, the farmers on Norstrilia are exceedingly wealthy by standards of the universe. But to keep them grounded, the government imposes import taxes of a few million percent. Simple items of daily use cost millions. Accordingly, the Norstrilians are leading humble lifes dominated by work. Luxury is banished, computers abolished as far as they are not needed for defense purposes.
Another interesting concept is population control being a necessity in a world where the average citizen lives for a 1,000 years. Children are tested after puberty with only the most able surviving the telepathy-based test. A skill which the Norstrilians have developed over the course of many generations and grown by their mechanism of selection. Pure darwinism. Genetical engineering is taken up in other places. Underpeople serve as servants, intelligent beings that are a cross between various animals and humans. They are banned from Norstrilia. Animals can be engineered to be used as weapons or tools.
A fascinating universe that could have benefitted from a longer form. The Planet Buyer is only the first half of a story that was later published together with the succeeding volume The Underpeople as Norstrilia. Smith's ideas rival Herbert's while being more whimsical and less developed which probably explains why the same grand premise led to a huge success in one case and obscurity in the other.
January 28, 2010
4.5 Stars. The first half of the classic Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith. Fun, fast and very imaginative.
Nominee Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1965).
Nominee Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1965).
October 9, 2019
Storyline: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 3/5
Every now and then a little golden age science fiction found its way back into a genre that was on its way to abandoning it. Not that science fiction ever completely outgrew its pulp adolescence, but by 1964 it was becoming less fashionable to throw in such technological doodadery as the “Humanoid-robot Brainwave Dephasing Device.” Most everything in here, in fact, was just a little ill-fashioned—sometimes late and out of fashion, but just as often awkwardly attempting what was then newly fashionable. This latter was evident in the jaunty patter that periodically surfaced, affecting contempt or jocularity (I was never really quite sure). There were some proddings to social justice that were startling in their unprepared-for appearance and quick dismissal. There’s even a paranormal angle that would have been right for the times except that it had been drained of all mystery and significance. The story’s real merits were in its ideas for a new world. It was not so much the time as it was the place – the historical context being essentially incomprehensible and ill-connected. Smith drops in little details about the land that are real gems – quirky, satisfyingly unbelievable, surprising, and fitting with the rest of the established rules. This doesn’t come all at once but is instead spread out through the story. What started as amusing, however, becomes a little tedious as one sees Smith throw in idea after idea as a second-thought, with most never followed up on or through with. This would have been more bearable were there some story or characters available to pick up the tale. There’s very little tale, in fact. It was all more of a long prologue that was belatedly told to conclude. I can see how this sort of thing might still have had fans in the 1960s, but it is hard to believe there were very many of them then, and there have to be even fewer after.
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 3/5
Every now and then a little golden age science fiction found its way back into a genre that was on its way to abandoning it. Not that science fiction ever completely outgrew its pulp adolescence, but by 1964 it was becoming less fashionable to throw in such technological doodadery as the “Humanoid-robot Brainwave Dephasing Device.” Most everything in here, in fact, was just a little ill-fashioned—sometimes late and out of fashion, but just as often awkwardly attempting what was then newly fashionable. This latter was evident in the jaunty patter that periodically surfaced, affecting contempt or jocularity (I was never really quite sure). There were some proddings to social justice that were startling in their unprepared-for appearance and quick dismissal. There’s even a paranormal angle that would have been right for the times except that it had been drained of all mystery and significance. The story’s real merits were in its ideas for a new world. It was not so much the time as it was the place – the historical context being essentially incomprehensible and ill-connected. Smith drops in little details about the land that are real gems – quirky, satisfyingly unbelievable, surprising, and fitting with the rest of the established rules. This doesn’t come all at once but is instead spread out through the story. What started as amusing, however, becomes a little tedious as one sees Smith throw in idea after idea as a second-thought, with most never followed up on or through with. This would have been more bearable were there some story or characters available to pick up the tale. There’s very little tale, in fact. It was all more of a long prologue that was belatedly told to conclude. I can see how this sort of thing might still have had fans in the 1960s, but it is hard to believe there were very many of them then, and there have to be even fewer after.
