City of Illusions
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| City of Illusions | |
 Cover of first edition (softcover) |
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| Author | Ursula K. Le Guin |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Hainish Cycle |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Ace Books |
| Publication date | 1967 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 160 pp |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | Planet of Exile |
| Followed by | The Left Hand of Darkness |
City of Illusions is a 1967 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, set on Earth in the distant future in her Hainish Cycle. City of Illusions was republished in 1978 along with Rocannon's World and Planet of Exile in a volume called Three Hainish Novels and in 1994 with the same novels in Worlds of Exile and Illusion.
[edit] Setting
This is both a post-collapse science fiction tale and a mystery tale. It starts with a man with no memory, and with eyes that suggest he is not human, raising questions as to his true nature, regarding whether he is human or alien and whether he is a tool or a victim of the alien enemy, the Shing. The Shing's nature itself eventually comes into question through his journey.
City of Illusions is the first of Le Guin's novels to deal with some of her frequent themes: Taoism (the Tao Te Ching has talismanic value to Falk), liberation, an oppressive male-dominated culture, and perhaps anarchism in the original village and its neighbors, that display communal living.
[edit] Plot summary
The story starts as a man is found by a small community (housed in one building) in a forest area in eastern North America. He's naked except for a ring on one finger, has no memory except of motor skills at a level equivalent to that of a one-year-old and has bizarre, amber, cat-like eyes. The villagers choose to welcome and nurture him, naming him Falk (Yellow); they teach him to speak and teach him about the Earth, and how the "Shing", conquerors who are said to be the only beings able to lie telepathically, rule it through fear.
After six years, Falk comes to decide that he needs to understand his origins, and as such sets off alone for Es Toch, the Shing's capital in western North America. He finds many obstacles to learning the truth about himself and about the Shing. Along the way, it is sometimes suggested to him that the image he holds of the Shing is distorted, that they respect the idea of 'reverence for life' and are essentially benevolent rulers. This suggestion comes mainly from Estrel, a young woman he meets after being captured by the Basnasska tribe, a violent community living in the desert, and with whom he escapes to reach the city under her guide.
Falk finally reaches Es Toch, where he is told that he is part of a crew of a starship of alien/human hybrids from a planet called Werel and meets a young man that came with him. Their mental powers are significantly greater than ordinary humans, and they had come to rescue the fallen League of All Worlds from those who conquered it with telepathic lies. At this point it is clear that Estrel was working for them, and she had been sent to rescue him from the wild so called continent 1.
Falk is told by the Shing that they are in fact humans; that the initial conflict between the League and its great enemy world is false, the Enemy being a lie by a faction of a human conflict to try and ensure peace through fear in a misunderstood but benevolent rule. His crew was attacked by the savage men that oppose the Shing, that erased his memory of his previous self, and the Shing, that managed to save his younger companion, now want to restore his previous identity. But Falk realises that the Shing are liars; that their true intent is to determine where his home-planet is for their own purposes.
Seeing no other way forward, Falk consents to have his memory erased and the original Werelian person, Agad Ramarren, restored. He emerges as a new person with pre-Falk memories and vastly more knowledge. But thanks to a tip he leaves to himself - an indication, through his young companion, to read the beginning of the book he travels with-, Falk is revived and his and Ramarrens mind coexist after some instability, and the comparisons of the knowledge given to them before and after Ramarren's reemergence is proof to them of the Shing's dishonesty. Still ignorant of the survival of the Falk persona, they hope to send Ramarren back to tell their lies so as to obtain power. Falk-Ramarren plays along, post-poning the journey, and, eventually, while on a simple expedition to view the Earth, he makes his escape, manipulating a Shing to show him where to find the ship that would take him home, and how to program it. Falk-Ramarren finally leaves for his planet, with the fellow alien boy and the enemy he used.
It seems that this mission succeeds - in The Left Hand of Darkness, Genly Ai comes from Earth and remembers the 'Age of the Enemy' as something dreadful but now past. He also knows of the Werelians, now called Alterrans.
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