Norstrilia
Ratings4
Average rating3.9
15
Ratings4
Average rating3.9
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 planet where immortality is cheap and imperfect citizens are ruthlessly "culled" to make way for more productive members of society. *** But even McBan's vaunted stature in the society is not enough to save him from the basest of human emotions-jealousy- as the enmity of a former friend forces him to escape to Earth, where McBan's unprecedented fortune quickly makes him a magnet for all manner of crooks and revolutionaries.***
Series
1 released bookInstrumentality of Mankind is a 12-book series first released in 1964 with contributions by Cordwainer Smith, Wojciech M. Próchniewicz, and Paul M.A. Linebarger.
Series
2 primary booksL'Instrumentalité is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 1975 with contributions by Cordwainer Smith.
Series
3 primary booksLos señores de la Instrumentalidad is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 1963 with contributions by Cordwainer Smith.
Reviews with the most likes.
Fantastic. Sweet and bittersweet, weird and retro but also a bit timeless - Cordwainer Smith is sublime and this story was a nice little joy and distraction.
A piece of fantasmagorical absurdity with a savage twist.
Rod McBan lives on an off-world 'Old North Australia' and owns giant diseased sheep that produce a weird drug that makes him rich. He doesn't have the telepathy of others and faces dissolution, so he sets up a plan to increase his wealth and buy the whole Earth. He travels to Earth and finds things somewhat different from expectations.
The book is filled with weird characters, weird abilities, weird events, and then more weirdness as Smith fills out every nook and cranny of the story with the unexpected. The prose drags a bit in many places - who needs two pages for a single paragraph? - and is littered with poetry and songs as various characters put their motivations into words.
Overall it's a tongue in cheek broadside of Australian outback life, culture and idiom.