October 24, 2025
Another attempt at a C Smith book because he seems to be held in high regard. This was a slowly paced book that grinds to a dull finale only to try to interest you in a sequel in epilogue. Not recommended.
June 28, 2015
Where to start? The 100-ton sheep infected with a virus that grows an immortality drug? The court that takes place in a van? The snake guy? The telepathic bombs? The fruit cake? This dude wackifies every SF trope, even space travel.
January 15, 2024
The Planet buyer
Since this is my second Cordwainer Smith book in a row, and I talked about who he was in the last review I will skip that. I want to save you some time, I know this was expanded in later editions to become a larger novel called Nostralian. I know OK. I also know a few people will respond to my posts of this review and tell me again. I have this edition, not that edition. Also after reading the brilliant collection The Instrumentality of Mankind, I looked at this book on the shelf and I had to read THIS edition for a specific reason. The Planet Buyer was nominated in 1965 for the HUGO and lost the award. That is fine. Plenty of great novels are never nominated let alone lose the Hugo. The thing is 1965 is the year that the worst Hugo winner was given to the most notoriously shitty of all Hugo winners Fritz Lieber’s novel ‘The Wanderer.’
It also beat out Brunner’s The Whole Man (I suppose I have to read that now, which is fine as Brunner rules) Nonetheless, I am probably going to talk as much about Leiber’s novel as much as CS’s The Planet Buyer.
Why do you read old-school science fiction? Me I love how weird and out of time it is. Two human beings living in 2024 have a similar context for trying to imagine the future. Paul Linebarger moonlighting from his job as professor of Far East studies as Cordwainer Smith the science fiction writer wrote weird stuff. We know the man used his imagination to write weird political thoughtful science fiction since he was a teenager. This novel has everything A CS short story has so yeah, it is great.
Unintentionally you see similar ideas to Dune (which was not a thing yet they were written around the same time) Rod McBan from planet Norstrilia, the source of immortality drug Stroon, buys Old Earth. Rod is lucky because his computer designed to lie to everyone except him helps him buy Earth for the rock bottom price of “Seven thousand million million megacredits.” That is two millions in a row that is how they do in Nostralia.
My favorite scene came 100 pages in when Lord Redlady confronts Rod about how he bought Earth and how they have to protect him.
“You’d kill me Lord Redlady?” said Rod. “I thought you were saving me?”
“Both,” said the doctor, standing up. “The commonwealth government has tried not to take your property away from you, though they have doubts about what you will do with Earth if you buy it. They are not going to let you stay on the planet and endanger it by being the richest kidnap victim who ever lived…”
Plenty of fun stuff like this in the novel. It is a treasure trove of weird ideas and funny moments like the court held in a moving van. But if there is a mission statement, it might be a character confronting the long lives of humans in this world. Would Rod become a hero buying Earth and helping spread Stroon?
“And that is what the instrumentality is trying to do for mankind today. To make life dangerous enough and interesting enough to be real again. We have diseases, dangers, fights, chances, its been wonderful.”
Is The Planet Buyer a great science fiction novel? Yes, it is a great science fiction novel for readers who enjoy that totally foreign land that is a future conceived in the past. It is loaded with ideas, political and weird, thoughtful and fun. Is it a masterpiece? No.
Was it better than Fritz Leiber’s The Wanderer? For fuck’s sake it is. Let's talk about that novel. When I recount the totally bizarro insanity of The Wanderer it sounds way better than the book I read. It has more plots than a cemetery, and with 15 story threads, you would think that at least a couple of the characters might be interesting. Nah, not really. The story is an interesting one. A Planet suddenly appears in between the moon and Earth, this is a death star-like artificial planet filled with super-intelligent horny cat ladies who have anarchist politics and are on the run from galactic forces. They come to Earth because they have spent all their fuel living in hyperspace and our moon is just the raw materials they need. When they start crushing our moon up it sets off tidal forces and earthquakes.
It sounds weird and hilarious, and it is entertaining in the same way a Michael Bay movie can be. It is crazy that this book exists but winner of the Hugo? It might have been a lifetime achievement award but come. I’ll get back to you on the Whole Man but for now, I can safely say The Planet Buyer is a more deserving novel for the 1965 Hugo Award.
