Norstrilia

Obviously I’m a fan of Cordwainer Smith, though as I mentioned, his longer works left me cold. Nostrilia is the keystone in the Rediscovery of Man arc, 15000 years in the future when the Lords of the Instrumentality return Old Old Earth to danger and vice, and the Underpeople (animals made to look like humans) rise to join the community of sentient beings in their own way. This book is almost indescribably strange, a picaresque romp through the dark of the Jungian soul, and the heights of human ambition.