Talk:City of Illusions

Congratulations, 83.132.158.202
A very nice rewrite. You should do more - and also register, if possible. --GwydionM 14:18, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Three Hainish Novels - 1967 or 1978??
It is not clear to me if the omnibus Three Hainish Novels was published in 1967 or if is was published in 1978 as a book club edition. Book club editions can often be tricky because they will put original copyright dates in the information, thereby obscuring the true publication date of the work. Any clarification would be appreciated! Npd2983 (talk) 19:08, 14 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Clafication added. The picture is the cover of the original paperback.--GwydionM (talk) 15:13, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Clarification, please
"The Werelians' mental powers are significantly greater than those of ordinary humans and the Shing, inhibited by a cultural dread of killing or being killed, would have no effective defense against them."

This sentence is missing some conjunctions, modifiers, or verb tense that would make it a coherent statement in the English language. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.102.59.64 (talk) 01:02, 19 November 2011 (UTC)


 * No, as a matter of fact the sentence is quite coherent and fully grammatical. The only modification I would suggest is a comma or semicolon before "and the Shing". --Thnidu (talk) 03:52, 16 April 2015 (UTC)

Estrel's true identity
Yes, I know Wikipedia does not do spoiler alerts but I feel sorry for someone who hasn't read this book skimming this article. The description of the character of Estrel is narrow in that it focuses completely on her "true" identity which is only revealed in a plot-twist late in the book. I don't disagree with including the fact that she is a Shing agent in her character description, but it probably shouldn't be the first words used to describe her. (The antitheory (talk) 22:39, 24 September 2013 (UTC))

I added this into the category for 1960s science fiction novels. Transcendentalist01 (talk) 19:41, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

reading from the book
§ Objects ended with the sentence
 * At the end of the story, Orry reads a line from the book to help Ramarren reunify his split mind with the mind of Falk.

This apparently refers to Orry's telling Ramarren "Read the first page of the book". The restored Ramarren personality brushes aside this instruction from the young Orry, but shortly afterward he opens the book of his own accord, and the sight of the first page triggers the restoration of the Falk personality alongside Ramarren's, as Falk had intended. I have corrected the sentence. --Thnidu (talk) 04:34, 16 April 2015 (UTC)
 * 1)  This is not at the end of the story.
 * 2)  Orry does not read a line from the book; he tells Ramarren "Read the first page of the book," in obedience to the order Falk secretly gave him before submitting to the erasure of his memory:
 * However, thanks to a memory triggering mnemonic device Falk had left for himself (an instruction, through young Orry, to read the beginning of the book he travels with, his translation of the Tao Te Ching), the Falk personality is revived. (§ Restored Memories)