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brigdhCity of Illusions by Ursula Le Guin. A science-fiction novella set in a world that is post- post- post-apocalyptic, where the apocalypse happened so many generations ago that the people in the present moment barely remember what the apocalypse consisted of or who caused it.
One day, a man is found in the forest with absolutely no memory – not even enough to speak or dress himself, a total and complete absence of identity or personality. Oh, and his eyes are slightly odd, just enough to suggest that he's not human, or at least not human in the usual way. The people who found him take him in and teach him, and he spends several happy years living with them. But eventually he decides that he needs to find out who he is, where he came from, and what his original goal was. The people he's with live in a deliberately low-technology, small-scale sort of way, believing that this will protect them from aliens who seek out and destroy any sign of increasing human knowledge or political structure, and therefore have no maps or histories to guide him in his search. He sets out to walk to the west, across what is recognizable to the reader as a far-future North America, encountering many other peoples, some of whom help him and some of whom attack him. Honestly, this travelogue was my favorite part of the novella, the many and varied societies that Le Guin populates this world with, including the absolutely fascinating Prince of Kansas. Eventually the man reaches the titular City of Illusions, where his past turns out to tie into the question of that long-ago apocalypse, those possible aliens, and the mystery behind the world. But knowing who to trust may be the biggest illusion of all.
City of Illusions is not my favorite Le Guin. The early parts of the novella are intriguing, but everything after the main character reaches the city is just weird, and weird in an extremely 1960's sort of way. Which, fair enough, since that's when it was published, but it's always a bit unfortunate when your sci-fi is so obviously dated. The gender roles for this future are also very musty, which is especially disappointing coming from Le Guin, even if this was one of her first books. It's not entirely awful; the mystery of the man's backstory is gripping, and I liked the various plot twists. It's just an idea that could have been so much better.
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty. The first in a trilogy of fantasy YA, though it honestly didn't feel very YA to me; there is a bit of the cliched and ever-present love triangle, but it was played just differently enough that I'd initially assumed The City of Brass was simply adult fantasy.
In the 1790s, during Napoleon's occupation of Cairo, Nahri is an orphan, street rat, and con artist, making her living by telling false fortunes and performing faith healing – except that she does seem to have some inexplicable ability to diagnose and cure the sick. During an exorcism, she accidentally summons a djinn named Dara who abruptly destroys Nahri's cynical conviction that magic isn't real. Dara also determines that she's the very last scion of an important and respected djinn family long thought to have died out. Obviously the only solution is to bring her to Daevabad, the City of Brass and capital of the magical world – and to do so quickly, since unknown enemies seem determined to kill Nahri before she can be officially recognized.
Meanwhile, in Daevabad itself, Alizayd is the younger son of the king, destined to become his brother's military right-hand. As such, Alizayd was raised in soldiers' barracks, and has an austere, rigorous faith that blends badly with the decadence and compromise of his father's palace. Daevabad and the world of the djinn isn't one-sided; it's a dense city, multicultural, multireligious, and in particular there are many part-human individuals and a huge diversity of opinions on their place in this magical world. There are court politics, ancient grudges, still-lingering resentments over a past war, arranged marriages, and Dara's own hidden but increasingly-important backstory. Nahri and Alizayd are both thrown into this morass with too little knowledge, forced to make choices that they can't predict the consequences of, even if they're coming to it from very different perspectives.
The worldbuilding is fantastic, a rich mix of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Islamic folklore, all with a modern twist. Nahri and Alizayd are both narrators, and they're wonderful characters, complex and emotionally compelling and recognizable. It's not, perhaps, the world's deepest book, but it's fun and enthralling and the plot had me racing through the pages. I loved it, and can't wait for the sequel.
One day, a man is found in the forest with absolutely no memory – not even enough to speak or dress himself, a total and complete absence of identity or personality. Oh, and his eyes are slightly odd, just enough to suggest that he's not human, or at least not human in the usual way. The people who found him take him in and teach him, and he spends several happy years living with them. But eventually he decides that he needs to find out who he is, where he came from, and what his original goal was. The people he's with live in a deliberately low-technology, small-scale sort of way, believing that this will protect them from aliens who seek out and destroy any sign of increasing human knowledge or political structure, and therefore have no maps or histories to guide him in his search. He sets out to walk to the west, across what is recognizable to the reader as a far-future North America, encountering many other peoples, some of whom help him and some of whom attack him. Honestly, this travelogue was my favorite part of the novella, the many and varied societies that Le Guin populates this world with, including the absolutely fascinating Prince of Kansas. Eventually the man reaches the titular City of Illusions, where his past turns out to tie into the question of that long-ago apocalypse, those possible aliens, and the mystery behind the world. But knowing who to trust may be the biggest illusion of all.
City of Illusions is not my favorite Le Guin. The early parts of the novella are intriguing, but everything after the main character reaches the city is just weird, and weird in an extremely 1960's sort of way. Which, fair enough, since that's when it was published, but it's always a bit unfortunate when your sci-fi is so obviously dated. The gender roles for this future are also very musty, which is especially disappointing coming from Le Guin, even if this was one of her first books. It's not entirely awful; the mystery of the man's backstory is gripping, and I liked the various plot twists. It's just an idea that could have been so much better.
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty. The first in a trilogy of fantasy YA, though it honestly didn't feel very YA to me; there is a bit of the cliched and ever-present love triangle, but it was played just differently enough that I'd initially assumed The City of Brass was simply adult fantasy.
In the 1790s, during Napoleon's occupation of Cairo, Nahri is an orphan, street rat, and con artist, making her living by telling false fortunes and performing faith healing – except that she does seem to have some inexplicable ability to diagnose and cure the sick. During an exorcism, she accidentally summons a djinn named Dara who abruptly destroys Nahri's cynical conviction that magic isn't real. Dara also determines that she's the very last scion of an important and respected djinn family long thought to have died out. Obviously the only solution is to bring her to Daevabad, the City of Brass and capital of the magical world – and to do so quickly, since unknown enemies seem determined to kill Nahri before she can be officially recognized.
Meanwhile, in Daevabad itself, Alizayd is the younger son of the king, destined to become his brother's military right-hand. As such, Alizayd was raised in soldiers' barracks, and has an austere, rigorous faith that blends badly with the decadence and compromise of his father's palace. Daevabad and the world of the djinn isn't one-sided; it's a dense city, multicultural, multireligious, and in particular there are many part-human individuals and a huge diversity of opinions on their place in this magical world. There are court politics, ancient grudges, still-lingering resentments over a past war, arranged marriages, and Dara's own hidden but increasingly-important backstory. Nahri and Alizayd are both thrown into this morass with too little knowledge, forced to make choices that they can't predict the consequences of, even if they're coming to it from very different perspectives.
The worldbuilding is fantastic, a rich mix of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Islamic folklore, all with a modern twist. Nahri and Alizayd are both narrators, and they're wonderful characters, complex and emotionally compelling and recognizable. It's not, perhaps, the world's deepest book, but it's fun and enthralling and the plot had me racing through the pages. I loved it, and can't wait for the sequel.
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Date: 2018-11-25 11:12 pm (UTC)"City of Brass"
I sense A Theme.
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