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Norstrilia

Cordwainer Smith

First published February 1975
Type Novel
Series The Instrumentality of Mankind › Rod McBan

Synopsis

"Rod McBan, one hundred and fifty-first of the name. The richest boy in the Galaxy. He was born to inherit the End of the World Station. He had almost failed the trials of the Garden of Death. The Onseck was chasing him. His father had died in a cruelty-marked corner of space, where no one could find a lenient death. When trouble began, he trusted his computer. The computer started playing and reached the Earth. McBan went to Earth. "A mythical and singular masterpiece of science fiction, the cycle of the Lords of Instrurnentality composes over the course of its paintings a legend of future centuries, imbued with poetry and a deep humanity. An unforgettable vision of our future, with an ambition comparable to Isaac Asimov's Foundation or Robert Heinlein's The History of the Future."" NooSFere May 5, 2022

Notes

Expansion of "The Planet Buyer" and "The Underpeople": This is the complete novel as Smith initially intended it to be. The publishers in the 60's felt that it was too long to publish as a single novel, so Smith split it into two parts, adding a small amount of material at the end of "The Planet Buyer" and at the beginning of "The Underpeople" so they could stand separately. The 1994 NESFA Press edition includes this added material in an appendix.

External Links

Awards

YearAwardCategoryStatus
1976 Locus Poll Award Best SF Novel Nominee/Finalist
1987 Locus Poll Award All-Time Best SF Novel Nominee/Finalist
1998 Locus Poll Award All-Time Best SF Novel before 1990 Nominee/Finalist

Publications (24)

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
February 1975 Cover Norstrilia Ballantine Books Novel 1
March 1975 Cover Norstrilia Ballantine Books Novel 1
September 1975 Cover Norstrilia Ballantine Books Novel 1
November 1978 Cover Norstrilia Del Rey / Ballantine Novel 1
March 1979 Cover Norstrilia Del Rey / Ballantine Novel
July 1985 Cover Norstrilia Del Rey / Ballantine Novel
July 1985 Cover Norstrilia Del Rey / Ballantine Novel 1
March 1988 Cover Norstrilia Gollancz Novel
May 1988 Cover Norstrilia VGSF / Gollancz Novel 1
March 1995 Cover Norstrilia NESFA Press Novel 1
June 2000 Cover Norstrilia Gollancz Novel
July 2001 Cover Norstrilia NESFA Press Novel 1
March 2003 Cover Norstrilia ibooks Novel
May 2004 Cover Norstrilia Science Fiction Book Club Novel
December 2006 Cover We the Underpeople Baen Books Collection 201
December 2006 Cover We the Underpeople Baen Books Collection 7
September 2007 Norstrilia NESFA Press Novel
August 2008 Cover We the Underpeople Baen Books Collection 279
September 2011 Cover Norstrilia Gateway / Orion Novel
August 2014 Cover Norstrilia Phoenix Pick Novel
September 2014 Cover Norstrilia Phoenix Pick Novel
February 2016 Cover Norstrilia Gollancz / Orion Novel 1
August 2020 Cover Norstrilia NESFA Press Novel 15
March 2024 Cover Norstrilia CAEZIK SF & Fantasy Novel