“The rift divides the land in two halves, but neither of them is interesting. It is the rift itself that calls to people, entices them with its siren’s call from worlds away: only a dozen meters wide, with steep cliffs of grey rock and a bottom that can never be seen. Shine a light into…

“Cordwainer Smith entwirft in seiner Science-Fiction eine eigentümliche und faszinierende Zukunftsvision, die an Fremdartigkeit kaum zu überbieten ist: eine Zukunftsvision, die nicht hauptsächlich technologischer, sondern sozio- und psychologischer Natur ist, und in deren Zentrum die Wiederentdeckung der Menschheit steht. Smiths Erzählungen sind bemerkenswert in ihrem Schreibstil, ihrer Struktur und ihren Inhalten, und wie sein eigenes…

“The moon-sealed murex had been right in front of Lokala, so close she felt its radiation ripple over her skin, transforming it in gentle waves.

“Their work done, Phalendra and her people gathered for the trek home, to their old lives and waiting families. None of them had seen the sky unfiltered for a long time, only through glass ceilings or high windows, and they longed for fresh air, without the stench of chlorine and disinfectants. They had stayed in…

“”A being of another … state. A thirster. A greeder. A leecher. A needer. A left-over from the White Table. A being that craves what it doesn’t have anymore, what it remembers vaguely, what it can no longer feel: life.” The mystic rummaged with slender fingers through the satchel she wore around her shoulder, then produced…

Narrated by Tatiana Grey. “The shuttle bay opened, and the automated voice of the ship reminded them to debark quickly and orderly, to not leave anything or anyone behind. “Stay close, join your hands.” Jenarah tried to keep her family together–grandfather, the four cousins, her younger brother, her older brother, uncle Yobdan–and stepped out on…