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City of Illusions

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City of Illusions

By: Ursula K. Le Guin
Narrated by: Nathaniel Priestley
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About this listen

'She is unique. She is legend' THE TIMES

'A tour de force' EVENING STANDARD

'A wonderfully mordant analyst of human weakness' Martin Amis

Earth, like the rest of the Known Worlds, has fallen to the Shing. Scattered here and there, small groups of humans live in a state of semi-barbarism. They have lost the skills, science and knowledge that had been Earth's in the golden age of the League of Worlds, and whenever a colony of humans tries to rekindle the embers of a half-forgotten technology, the Shing, with their strange, mindlying power, crush them out. There is one man who can stand against the malign Shing, but he is an alien with amber eyes and must first prove to paranoid humanity that he himself is not a creature of the Shing.

©1967 Ursula K. Le Guin (P)2025 Orion Publishing Group Limited Coming of Age Fantasy Genre Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
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Fully formed Le Guin. I had no idea about the existence or importance of this early work. Thank you to Bookpilled for bringing it to my attention.

Stunning and gripping throughout.

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The book makes the planet of exile almost an expository introduction to this. It seems so brilliantly complex but is quite enjoyable and easy to unravel with a brilliant ending.

Exceptional follow on from planet of exile

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I’ve started my Hainish Cycle journey with Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, and then moved to Rocannon’s World, Planet of Exile and now City of Illusions. I absolutely adore how with those last three you can clearly see Ursula Le Guin finding her literary style and cadence. The pacing was finally on point, not too fast and not too slow. I would have loved to read another book about dual consciousness, that’s such a fascinating concept. Nathaniel Priestley’s narration was on point as always. Cannot recommend this enough!

Ursula Le Guin coming to herself!

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Has the feel of Logans run with serious trust issues. Le Guin creates a fascinating future Earth and a visually engaging journey across it with a protagonist searching for their identity in a world they don't understand and that's out to get him. The plot is a little over-complex and tries a bit too hard but it's all generally worth it.

An engaging journey.

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