Science Fiction

City of Illusions

by Ursula K. Le Guin · Hainish Cycle series

A man with no memory walks east across a conquered Earth, searching for his identity in a world ruled by the alien Shing. Le Guin's meditation on truth, lies, and the unreliable self—where telepathy means deception is the only privacy left, and remembering becomes an act of resistance.

Hainish Cycle in reading order

• 1. Rocannon's World — Ursula K. Le Guin / Stefan Rudnicki
• 2. Planet of Exile — Ursula K. Le Guin
• 3. City of Illusions — Ursula K. Le Guin
• 4. The Left Hand of Darkness — Ursula K. Le Guin
• 5. The Dispossessed — Ursula K. Le Guin
• Four Ways to Forgiveness — Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Birthday of the World and Other Stories — Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Telling — Ursula K. Le Guin

The Books Oracle — reading tracker and book recommendations drawn from your own shelf.