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magicicadaI know this is not Shardik. I'm on page 475 or so of 600+. This is a book of short stories which I was reading on the side.
Cordwainer Smith seems like the kind of author I would just absolutely love. His writings are quite different, especially for the time. It's obvious that he was a tremendous innovator, however... my feelings on most of these stories ranged from hatred to abhorration. The pretense in most of these is that the narrator is recounting the truth behind legends that we all know. This can be a device to add power to the writings, but the pacing was too slow. After a while, I was ready to scream, just tell me what the hell happened and forget the 'as well all know' crap device. *ahem* However, "A Planet Named Shayol" redeemed the collection for me. Smith abandoned the mythos phrasing and the story was told well and was inherently interesting. I thought the ending was wrapped up a little simplistically, but I am willing to forgive that. Presented well, I found myself intrigued by the ruling class of the instrumentality and the underpeople, a combination of human and animal DNA. The underpeople are fascinating from a psychological viewpoint, but I was not convinced that they would be so throughly discriminated against, so found it hard to agree with much of the struggle in these stories.
Cordwainer Smith seems like the kind of author I would just absolutely love. His writings are quite different, especially for the time. It's obvious that he was a tremendous innovator, however... my feelings on most of these stories ranged from hatred to abhorration. The pretense in most of these is that the narrator is recounting the truth behind legends that we all know. This can be a device to add power to the writings, but the pacing was too slow. After a while, I was ready to scream, just tell me what the hell happened and forget the 'as well all know' crap device. *ahem* However, "A Planet Named Shayol" redeemed the collection for me. Smith abandoned the mythos phrasing and the story was told well and was inherently interesting. I thought the ending was wrapped up a little simplistically, but I am willing to forgive that. Presented well, I found myself intrigued by the ruling class of the instrumentality and the underpeople, a combination of human and animal DNA. The underpeople are fascinating from a psychological viewpoint, but I was not convinced that they would be so throughly discriminated against, so found it hard to agree with much of the struggle in these stories.
