Cordwainer Smith on Top 100 or Other Top Lists?

Sometimes my Google Alerts show me places where Cordwainer Smith or his works are on some sort of “best” science fiction list. I’m putting down the ones I know of, and hope that readers will add to this over time.

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Here’s one where Norstrilia is #46 on a list of the best 100  science fiction books from 1949 to 1984. UPDATE: I had said it was ranked #46 but Damien Broderick pointed out that they are by publication date.

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Gardner Dozois has a long list of recommended novels and short stories on his “Recommended Reading List” page at sfwa.org, the Science Fiction Writers of America site. He says its cutoff date is roughly the early 80s and he comments that the list “was devised to point younger readers toward older stuff that they might not have heard of, or long out-of-print writers whose work they might be unfamiliar with.” He lists Norstrilia in the novels, and here’s his list of anthologies for the short stories:

  • The Rediscovery of Man
  • Space Lords
  • The Best of Cordwainer Smith
  • Stardreamer
  • You Will Never Be the SameHe comments that the first collection listed contains the older stuff.
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    More? Please add if you see something.

    • Jack Mulcahy

      Only number 46 on that list? For shame! The only reason I can think why Norstrilia’s not in the top 10 is that some voters just may not have understood the author. Which is too bad, really, for he was a once-in-a-lifetime author, with an equally singular mind.

    • Damien Broderick

      It’s NOT “rated” or ranked by assessed worth as #46–those books are listed *in order of publication.*

      I think the way you’ve presented this url is a bit misleading, and needs to be reworded. “Included on a list” would do.

    • http://www.cordwainer-smith.com Cordwainersdaughter

      Thanks for catching that, Damien! I did fix the post.