Teaser
Rod McBan, the hundred and fifty-first of his family line, might not share the telepathic abilities of his neighbours, but he does have a hidden supercomputer, and an astounding amount of money . . .
Review
It’s been a few years since I first encountered Cordwainer Smith. My initial encounter came through The Rediscovery of Man, the short story collection that is also found under the SF Masterworks banner. While I can’t remember any of the specific short stories from that book, I do remember two things. The first was that Smith had created an utterly unique future history, covering thousands of years and bouncing ideas around like a rubber ball. Specifically, he had a thing for including cats, usually giving them some kind of science fiction twist. the other thing I remember, and the reason I stayed away for so long, was his writing style. Smith is a man who delights in wordplay, often to the detriment of telling a coherent story. But the ideas were good, and it was only a matter of time before I returned to the Instrumentality of Mankind.
Norstrilia is Cordwainer Smith’s only science fiction novel, but was not published in whole during his lifetime. It was, however, published in two halves, the first of which was nominated for a Hugo Award. I’m not a hundred percent sure, but there is a split in the book that I suspect marks where these halves were separated. As it happens, I think that Hugo-nominated half is much stronger than the second half of the book. Because once Rod leaves Norstrilia for Earth, things take a rather rambling downhill turn.
I’m not someone who cares much for prose. I can appreciate a good metaphor, but functional writing is by far my preference. Smith is the polar opposite of functional. Every name is some kind of joke. Norstrilia itself is a play on ‘Old North Australia’, the planet’s original name. Smith’s whimsical and playful approach to language isn’t going to be for everyone, but once you get used to it, it’s easy to get swept away by the joy of it all. The only author I can really think of who compares is R. A. Lafferty, someone with whom I have an equally rocky reading relationship. Maybe I should revisit him too.
Smith’s inventiveness isn’t limited to the the written word. Far from it. Norstrilians are sheep farmers, but their sheep weigh a thousand tons, and instead of meat and wool they are farmed for a drug called stroon that confers immortality. The Norstrilians are telepaths, who do not hear and speak, but heir and speik. When Rod is forced to leave home and journey to Earth he encounters the underpeople. Animals uplifted to an approximate human level. Thus we meet C’Mell, the cat girl, or a tiny monkey scientist.
It’s in this second half that the plot starts to stumble. Rod is a wanted man, as would anyone be if they had enough money to buy a planet. Unfortunately, what could have been a tense manhunt is reduced to a rambling saunter through Earth’s shady underworld. It remains fun and whimsical, but it’s very easy to stop caring about any of the consequences. Conspiracies abound, but it’s all so disconnected that even a spider couldn’t untangle it.
This is not a bad book. It’s actually one of the best my book club has tackled this year. Certainly it’s one of the most interesting. I just feel that the strengths of the first half are lost in the muddle of the second. However, for all that I was left scratching my head at times, I can’t deny that it was a pleasure to read.
Book Stats
- A Standalone Novel
- First Published 1975
- 275 Pages