Since this is my second Cordwainer Smith book in a row, and I talked about who he was in the last review I will skip that. I want to save you some time, I know this was expanded in later editions to become a larger novel called Nostralian. I know OK. I also know a few people will respond to my posts of this review and tell me again. I have this edition, not that edition. Also after reading the brilliant collection The Instrumentality of Mankind, I looked at this book on the shelf and I had to read THIS edition for a specific reason. The Planet Buyer was nominated in 1965 for the HUGO and lost the award. That is fine. Plenty of great novels are never nominated let alone lose the Hugo. The thing is 1965 is the year that the worst Hugo winner was given to the most notoriously shitty of all Hugo winners Fritz Lieber’s novel ‘The Wanderer.’
It also beat out Brunner’s The Whole Man (I suppose I have to read that now, which is fine as Brunner rules) Nonetheless, I am probably going to talk as much about Leiber’s novel as much as CS’s The Planet Buyer.
Why do you read old-school science fiction? Me I love how weird and out of time it is. Two human beings living in 2024 have a similar context for trying to imagine the future. Paul Linebarger moonlighting from his job as professor of Far East studies as Cordwainer Smith the science fiction writer wrote weird stuff. We know the man used his imagination to write weird political thoughtful science fiction since he was a teenager. This novel has everything A CS short story has so yeah, it is great.
Unintentionally you see similar ideas to Dune (which was not a thing yet they were written around the same time) Rod McBan from planet Norstrilia, the source of immortality drug Stroon, buys Old Earth. Rod is lucky because his computer designed to lie to everyone except him helps him buy Earth for the rock bottom price of “Seven thousand million million megacredits.” That is two millions in a row that is how they do in Nostralia.
My favorite scene came 100 pages in when Lord Redlady confronts Rod about how he bought Earth and how they have to protect him.
“You’d kill me Lord Redlady?” said Rod. “I thought you were saving me?”
“Both,” said the doctor, standing up. “The commonwealth government has tried not to take your property away from you, though they have doubts about what you will do with Earth if you buy it. They are not going to let you stay on the planet and endanger it by being the richest kidnap victim who ever lived…”
Plenty of fun stuff like this in the novel. It is a treasure trove of weird ideas and funny moments like the court held in a moving van. But if there is a mission statement, it might be a character confronting the long lives of humans in this world. Would Rod become a hero buying Earth and helping spread Stroon?
“And that is what the instrumentality is trying to do for mankind today. To make life dangerous enough and interesting enough to be real again. We have diseases, dangers, fights, chances, its been wonderful.”
Is The Planet Buyer a great science fiction novel? Yes, it is a great science fiction novel for readers who enjoy that totally foreign land that is a future conceived in the past. It is loaded with ideas, political and weird, thoughtful and fun. Is it a masterpiece? No.
Was it better than Fritz Leiber’s The Wanderer? For fuck’s sake it is. Let's talk about that novel. When I recount the totally bizarro insanity of The Wanderer it sounds way better than the book I read. It has more plots than a cemetery, and with 15 story threads, you would think that at least a couple of the characters might be interesting. Nah, not really. The story is an interesting one. A Planet suddenly appears in between the moon and Earth, this is a death star-like artificial planet filled with super-intelligent horny cat ladies who have anarchist politics and are on the run from galactic forces. They come to Earth because they have spent all their fuel living in hyperspace and our moon is just the raw materials they need. When they start crushing our moon up it sets off tidal forces and earthquakes.
It sounds weird and hilarious, and it is entertaining in the same way a Michael Bay movie can be. It is crazy that this book exists but winner of the Hugo? It might have been a lifetime achievement award but come. I’ll get back to you on the Whole Man but for now, I can safely say The Planet Buyer is a more deserving novel for the 1965 Hugo Award.
November 22, 2024
Didn’t realize the book was only part of a series. Overall decent but just abruptly ended when the story was just getting started.
January 16, 2021
And out of the bad sleep, the answer came: “Ask Hamlet.”
Hamlet was not even a man. He was just a talking picture in a cave, but he was wise, he was from Old Earth Itself, and he had no friends to whom to give Rod’s secrets.
