{"product_id":"books-the-best-of-cordwainer-smith-by-cordwainer-smith","title":"The Best of Cordwainer Smith","description":"\u003cp\u003eNo one ever wrote like Smith, with his special blend of intense myth-making and rich invention --\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCordwainer Smith was one of the original visionaries to think of humanity in terms of thousands of years in the future, spread out across the universe. This brilliant collection, often cited as the first of its kind, explores fundamental questions about ourselves and our treatment of the universe (and other beings) around us and ultimately what it means to be human.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Scanners Live in Vain we meet Martel, a human altered to be part machine--a scanner--to be able withstand the trauma space travel has on the body. Despite the stigma placed on him and his kind, he is able to regrasp his humanity to save another.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn The Dead Lady of Clown Town we get to know the underpeople--animals genetically altered to exist in human form, to better serve their human owners--and meet D'Joan, a dog-woman who will make readers question who is more human: the animals who simply want to be recognized as having the same right to life, or the people who created them to be inferior.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn The Ballad of Lost C'mell the notion of love being the most important equalizer there is--as first raised in The Dead Lady of Clown Town--is put into action when an underperson, C'mell, falls in love with Lord Jestocost. Who is to say her love for him is not as valid as any true-born human? She might be of cat descent, but she is all woman \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd in A Planet Named Shayol it is an underperson of bull descent, and beings so mutilated and deformed from their original human condition to be now considered demons of a hellish land, who retain and display the most humanity when Mankind commits the most inhumane action of all.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"World of Books ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53507967615249,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781612423609.jpg?v=1778139017","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/books-the-best-of-cordwainer-smith-by-cordwainer-smith","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}