The Secret City: A Novel [Paperback]

Carol Emshwiller's latest novel is The Secret City. Lorpas is an alien who was raised by alien tourists marooned on Earth. His whole life has been one of wandering, and of keeping the secret of his true nature. He is befriended by an old woman, but she dies, and he is unfairly (but understandably) suspected of foul play. He escapes, and continues a search for the rumored "Secret City" that some of his fellow aliens may have built somewhere in the Sierra Nevadas.

Allush is another alien child of tourists. She lives in the Secret City. But their population is much diminished -- perhaps only three remain, herself, her surrogate mother Mollish, and an aggressive male, Youpas. Youpas has already killed three human archaeologists who nearly stumbled on the City -- and, when Lorpas finds his way there, he tries to kill him. But Lorpas and Allush fall in love, and they and Mollish begin to return to human civilization. It seems, despite their parents' constant reminders of "home," and constant denigration of Earth and humans, that in their ways they have learned to love the Earth. But then a rescue party arrives -- and Allush is spirited back to the home planet, while Lorpas remains, with a newly marooned member of the rescuers.

The novel continues to describe Allush's disturbing experiences on her home planet, and Lorpas's potential troubles with human law enforcement, his adventures with the new alien, and also problems with the still violent Youpas. The three of them end up working for a human rancher and his young teenaged daughter, and their position is further compromised by the daughter's fascination with one of the aliens. And Allush, of course, will be back herself...

This is a sweet and involving story. Its attitude towards humans and aliens is refreshing -- humans are neither markedly inferior nor markedly superior to the aliens. Both species have problems, particularly severe class differences. What is ultimately important is personal connections -- people who learn to love each other. The story is told through the points of view of Lorpas and Allush, and both are good but naïve sorts, giving the novel a pellucid sort of voice. (The viewpoint characters of Emshwiller's other recent novels, Mister Boots and The Mount, are similarly naïve, as are the narrators of many of her stories. Her strategy often seems to be to show disturbing situations, and nasty characters, through the eyes of innocents -- an effective approach.) The Secret City is yet another strong late work from one of our treasures.

The Secret City is a unique first contact novel. A small group of aliens from the planet they call Betasha, are stranded on Earth and do everything they can to avoid humans finding out about their presence. Expecting imminent rescue, the aliens settle in with their children. But as time goes on, and no rescue comes, the children grow up on Earth and are caught in a cultural middle, really belonging to neither their home plant or earth.

This story picks up clearly many years after the aliens are stranded as its main characters are the children of the first "tourists," Lopas, Allush and Youpas. The aliens have built a "secret city" in the mountains somewhere that appears to be the Western part of the United States and are in hiding. Lopas, on the other hand, is living among the fringes of human society, essentially passing himself off as a bum or handyman.

Then, rescue comes in the form of their Betashan compatriots but it is an unwanted rescue. After escaping from being snatched back to his home planet Lopas makes his way to the secret city where he encounters Allush and a few of his kind from the older generation, and the young, wild Youpas. The story turns as they all struggle to determine what they want to do and what they should do as the opportunity to return to their planet has presented itself.

Told from the points of view of Lopas and Allush, the story is intriguing and interesting, although at times a bit too plodding. While solid in terms of writing, literary value, and evoking empathy for the characters, it falls short of being excellent.

Wow, this book was a surprising disappointment. This is the first book I've read by Emshwiller. I bought it because Ursula Le Guin, whose writing I like a lot, wrote some complimentary things about Emshwiller's work. Sadly, I only got through half of this book before I could not stand anymore, which is very rare. I usually finish even moderately bad books.

I found the sentences really annoyingly short, choppy, and disconnected. I felt no rhythym or flow to the words. The characters seemed made of cardboard, not fleshed out, not believable, not likeable. The first person format also really bugged me. The concept of the plot, as described on the cover sounded great. But, um, three people living in trees and underground is not my idea of an interesting "city".

I'm happy if other people enjoyed it, but I definitely won't be buying anything from this author again.

-Paul

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 4 reviews  3.2 out of 5 stars