Destroyers by Randall Garrett (Tale of Alien Invasion), Science Fiction

The agrarian feudal planet Xedii is attacked by a technologically advanced colony, offering their race "freedom".
Published December 1959 ~ Astounding Stories

[@jolujo5842]

The reader is Phil Chenovert. Has read dozens of titles for Librivox.

[@chocolatefrenzieya]

One of my favorite narrators. :)

[@Carly8Corday]

Great old sad story, so well-presented by the reader. I never struggle to hear and comprehend, or miss a single word, when this guy reads.

[@vinceskillen597]

beautifully read. loved it.

[@hammond1994]

I love this reader's voice. A view of feudalism/slavery showing how the serfs/slaves were, just oh so lucky in their lives.

[@Carly8Corday]

This was a view of a benign socialist utopia, an innocent, fairy tale re-imagining of Feudal Japan, and NOT a reflection of slavery. These people don't live the way slaves lived in Greco-Roman times, Ancient Egypt , Phoenicia, Minoa, the sub-Saharan African tribes, the cruel, warlike Mezzo-American kingdoms, The Middle East from the Ottoman Turks to the royal courts of Persia, the Caliphates of Baghdad and Basra, and least of all slavery in the American pre-Civil-War Deep, South, and incidentally NOT the rampant, unchecked, barely changed human slavery that continues to this very moment of this very day, not secretly, but known to all. Do get out your books and open them and get to studying with your full attention, less unfounded imagination, less "trendiness" horning in on your own good healthy perceptions. Then re-read this story and try to see any intent by the author to liken his tale to slavery with a hope toward making institution slavery seem benign and natural. The story is a condemnation of the way Native American children were torn from their families, housed in schools far away to be trained under the hickory switch (and worse , for they were beaten, molested, tortured, forced into hard menial service as awful as anything you've read of Charles Dickens' very real Victorian England) to become like European whites for the good of everyone, their own Indian ways scheduled for obliteration.

[@onetimeonlyreallyand]

@@Carly8Corday thank-you! Reading the previous reviews was painful.

[@VeggiesOutFront]

@@Carly8Corday I think I need to disagree with your assessment. After reading Up From Slavery, Anks reaction to the barons wife being in danger in the castle and their retreat to the swamps reflects greatly the attitude of Southern slaves towards their female owners. The flow of information through "the grapevine", not a quote from Destroyers but Up From Slavery, or from gossip between one laborer to the other. The blue union soldier gathering the lady and the workers together to explain that they are no longer slaves is almost exactly like how it was described in up from Slavery as well. As far as a correlation to the Canadian use of boarding schools to take natives away from their families and destroy their culture I had trouble making that connection. Perhaps the author had a rather ignorant view of slavery and the mindsets of those involved with it

[@008fiona]

thank-you

[@paulrowett5830]

pretty cool.🙌

[@stephencharman9604]

A very subtle re-imagining of the (American) Civil War in a distant world. Just who were the good guys?

[@cuddlesandkafka]

The Union and the Radical Republicans were the good guys. Testimonies of the enslaved still exist and can be consulted. The slave state is a brutal institution that rots the soul of the free person in it.

[@stevecharman8420]

@@cuddlesandkafka yes I agree. My question was rhetorical

[@gerry5134]

Reader sounds like Dan Aykroyd doing his Coneheads voice !

[@Carly8Corday]

He does! Haha, I like that.

[@MNolton]

The best part of the story is trying to work out all the barely disguised proper names. Living in Dixie took a bit until they got to Atlanta burning, and I realized the name of the world should be spelled Xidie.😄

[@Icantkeepout]

The first 2 minutes started me thinking because of the similarity of Anketam to Unkle Tom. These serfs are made out to be lazy when not working. Is the class dividing line farming? Anketam's brother works in an office somewhere so the system must not be too rigid. I guess happiness and bliss can vary greatly. The serfs were paid in the product they created, a percentage of the crop, they later became peasants but tied to the land and the land owner. In Amerika these former slaves became sharecroppers, paid in a share of the crop and a shack to live in. 2 world wars accelerated change though. When the former president says, "Make Amerika great again" he means let's go back to the early 50s. Randall Garret has written many great stories break in unexpected ways.

[@rubenjames7345]

A little half-baked, but I applaud the effort.

[@knowone3031]

313 This the story of Abrahamic tradition in a different time signature.. Kevino had the key..

[@jimtaggert42]

if rain would hold off for ten days? wtf? 02:58 in the spring

[@stevesyncox9893]

Feb 24

[@rajrigby8385]

Interesting agrarian critique of industrialised capitalism

[@Morboeatspeople]

This story makes me realize that I'm cursed. Cursed to be free... marrying whomever I please, instead of being bred like an animal... being able to beat back assault without being murdered as payment for defense... having to make my own way in the world, forging my own destiny... such a curse...

[@Ryansghost]

Make America Feudal Again!

[@DarthVaderX31]

It is now