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 t...