"Norstrilia," by Cordwainer Smith (1975)

Alrighty..."Norstrilia"! Perhaps you've heard of it, perhaps not. This is a weird book. And a really fun one.

First of all, who wrote this thing? The identity of "Cordwainer Smith" was kept secret until after his death, but it was one of the pen names of Paul Linebarger, a strong contender for the title of The Most Interesting Man in the World. Linebarger didn't always write SF, but when he did, it was bizarre and brilliant! And when he didn't, he was a professor of Political Science at Duke, a CIA propagandist, an advisor to John F. Kennedy and Chiang Kai-Shek, and the author of the textbook "Psychological Warfare" (1948).

Now, on to the book. Cordwainer Smith wrote numerous short stories, but only one novel (under that nom de plume, at least). The novel was first published in two edited parts ("The Planet Buyer" (1964) and "The Underpeople" (1968)), and later in its original form, which is "Norstrilia."

The story starts on the remote desert planet Norstrilia, which controls immense wealth because it's the only place that can produce the immortality drug "stroon," which is cultivated on ginormous infected sheep. Yes, I realize this sounds like a parody of "Dune," but they were both written over several years at the same time, and most of "Norstrilia" came out first. The planet Norstrilia resides in Smith's "Instrumentality of Mankind" universe, which is the setting for many of his other stories, and some people do speculate that Frank Herbert may have taken some inspiration from elements of those stories.

Our hero is Roderick Frederick Ronald Arnold William MacArthur McBan the Hundred and Fifty-First, probably because the old pulps paid by the word. But with a name like that, you know you're in for a hell of a story! In any case, since you couldn't get good treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome in the '60s, we're politely informed that we may refer to him as Rod McBan. Like many of the greatest heroes, Rod (can I call him "Rod"?) is something of an outcast, mostly because he sucks at telepathy, and telepathy is important on Norstrilia. So, some folks want him dead. What to do? Well, Rod does the obvious thing, the thing that any of us would do, really, which is to become the richest person in history so that he can buy Earth and escape there.

Yes, that does make sense, and no, that's not a spoiler. It says right in the first few sentences of the book: "The story is simple. There was a boy who bought the planet Earth." See? Apparently unlike in many SF future histories, everybody still remembers exactly where Earth is. And you can buy it, if you have enough money. The reason Rod can is that he has a computer. You might expect everyone would have a computer if they're out colonizing planets and whatnot, but apparently they only have some sort of heavily restricted computers (Frank Herbert's ears just perked up), whereas Rod has a really badass old-timey smart computer that his family has been hiding. So, yada yada yada, Rod owns Earth and just about everything else.

Heading to Earth to escape his problems at home (which you'll recall was his reason for becoming the wealthiest man in history in the first place), Rod finds a near-utopian society. "Near" since they've started to reintroduce some of life's problems, because things were getting a bit boring without them. But as Rod learns, there are actual non-self-imposed problems to be had if you happen to be one of "the underpeople," who are central to many of Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind stories. These are genetically modified intelligent humanoid animals that are used as slave labor. And unlike certain anthropomorphic animal characters in California, they can't even unionize. So, Rod being the new de facto ruler of life, the universe, and everything, and not a total rod, he helps them out, and they help him out, etc. etc.

While not entirely unknown, "Norstrilia" is nowhere near as celebrated a book as it should be. Cordwainer Smith's style is sometimes poetic, sometimes straightforward, serious but comical, frank yet philosophical, overflowing with big ideas, and always a sheer joy to read.

Read this one if: You enjoy a wild old-fashioned SF yarn full of big ideas and good writing

Consider skipping if: All of this sounded too weird, or you don't think intelligent anthropomorphic animals should have rights

Norstrilia: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada