pNo one ever wrote like Smith, with his special blend of intense myth-making and rich invention --emPublishers WeeklyemppCordwainer Smith was one of the original visionaries to think of humanity in terms of thousands of years in the future, spread out across the universe. This brilliant collection, often cited as the first of its kind, explores fundamental questions about ourselves and our treatment of the universe and other beings around us and ultimately what it means to be human.ppIn Scanners Live in Vain we meet Martel, a human altered to be part machine--a scanner--to be able withstand the trauma space travel has on the body. Despite the stigma placed on him and his kind, he is able to regrasp his humanity to save another.ppIn The Dead Lady of Clown Town we get to know the underpeople--animals genetically altered to exist in human form, to better serve their human owners--and meet D'Joan, a dog-woman who will make readers question who is more human the animals who simply want to b