Other editions of book City of illusions

Each volume in the "Modern Women Writers" series offers a complete fictional work by a contemporary female writer, which reflects a different culture and set of experiences. The books contain extensive study material and assignments at a range of levels for GCSE English and English literature courses. In addition to pre-reading activities and notes, the novels contain a reading log with ideas for group and individual assignments to help pupils comprehend the text. This is the story of a journey of discovery - a story full of riddles, allegories and echoes of ancient cultures; of Utopia, a fantastic city. It is a story of the discovery of many alien cultures in a "far-future Earth", of identity and self-knowledge by Falk, the central character, and of what is essentially human and civilizing in us all. The text is also suitable for adult students taking English examinations and for overseas students.

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.

[This is the MP3CD audiobook format in vinyl case.] [Read by Stefan Rudnicki] He is a full-grown man, alone in a dense forest, with no trail to show where he has come from and no memory to tell who or what he is. His eyes are not the eyes of a human. The forest people take him in and raise him, teaching him to speak, training him in the knowledge and lore of the forest, but they cannot solve the riddle of his past. At last, he sets out on a perilous quest to find his true self--and discovers a universe of danger. City of Illusions is a part of the acclaimed Hainish Cycle, set in a galaxy colonized hundreds of thousands of years ago by a variety of humanoid species. Since the golden age of the League of All Worlds, Earth, like the rest of the known worlds, has fallen to the Shing, who rule through subtle mind control. Scattered groups of humans endure in a state of paranoia and semibarbarism. Is there one who can stand against the Shing?

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.

He was a fully grown man, alone in dense forest, with no trail to show where he had come from and no memory to tell who - or what - he was. His eyes were not the eyes of a human. The forest people took him in and raised him almost as a child, teaching him to speak, training him in forest lore, giving him all the knowledge they had. But they could not solve the riddle of his past, and at last he had to set out on a perilous quest to Es Toch, the City of the Shing, the Liars of Earth, the Enemy of Mankind. There he would find his true self. . . and a universe full of danger.