House Lords, The-Jack Vance short story

House Lords, The-Jack Vance short story

The House Lords is a 15/16 page short story that was published initially in Saturn magazine in October, 1957. In later years, when discussing this story, Vance mentioned that he had little recollection of it.  An “Astrographical Societyz’ ship from Earth arrives on another planet where conditions for life are favorable.  They suddenly see a human child and then encounter some English speaking people who call themselves "Freemen." The Freemen have never heard of Earth and have no explanation of why they speak English.  Suddenly some other humans whom the Freemen call "House Lords" appear from a castle and the Freemen flee.  These House Lords refer to the Freemen as "Wild men" and have advanced weapons and a very superior attitude.  Two of the men from the ship accompany the House Lords to their castle where they try to determine who all of these people are and where they came from. It is a somewhat interesting story that I’ve read several times.  I rated it a 3 “Liked it.”

 

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled The Dark Side of the Moon (1986)

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled Magic Highways: The Early Jack Vance, Volume 3 (2015)

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled World-Thinker and Other Stories (2017)

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