Last Castle, The-Jack Vance novella

Last Castle, The-Jack Vance novella

The Last Castle was first published in Galaxy Magazine in April, 1966.  It is a 55/59/66/113 page novella, but it has sometimes been incorrectly labeled as a novelette and as a novel.  It won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 1967 and the Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1966.  It was also nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel.

The setting is in the far future where for the past seven hundred years most humans on Earth live in luxury castles as elite clans of arrogant, ruling aristocrats who call themselves “gentlemen.”  Working under them are two alien, nonhuman species the Peasants and the Meks. The Peasants are “small andromorphs originally of Spica Ten” who are incapable of being aggressive. The Meks were brought to Earth from another planet called Etamion Nine and seem very submissive. They have a large maw and syrup sacs on their body that were once used for extracting “decayed swamp vegetation” on their home planet.  Now the syrup sacs are filled with a syrup manufactured by humans. Mek brains seem to function as radio receivers that allow them to communicate with each other and to work as one.  They are described as being a “hybrid of sub-man and cockroach” and are thought to be devoid of feelings. The “gentlemen” are also served by giant birds that talk and provide transportation for the humans and beings called Phanes that are beautiful but very fragile.  On Earth there are also some humans, called Nomads, who have revolted against the gentlemen and live an independent, self-sufficient life without Meks, Peasants, Phanes, giant birds and castles.

Most of the labor in the castles, even the most technical such as the maintenance of spaceships is performed by the Meks.  The humans think the docile Meks are content working for them, so are taken by surprise when there is an uprising and all of the Meks begin to fight and kill humans.  The Meks rightly view themselves as being slaves to the humans and think there is room on Earth for only one species.  The Meks defeat all castles except the largest and best defended one called Castle Hagedorn.  One of the Hagedorn clan leaders there, Xanten, organizes a final stand against the Meks.

Using animated dialog and interesting customs and interactions, Vance presents humanitarian and ethical issues in a well written and absorbing story.  The Meks might be insect like and nonhuman but they clearly can think for themselves and don’t want to be enslaved anymore.  This is one of Vance’s better works even though it is not among his very finest efforts.  It is a pity that more of Vance's writings did not receive awards. I’ve read The Last Castle five times so far and rate it a 4 “Really liked it.”

The Last Castle has been published many times in anthologies along with works from different authors.  Below are a few of the releases that have been in Jack Vance collections or were published alone. The Spatterlight edition is the only one currently in print.

Alone as The Last Castle (1966, Ace, pb) issued again in 1982

Included in collection The Best of Jack Vance (1976, Pocketbooks, pb): BJV

Alone as The Last Castle (1980, Underwood-Miller, hc)

Alone as The Last Castle (Berkley, 1986, pb)

Included in the collection Vance Integral Edition #9, (2002, VIE, hc)

Included in the collection The Jack Vance Treasury, (2007, Subterranean, hc)

Included in the collection The Dragon Masters and Other Stories, (2016, Spatterlight, pb)