The City
core novel 1966 The Atlan Saga
Record
| First published | 1966 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.60 (126 ratings, collected 2026-08-26) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780886770853 |
| Internal chronology | 3 |
Synopsis
The City follows Cija after she is sold into slavery and ends up in a city ruled by a religious hierarchy, only to discover that it belongs to the same order her mother once served and that its high priest is her own biological father. Separated from the political world of Zerd's empire that dominated the earlier books, Cija passes through captivity, escape and rescue as she tries to survive in an unfamiliar and often hostile environment, including a period living among the city's outcasts. Among the relationships she forms during this ordeal is one with an intelligent ape named Ung-g, which leaves her pregnant, complicating her already tangled family history as the daughter, wife and now mother caught between the human and fantastical factions of Atlan.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Atlan Saga
- Series: The Atlan Saga core; position 3 of 4 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Jane Gaskell
Notes
- From the series record (The Atlan Saga): A prehistoric secondary-world saga following the heroine Cija across a mythic, magic-infused Atlantis; the debut volume was reportedly begun when the author was a teenager.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Atlan Saga: position 3 of 4: previous Atlan (1965) · next Some Summer Lands (1977)
Sources
← The Atlan Saga dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.