Divide and Rule / The Sword of Rhiannon

by L. Sprague de Camp, Leigh Brackett

Book by L. Sprague de Camp, Leigh Brackett

Genres: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction

230 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1990

About the author

Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of non-fiction, including biographies of other fantasy authors. He was a major figure in science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book consists of two short novels printed in the format of the old Ace Doubles, back-to-back with separate covers and upside-down in relation to one another. The Sword of Rhiannon was first published as half of one of those Ace volumes in 1953, bound with no less of a big name than Conan the Conqueror by Robert E. Howard. It was never one of my favorites of her work, perhaps because I was initially struck by Conan's overwhelming presence. It's set on Mars, but not the Mars of her main Eric John Stark sequence. There's a time-travel element and some of the descriptions are nicely done, but I didn't find it up to her usual standard. Divide and Rule was first published in John W. Campbell's Unknown (which was a fantasy companion to his Astounding SF) as a serial in the April and May 1939 issues. I don't know why it was in a fantasy magazine; it seems to be pretty straight forward sf to me. Perhaps ASF was full... It's an amusing story of a future world that's been re-set to a feudalistic state by alien conquerors, rabbit-like creatures who are hyper-intelligent by dint of special mind-enhancing helmets. So if you can get them to take off their hats... It's a fun but simple story, with a kind of abrupt ending. I was amused by the fact that my 1990 edition has a cover by A.C. Farley with an Interstate Highway sign in the background, but the story is from 1939... And the dedication reads: "To Bob Heinlein"! Fun stuff, but not the best from either writer.

[Tomislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Tor Double #17, of a series of 36 double books published from 1988 to 1991 by Tor Books. It contains two novellas, bound together tête-bêche in mass market paperback – back-to-back, inverted, with two front covers and both titles on the spine. The novellas are listed here alphabetically by author; neither should be considered “primary.”

The Sword of Rhiannon, by Leigh Bracket (1953) ***
This short novel was originally published in 1953 Ace Double D-36, together Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Conqueror. In it, an Earthman on Mars travels back through time a million years to a more primitive Mars. There, his sword channels the thoughts and will of an ancient member of an alien occupying race, allowing the Earthman to defeat half-human/half-animal intelligent species and their human allies. The plot is a real kitchen sink full of SF tropes, but somehow the two or three main characters, stereotyped as they are, do have rudiments of development. All in all, an amazingly jam-packed 136 pages.

Divide and Rule, by L. Sprague de Camp (1939, 1948) **
This short novel was originally serialized in the April and May 1939 issues of Unknown, and is an early work of his. First publication in book form was in 1948. In it, a shallow young noble heir, propped up in a feudal system enforced by occupying aliens, finds himself swept up in revolution. The characters are flat, and the concept poorly thought through. The main attraction is the revamping of a familiar setting (upstate New York) into an unfamiliar world. This is very much a pulp era adventure story.