This is another Cordwainer Smith science fiction fairy tale, about a man who bought the Earth (and several other institutions beside), led there by a computer in a
“Sand Planet” was the kind of science fiction fairy tale that Cordwainer Smith was great at; a man who has accomplished everything he wishes must make new goals as a godlike man. “Planet Buyer” is similar, in a way, but downplays the human advancement that must be taking place on a planet that literally (but humanely) kills all but their very best people (on the other hand, the “very best” are chosen by a semi-government committee so it may be that it’s either not very good or counterproductive at its task).
Even in this advanced rural society, jealousies abound, and Rod McBan (real name abridged) has to survive an attack by a trained giant mad sparrow, “20 kilos’ weight, with straight sword-like beaks almost a meter in length [and] razor-like wing-feathers which had mutated into weapons” before journeying to Earth.
That was a conventional attack; Rod McBan fights back unconventionally (and in fact had already done so by the time of the attack), thinking outside the planet (and even a literal box by the end of the book) to go around his nemesis.
This is basically the first part of Norstrilia, which I also have on my to-read shelves, and checking that book The Planet Buyer consists of about the first 57% of Norstrilia. But despite its ending as the Earth adventure is about to start The Planet Buyer doesn’t read as if it’s the first part of a longer story. To expand it into Norstrilia, Smith removed The Planet Buyer’s beautiful ending, presumably replacing it with another beautiful ending.
C’Mell makes an appearance, as do Lord Redlady and Lord Jestocost.
The cover image and the back cover blurb are even more off-kilter than I normally expect from book covers and blurbs. The back cover includes the text “There was one way Rod McBan would reach the planet he owned—alive. But it meant he would have to die first…”. This is sort of true, but it’s a few paragraphs in the novel, not a danger point at all.
The cover is even more intriguing in retrospect. It depicts blue people on what is probably a spaceship or spaceport. In the book, C’Mell claims to have seen a blue person when she clearly has not. It takes less than a page. I’m not sure, but I think the two blue people on the cover are meant to be Rod McBan and C’Mell themselves, to the extent they’re meant to be anybody within the book.
August 17, 2024
While I enjoyed the witty writing of The Planet Buyer, ultimately it was just too zany for me to really get invested in. The plot was somewhat thin, and some of the events and turns of the book seemingly come out of nowhere with little explanation. It's hard to know if this book is a tongue-in-cheek love letter to this very early period of science fiction, or if it is a serious attempt to embrace the tropes of the time period as seriously and emphatically as possible. If the latter, than I think I've had my fill.
This particular novel also suffers from what several other Hugo nominees up to this point have suffered from, that of this novel being part of a broader context / universe / collection of stories. Smith created his universe over time, often through short story publication, and I very much felt that the novel expects the reader to have a bit more insight into previous the world building. Also, this particular edition is only half a story, with the full book eventually being published as Nostrilia. However, as I'm reading Hugo nominees and this is what was nominated, there is literally only half a story here. I don't think I feel compelled to continue.
If you really enjoy the oddity of pulp 50's and 60's sci-fi, this will be right up your alley. Personally I'm hoping that the Hugo nominees will soon start to move past it.
This particular novel also suffers from what several other Hugo nominees up to this point have suffered from, that of this novel being part of a broader context / universe / collection of stories. Smith created his universe over time, often through short story publication, and I very much felt that the novel expects the reader to have a bit more insight into previous the world building. Also, this particular edition is only half a story, with the full book eventually being published as Nostrilia. However, as I'm reading Hugo nominees and this is what was nominated, there is literally only half a story here. I don't think I feel compelled to continue.
If you really enjoy the oddity of pulp 50's and 60's sci-fi, this will be right up your alley. Personally I'm hoping that the Hugo nominees will soon start to move past it.
