The Last Castle
Vance, Jack. 1966. The Last Castle. ACE.
Rating:
10
Summary:
Great science fiction novel!
A group of humans have returned to Earth after years of space exploration and established a number of settlements. The settlements are castles and are inhabited by five species. First are the lords who are the humans that have returned from the space exploration. The lords are very well educated, but absolutely refuse to do any sort of manual labor. Second are the peasants, who are also humans (or at least human-like; I think it is talked about in the book, but my memory is failing me). The peasants do some manual labor, but the labor they do is limited to food production and preparation. Third is an alien raced called the Meks. The Meks have been trained to do all of the technical manual labor, including the maintenance of all of the machines used by the lords. They stick around because the lords have developed a syrup that the Meks consume for food. Fourth are the phanes, who are also an alien life form. There only function is to look pretty; in fact, they can’t even function as sexual slaves because it ruins their looks and would reveal that they are being used in such a fashion, which is unthinkable to the lords. In short, they are the lord’s pets and they are even paraded about in fashion shows. Finally there are the Birds. Vance’s description gives the impression of a sort of pterodactyl type creature, but they are intelligent enough to talk. They also consume a syrup type substance created by the lords and, for that reason, they stick around.
Additionally, there are some humans that live outside of the castles. These humans are made up of two groups. The majority are humans that survived the devastation wreaked on Earth thousands of years earlier that forced humanity to flee. The rest are peasants that have tired of working for the lords. They are primarily nomadic and don’t have much technology.
The lords spend most of their days acting like nobility – they eat, drink, study, and enjoy art and shows. They do no work and their primary concerns are their phane pets and their sexual partners. Occasionally they will go hunting, but that is only interesting for some of the lords.
Everything seems perfect, to the lords, until… The Meks decide one day to walk out. But this isn’t an ordinary protest, the Meks have something different in mind. The Meks then began sacking the castles, killing all of the inhabitants. It is eventually revealed that the Meks have decided they are tired of serving the lords, but instead of asking the lords to return them to their planet (which wouldn’t be very likely), the Meks decide they like Earth better, so in order for them to have it to themselves, they have decided to kill all the humans.
Well, most of the castles fall relatively quickly. Castle Janeil, the second to last castle, is well-fortified, but the Meks figure out how to destroy it too and that is how the book opens. The Last Castle, Castle Hagedorn, is the most well-fortified and the inhabitants are fairly certain the Meks cannot defeat them. In fact, they are so certain that they have nothing to worry about that they don’t actually do anything to prepare for the attack, with the exception of two of the lords, Xanten and Claghorn, who leave the castle and join the humans outside. The rest of the lords of Castle Hagedorn continue on as if nothing is amiss. They complain that they have to do certain things for themselves, but they will not demean themselves to the point of doing manual labor or anything else to defend themselves. They are so prideful that they would rather die than take up tools or arms, which they see as beneath them.
Eventually the Meks arrive at Castle Hagedorn with an ingenious plan for destroying the castle. The inhabitants haven’t a chance, but the humans that live outside the castle, led by Xanten and Claghorn, come to their rescue and begin attacking the Meks. The outsiders quickly route the majority of the Meks, but the Meks surprise them by tunneling into the castle. Once inside, the Meks fortify the castle and kill the rest of the lords inside, showing no mercy. However, the outsider humans have destroyed all of the Meks syrup and the means for producing more, which means the Meks, who are well fortified, have no means of making food. They will eventually starve.
In the end, the Meks are forced to surrender, but they are surrendering to humans that are willing to do manual labor. They make an agreement: the Meks teach the humans how to do all of the technical manual labor and the humans will return the Meks to their planet.
Review:
This is the second Jack Vance book I have read. Coming away from it, I am absolutely convinced that Vance is two things: 1. A great writer. 2. A hater of the wealthy. And boy does he attack the rich in this novel!!
The entire book is a commentary on social structure. He points out all of the silly peculiarities of the wealthy and their distaste for manual labor. He decries their willingness to demean others so they don’t have to get their hands dirty. He mocks their proxy shows of beauty via their pets (the phanes). He points out the theft of the poor culture by the wealthy (the lords visit the peasant dances and festivals). He even points out how ridiculous it is to spend your life accumulating knowledge if you are unwilling to do anything with that knowledge. This is an all-out attack on the bourgeoisie. And, frankly, I loved it.
But in addition to the commentary about the wealthy, Vance shares a number of profound insights. For instance, he notes that it doesn’t really pay to be prideful, and uses the cowardly birds to make this point, “Of all those who had inhabited Janeil, only the Birds survived, creatures awkward, gauche and raucous, oblivious to pride and faith, more concerned with the wholeness of their hides than the dignity of their castle” (p. 2). He also discusses morality and provides a basis for morals that has nothing to do with religion, “But the ultimate basis of morality is survival. What promotes survival is good, what induces mortifaction is bad” (p. 51).
But the most amazing part about this book is that he accomplishes all of this in less than 115 pages. The book is a short read, less than two hours, but it is very engaging, with great imagery and poignant philosophy. I highly recommend this book for everyone, including the bourgeoisie whom Vance is criticizing. Finally, I think I should point out one more time that it is likely Vance’s criticisms of the accumulation of wealth and the lifestyles of the bourgeoisie that have resulted in the lack of interest in his writing here in the U.S. but the high interest in Europe.