With an introduction by J. J. Pierce, this volume features the twelve most important stories by Cordwainer Smith, a unique writer who has fused wonder and poetry into imaginative tales that transcend both science and fiction.Scanners Live in VainAdam Stone has found a way for men to cross deep space alive—a discovery that might kill him.The Lady Who Sailed the SoulHelen America voyages to the stars—and into a timeless legend of romance.Alpha Ra...

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 supp...

Fourteen classic Smith stories, set in his star-spanning future universe of scanners, planoforming ships and the Underpeople.Here is the account of the strange origin of the Vomact family and its role in founding the Instrumentality, of how one man's love broke the secret of Space-Three, of what happens to people too long between the stars - even of a shape-changing Martian with a passion for gadgets - in a collection that presents some of the strongest work of an unforgettable wri...

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...

In the cold vacuum of the Up-and-Out, the only thing faster than death is a cat's instinct.Step inside the 'Fighting Room' of a planoforming ship, where telepaths known as Pinlighters serve as the thin line between survival and absolute madness. Humanity has reached the stars, but the stars have teeth. Out in the interstellar void lurk the 'Dragons'—malevolent, light-hating entities that devour the human mind in a fraction of a second. To fight them, mankind has tu...

"No one ever wrote like Smith, with his special blend of intense myth-making and rich invention!"—Publishers WeeklyCordwainer Smith was one of the original visionaries to think of humanity in terms of thousands of years in the future, spread out across the universe. This brilliant collection, often cited as the first of its kind, explores fundamental questions about ourselves and our treatment of the universe (and other beings) around us and ultimately what it means to be ...

Der neue Band der »Meisterwerke der Science-Fiction« – diese Genre-Klassiker sollten in keinem Bücherregal fehlenWillkommen in der fernen Zukunft der Menschheit! Dies ist die Geschichte der »Alten Kriege«; die Geschichte, wie die »Instrumentalität der Menschheit« entstand; die Geschichte der Scanner und Habermänner und ihrer legendären Reisen durch das All; die Geschichte, wie hinter dem Weltraum neue Räume entdeckt wurden; die Geschichte von der Fast-Unsterblichke...

Casher O'Neill è un avventuriero del cosmo con i suoi buoni motivi: trovare la gemma grazie alla quale potrà tornare sul mondo originario e fare giustizia dei soprusi subiti dal suo popolo. Per ottenere la gemma dovrà superare tre prove che consistono nella discesa su tre diversi pianeti. Ma il Mondo delle Gemme, delle Tempeste e delle Sabbie sono luoghi gelosi: Casher lo scoprirà a sue spese in questa triplice avventura, uno dei capolavori di Cordwainer Smith e di tutta la fantascienza am...

Welcome to Old North Australia, or Norstrilia, the only planet that has "stroon," a substance that indefinitely delays aging in humans. Stroon is cultivated from huge, deformed sheep farmed by the wealthiest estate owners to ever exist in all of humanity's existence.Rod McBan is the last of one of the oldest and most honorable families on Norstrilia. But he himself has shortcomings that would normally have led to his death under the strict laws governing population control on a pla...

The Gem Planet, the Storm Planet, the Sand Planet . . . one of these three marvel worlds held the secret Casher O'Neill sought. Casher had wandered the inhabited 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 than he had sought, for there were things more incredible among the stars than he had dreamed of.

Die Befreiung des SandplanetenDies ist die Geschichte des Wüstenplaneten Mizzer, der alle Hoffnung aufgegeben hatte, als der Tyrann Wedder sich zum grausamen Herrscher aufschwang. Und von seinem Befreier, Casher O’Neill, über den seltsame Dinge berichtet werden. Er bereiste die Galaxis, um einen Weg zu finden, Wedder zu stürzen. Jetzt ist er nach Mizzer zurückgekehrt …Die Erzählung „Planet des Sandes“ erscheint als exklusives eBook Only bei Heyne und ist zu...

Cordwainer Smith was one pseudonym of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, a U.S. Army officer, scholar on East Asian matters, classmate of L. Ron Hubbard, advisor and godson of Sun Yat-Sen, and an expert in psychological warfare. His identity remained a secret until shortly before his death.Though his writing was cut short by his relatively early death, his stories, mostly concerning a far future involving a millennia-spanning "Instrumentality of Mankind," were nominated for two Hugo aw...