December 1, 2020
Roderick Frederick Ronald Arnold William MacArthur McBan the hundred and fifty-first is a sheep farmer on the planet of Old North Australia. The sheep there are sick and in their sickness produce the santaclara drug, also known as “stroon”, which prolongs human life indefinitely. As a result, Rod and all his fellow Norstrilians are very, very rich. And telepathic, though Rod’s abilities are intermittent. He also has access to the only all-mechanical computer on the planet, which helps him one day to gamble on the interplanetary stock exchange, make the largest fortune ever seen in the universe and then buy Old Earth: buildings, oceans, forests, the lot. No-one wrote like Smith then, and no-one does now. Although the story is slight and rather basic, he adds lustre and imagination to it in such a way that it shines out from the general ruck even 55 years down the track. Wonderful stuff. R: 4.0/5.0
June 21, 2019
Very funny at times, but ultimately is confusing and inconsistent.
After reading this novel, along with Stranger in a Strange Land, Babel-17, Rogue Moon, and others, I am realizing that I have a distaste for 60's science fiction, or at least 60's sf of a certain caliber. I am not sure what it is, but I never feel at any point like I am getting something that I can latch onto, or anything that will leave an impression. Obviously there are exceptions (such as Dune and most of Philip K. Dick's best work), I can't just rule out an entire decade. But there are undeniable similarities between the books I listed above that all just feel strange to me. For one thing, none of the characters are believable (especially the women). Everyone just feels like an idealistic caricature, and a good bit of the plots feel nonsensical.
After reading this novel, along with Stranger in a Strange Land, Babel-17, Rogue Moon, and others, I am realizing that I have a distaste for 60's science fiction, or at least 60's sf of a certain caliber. I am not sure what it is, but I never feel at any point like I am getting something that I can latch onto, or anything that will leave an impression. Obviously there are exceptions (such as Dune and most of Philip K. Dick's best work), I can't just rule out an entire decade. But there are undeniable similarities between the books I listed above that all just feel strange to me. For one thing, none of the characters are believable (especially the women). Everyone just feels like an idealistic caricature, and a good bit of the plots feel nonsensical.
December 10, 2017
A simply told 1960s science fiction novel with some wild world building. Reviewers have remarked that elements such as 'stroon', which is the product cultivated on Norstrilia that gives people longevity, is very similar to Herbert's spice in Dune, which wasn't written until much later. This is an interesting mix of science fiction, economics and weird down-under euphemisms. It certainly needed a longer exposition to fully develop all these concepts. I also read a short biography of the author (Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger used Smith as a pseudonym) and he had an amazing career as an East Asia scholar and expert in psychological warfare.
January 26, 2020
Well.
I tried to like it. I was ready for a weird 1960's sci fi book, actually its what I was craving at the time. I had Norstrilla (the Planet Buyer) on my list for awhile for that reason.
Meh.
I don't get the point of this book. It fizzles at the end... It had a lot of cool ideas along the way but none of them were wrapped up in how it ended. I felt like all the interesting stuff was going to be in the (non-existent) sequel. The Protagonist never confronts, let alone beats, the antagonist.
Just frustrating. I can't recommend you putting time into this book.
I tried to like it. I was ready for a weird 1960's sci fi book, actually its what I was craving at the time. I had Norstrilla (the Planet Buyer) on my list for awhile for that reason.
Meh.
I don't get the point of this book. It fizzles at the end... It had a lot of cool ideas along the way but none of them were wrapped up in how it ended. I felt like all the interesting stuff was going to be in the (non-existent) sequel. The Protagonist never confronts, let alone beats, the antagonist.
Just frustrating. I can't recommend you putting time into this book.
July 19, 2021
I love Cordwainer Smith's universe, and this sf fairy tale is a fabulous example of his writing
March 10, 2024
There’s a story to be told. There are grand ideas for a story. But there’s no story.
December 20, 2024
One of my favorites--only providing 4 of 5 stars because it is incomplete (this is literally the first half the complete novel, which would be published as Norstrilia later).
July 14, 2012
"The story is simple. There was a boy who bought the planet earth. We know that, to our cost. It only happened once, and we have taken pains that it will never happen again. He came to Earth, got what he wanted, in a series of very remarkable adventures. That's the story." - Cordwainer Smith, The Planet Buyer, "Theme and Prologue", p 7.
