Titles are interesting things that can tell much, or perhaps very little of a story. In City of Illusions, Ursula K LeGuin tells the tale of an Earth under the dominion of an alien race known as The Shing. The story centres around a being named Falk, who is discovered by humans wandering the forest.
He has no memories, he has no recollection of self, and he does not look like them. In a book of two parts - in more clever ways than one, this is the first. A coming of age story interlaced with learning concealed as world building sets up an interesting backdrop for story.
Falk has one goal, once he learns of it - to see the city of Es Toch, and with it, attempt to learn of his true self. City of Illusions may be another name for Es Toch, but it is a complicated task to disentangle the name from a place and its eponymous nature as the title of the tale.
Interwoven through the built world, the natural, and the dominion of an alien race is a story that weaves the galactic lore built up in the two previous Hainish novels. A federation, light speed travel, horrifying, planet culling weapons and instant communication over vast distances are cinstant threats.
However, like most of the lore, this technology is locked away behind anthropological prose, merely setting a what could be as opposed to a what is - adding a sword of Damocles to hive above the interpersonal conflict and drama to emerging from interactions between Falk and the other beings he encounters.
He is different. Not only physically, but also of mind. Without a sense of self for much of the novel, and with a single objective, this becomes a character driven tale that piles on an insular intruige that runs parallel to perilous journey and the loss of companions along the way.
The story really starts to shine when the protagonist reaches the city of Es Toch, where it seemingly changes genres from adventure and discovery to a lightweight psychological thriller unfolding in carefully planned slow motion.
This is the best tale I've read so far be LeGuin, and I thoroughly enjoyed the notions explored around what it is to be the self, and what may lie behind that veneer, within the twisted and sprawling network of grey matter and synapse.
If we are each a city unto ourselves,, in this text LeGuin explores the notion that perhaps the city is not a corporeal thing, but rather the thing within our minds which we inhabit inherently. Our own minds, perhaps their own Cities of Illusions and plasticity forms and reforms conciousness, objectivity and desire.
Alongside the backdrop of what appears to be a benevolent, yet domineering alien race seemingly guiding an uncomfortable existence of Earth, this tale is masterfully balanced between what happens within a single mind, and what can happen when extraordinary pressure and an inability to recall the self clash amid the backdrop of galactic political intruige and alliances.
Falk has loyalty which cannot be challenged.
Dappled in a bitter-sweet light, City of Illusions is a tale that resonates long after it is over. Not lauded as one of LeGuins finest works - I now wonder what those are like a I reach for The Left Hand if Darkness the next tale in this universe.
One of many covers the book is published in