Written by Ursula K. Le Guin
Format: MP3

City of Illusions takes place on Earth, also known as Terra, in the future, twelve hundred years after an enemy named the Shing has broken the power of the League of All Worlds and occupied Earth. The indigenous people of Earth have been reduced in numbers and widely separated, living in highly independent rural communes or nomadic tribal societies. The Shing exercise control over these people using various strategies of indirect control, including divide and rule and deceptive telepathic mental control known as mind-lying. In contrast, innately truthful telepathy is known as mindspeech.