From back cover: Rod McBan the hundred and fifty-first---the richest boy in the galaxy!
He passed the test of the Garden of Death, but was still a telepathic cripple--a danger to Norstrilia his enemies claimed, as owner of the guarded planet's key landholding: the Station of Doom.
The only road to safety, his computer told him, was to become the richest man in the universe... and he did, in one crowded, unbelievable night.
The computer's logic was faultless... but Man isn't logical. And now Roderick Frederick Ronald William MacArthur McBan 151st had a galaxy of people--and other beings--out to rob him, to use him... or to kill him!
Cordwainer Smith published this novel earlier in one of the SF mags, broken into two parts. In it, he brings together some of the characters from his memorable short stories. We meet again the girly-girl C'mell and E'tellikelly. We deal with go-captains, and with stroon-users who live for thousands of years. We carefully avoid the lethal menace of Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons
He passed the test of the Garden of Death, but was still a telepathic cripple--a danger to Norstrilia his enemies claimed, as owner of the guarded planet's key landholding: the Station of Doom.
The only road to safety, his computer told him, was to become the richest man in the universe... and he did, in one crowded, unbelievable night.
The computer's logic was faultless... but Man isn't logical. And now Roderick Frederick Ronald William MacArthur McBan 151st had a galaxy of people--and other beings--out to rob him, to use him... or to kill him!
Cordwainer Smith published this novel earlier in one of the SF mags, broken into two parts. In it, he brings together some of the characters from his memorable short stories. We meet again the girly-girl C'mell and E'tellikelly. We deal with go-captains, and with stroon-users who live for thousands of years. We carefully avoid the lethal menace of Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons
The review I see when I click this title indicates the book is a hardcover, but it is a PAPERBACK.
The first 10 or 20 pages can be difficult to read because of specialized terms and concepts being introduced without background. Still, a very interesting read.
The first 10 or 20 pages can be difficult to read because of specialized terms and concepts being introduced without background. Still, a very interesting read.
Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger wrote under the pseudonym "Cordwainer Smith." All of Smith's stories take place over the course of tens of thousands of years in a single future history.
"Norstrilia" takes place towards the latter end of the line, and is generally considered to be Smith's greatest work. The reader quickly learns the essentials (as Smith writes), the story, place and time. It's about Roderick Frederick Ronald Arnold William MacArthur Macban, the 151st. Rod McBan of the planet Old North Australia ("Norstrilia") makes the transition from young man to adult, makes a huge gamble in which he buys the Earth, and gets away alive. As Smith writes in the opening paragraph, "That's the story."
This book had was not available for many years, but was resurrected in the mid-'70s by Smith's widow.
Highly recommended for all fans of the golden age of science fiction. Science fiction writers often acknowledge Smith by making reference, for example, to a "P-MAL computer", or a "Linebarger non-gravitic drive."
"Norstrilia" takes place towards the latter end of the line, and is generally considered to be Smith's greatest work. The reader quickly learns the essentials (as Smith writes), the story, place and time. It's about Roderick Frederick Ronald Arnold William MacArthur Macban, the 151st. Rod McBan of the planet Old North Australia ("Norstrilia") makes the transition from young man to adult, makes a huge gamble in which he buys the Earth, and gets away alive. As Smith writes in the opening paragraph, "That's the story."
This book had was not available for many years, but was resurrected in the mid-'70s by Smith's widow.
Highly recommended for all fans of the golden age of science fiction. Science fiction writers often acknowledge Smith by making reference, for example, to a "P-MAL computer", or a "Linebarger non-gravitic drive."
