Norstrilia is the only novel published by Paul Linebarger under the pseudonym Cordwainer Smith. Cordwainer Smith – pronounced CORDwainer Smith – was the pseudonym used by American author Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (July 11, 1913 – August 6, 1966) for his science fiction works. ...

Plot

Setting

It centers around an inhabitant of the planet "Old North Australia", or simply "Norstrilia", which is the only location in the Instrumentality of Mankind fictional universe Cordwainer set many of his short stories to produce a substance known as "stroon"- a substance harvested from the diseased sheep Nostrilians raise which has the curious properties of being inimitable to the most advanced science and also of indefinitely delaying aging in humans. The latter property has led to stroon selling at astronomical price levels; as stroon is Norstrilia's sole export, Norstrilia is fabulously wealthy, wealthier than any other planet. To safeguard their archaic way of life (resembling Australian ranchers with a British cultural inheritance), the Nostrilians are forced to develop the most advanced defense force and weaponry known; to protect their culture, imports from other worlds are taxed at rates exceeding 20 million per cent, reducing what would be a staggering fortune on another planet to humble penury on Norstrilia itself. They are also forced, by virtue of the fact that stroon permits what is practically immortality, to cull their young- maintaining a population growth rate of 0%. In the fictional works of Cordwainer Smith, the Instrumentality of Mankind is the central government of the human race. ...

Events

The protagonist, Rod McBan the 151st, is the last male descendant of one of the oldest families, and is heir to one of the best ranches. As last scion, he has been spared the culling three times- he is generally considered unfit, as he is unable to communicate telephatically like normal Nostrilians. After his last test- which he finally passes with the aid of a Lord of the Instrumentality and his own freak telepathic talents- he learns that a former friend of his, who suffers from an allergy of sorts to stroon and so is condemned to live a mere 150 years or so, seeks to kill him under the pretext that the test was biased and administered unfairly. McBan parts Norstrilia for Old Earth, the original planet from which mankind sprang; he leaves after buying Old Earth with his fortune after a lengthy series of complex financial deals and instruments, masterminded by an ancient computer passed down to McBan by an ancestor. His immense and unprecedented fortune makes him a magnet for all manner of agents; after a series of travels among the "underpeople" (genetically modified and heavily trained animals who resemble humans in thought and action, used as slaves and servants by humans and generally despised by them), he meets their leader, E'Telekeli, an experimental bird with enourmous psychic powers. In exchange for most of Rod's immense fortune (to be used to establish a foundation to further the Underpeople's goals), he sends Rod safely and quickly back to Norstrilia, after arranging that Rod's telepathic disability be fixed and for a psychologist to treat Rod. Telepathy, from the Greek τηλε, tele, distant, and πάθεια, patheia, feeling, is the claimed innate ability of humans and other creatures to communicate information from one mind to another, without the use of extra tools such as speech or body language. ...

Publication history

Before being published in a single novel in 1975, Nostrilia had portions published as The Planet Buyer in 1964, and as The Underpeople in 1968.

Reference

• Nostrilia, 1975. Cordwainer Smith, Ballantine Books, SBN 345-24366-8-150