This opening is one of the greatest understatements that I have encountered in a science fiction novel, or any novel for that matter. This book, the original novel that would later be combined with further material in the now classic Norstrilia, is one of the most unusual examples of speculative fiction that I have encountered. The ideas that drive this story include mutated sheep that are the source of immortality, mental telepathy among the inhabitants of Norstrilia, gigantic attack birds, computers capable of outwitting traders throughout the universe, and more. The story hangs together, just barely, as the weight of various flights of imagination risk overwhelming it. The main thing that I can say for certain is that this book is exciting and once read requires the reader to return to the works of Cordwainer Smith for more.
This opening is one of the greatest understatements that I have encountered in a science fiction novel, or any novel for that matter. This book, the original novel that would later be combined with further material in the now classic Norstrilia, is one of the most unusual examples of speculative fiction that I have encountered. The ideas that drive this story include mutated sheep that are the source of immortality, mental telepathy among the inhabitants of Norstrilia, gigantic attack birds, computers capable of outwitting traders throughout the universe, and more. The story hangs together, just barely, as the weight of various flights of imagination risk overwhelming it. The main thing that I can say for certain is that this book is exciting and once read requires the reader to return to the works of Cordwainer Smith for more.
April 22, 2025
"In the far, far distance, way beyond Pillow Hills, his giant sheep baa’d."
Cordwainer Smith is another writer, like R.A. Lafferty, whose prose is odd, distinctive, and interesting. He also shares Lafferty’s fondness for concepts and characters that are not only imaginative but eccentric, improbable, and largely unexplained.
I read most if not all of his work years ago - so I am pleased to find that I still like it, even if The Planet Buyer is only half a novel – Norstrilia bisected – with The Underpeople as the second half. The whole thing has a deliberate mythic quality, as if it were a tale retold in an even more distant future, and is said to take some of its tone from traditional Chinese story-telling, with which Cordwainer Smith – godson of Sun Yat-sen – was familiar. It works well.
I could do without the religious undertones (another link to Lafferty), but they are fairly lowkey and intrude only towards the end of The Underpeople. Otherwise I enjoyed both books. Cordwainer Smith had an original voice and that’s almost always a good thing.
Cordwainer Smith is another writer, like R.A. Lafferty, whose prose is odd, distinctive, and interesting. He also shares Lafferty’s fondness for concepts and characters that are not only imaginative but eccentric, improbable, and largely unexplained.
I read most if not all of his work years ago - so I am pleased to find that I still like it, even if The Planet Buyer is only half a novel – Norstrilia bisected – with The Underpeople as the second half. The whole thing has a deliberate mythic quality, as if it were a tale retold in an even more distant future, and is said to take some of its tone from traditional Chinese story-telling, with which Cordwainer Smith – godson of Sun Yat-sen – was familiar. It works well.
I could do without the religious undertones (another link to Lafferty), but they are fairly lowkey and intrude only towards the end of The Underpeople. Otherwise I enjoyed both books. Cordwainer Smith had an original voice and that’s almost always a good thing.
January 26, 2013
A really great book, I tell you! The story is placed in the future, where humanity has stepped out of the Earth and is now settled on different places. The Earth we know is now called Old Earth, and it doesn't have the so-called glory it once possessed. The story is about Rod McBan, someone who is old, and is considered a 'weak' individual. His struggle is worth being a part of. A fascinating story, indeed. It's a great book, particularly from Sci Fi lovers.
April 10, 2013
Good Premise, fairly well executed. Nothing too exciting.
One of the things that annoyed me with this book is for the first few chapters things are introduced but poorly explained then in later chapters things are introduced and explained but then any time they are referenced are needlessly reexplained.
One of the things that annoyed me with this book is for the first few chapters things are introduced but poorly explained then in later chapters things are introduced and explained but then any time they are referenced are needlessly reexplained.
Read
August 22, 2008The Planet Buyer by Cordwainer Smith (1976)
April 27, 2010
This started so well, with exciting narrative style. It broke rules and I was really looking forward to seeing where it took me. And then, it just meandered and eventually fizzeled out. I was sad.
November 6, 2015
So now I want to track down the other Norstrilia related stories.
March 3, 2017
This is a strange book. But it has strong worldbuilding in the old style where it's dished out slowly. I'd recommend reading as Norsrillia since the story abruptly ends.
May 12, 2012
Good old style SF
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews