Instrumentality of Mankind series by Cordwainer Smith

The Author

Linebarger also employed the literary pseudonyms “Carmichael Smith” (for his political thriller Atomsk), “Anthony Bearden” (for his poetry) and “Felix C. Forrest” (for the novels Ria and Carola).

Linebarger was also a noted East Asia scholar and expert in psychological warfare.

The Books

Man has conquered space, but not without costs.

To maintain the space lanes, Scanners have to undergo an operation in which their brain is severed from their sensory inputs to block the Pain of Space. Martel has made this sacrifice. He must monitor his vital functions via implanted dials and instruments in his chest. His only respite from this isolated existence is his ability to occasionally “cranch” and return to some sort of normalcy with his wife, Luci. But now a man named Adam Stone has claimed that he has a found a way to travel in the deep of space without the use of the Scanners. Through the twisted logic of the community of Scanners, it is decided that Adam Stone must die. Martel, while cranched, realizes the madness of that solution and that all Scanners Live in Vain!

Voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the great stories of all time and is included in “The Science Fiction Hall of Fame” anthology.

The books in suggested reading order
No, No, Not Rogov
Scanners and Others
Mark Elf
The Queen Of the Afternoon
Scanners Live in Vain
Mind Partner
When the People Fell
Think Blue, Count Two
The Colonel Came Back From Nothing At All
The Game of Rat and Dragon
The Burning Of the Brain
From Gustible’s Planet
Himself in Anachron
Golden the Ship Was Oh! Oh! Oh!
The Dead Lady Of Clown Town
Under Old Earth
Drunkboat
Mother Hitton’s Littul Kittons
Alpha Ralpha Boulevard
Norstrilia
A Planet Named Shayol
Down to A Sunless Sea