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The Last Castle (novella)

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Originally published
  
April 1966

Genre
  
Science Fiction

3.8/5
Goodreads

Publication date
  
1966

Author
  
Jack Vance

Publisher
  
Galaxy Science Fiction

The Last Castle (novella) httpsyellowedandcreasedfileswordpresscom201

Awards
  
Hugo Award for Best Novelette, Nebula Award for Best Novella

Similar
  
Jack Vance books, Hugo Award for Best Novelette winners, Other books

The Last Castle is a science fiction novella by Jack Vance. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 1967 and the Nebula Award for Best Novella for 1966.

Plot summary

Most humans on Earth live in a small number of elaborate, high-tech castles as idle aristocrats primarily concerned with aesthetics, pastimes and questions of honor and etiquette. Only a small minority of humans live free lives outside of the castles, and are considered barbaric by the inhabitants of the castles. Various alien races serve the latter.

One day, one of those slave races, the Meks, revolt and start besieging the castles. One by one, the castles fall and their residents are killed, until only Castle Hagedorn is left. Most of the decadent castle denizens choose to ignore the danger. One of them, Xanten, decides to fight the Meks and searches for allies inside as well as outside the castle.

After a short and hard battle, Xanten and his allies win. Concluding that humanity cannot go on depending on slave labor, they send the surviving Meks back to their native planet, Etamin 9.

References

The Last Castle (novella) Wikipedia