Divide and Rule – L. Sprague de Camp Free Audiobook

Written by L. Sprague de Camp
Read by Mike Chamberlain
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps

Divide and Rule is a 1948 collection of two science fiction novellas by L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardcover by Fantasy Press, and later reissued in paperback by Lancer Books in 1964. The collected pieces were previously published in 1939 and 1941 in the magazines Unknown and Astounding. This recorded version published in 2012.

The stories in the collection both postulate futures in which Earth has reverted to feudalism, in one instance by the dictate of alien invaders and in the other as a result of the accumulation of excessive power by corporations.

1. Divide and Rule:

What happens when the “hoppers” (invaders from another world, they look rather like kangeroos) take over? Well, knighthood flowers, for one thing–knighthood enforced by the aliens, who see it as an easy way of keeping Earth’s population in subjection, But knighthood (in spite of a few drawbacks like uncomfortable armor) comes naturally to Sir Howard Van Slyck, second son of the Duke of Poughkeepsie. His family motto is “Give ‘Em the Works”–and the hoppers wind up learning exactly how distasteful the “Works” of human ingenuity can be.

2. The Stolen Dormouse:

The Earth turns feudal again, but this time it’s through its own doing. Giant corporations have turned into clans within the American Empire, clans that do not hesitate to do battle when honor is at stake. The Crosleys and the Strombergs are in a kind of cold war when the incident of the disappearing dormouse–an engineer in a state of suspended animation–precipitates a chain of violence that is a hilarious as it is exciting.