The Secret City

by Carol Emshwiller

The Secret City is a proud enclave carved in stone. Hidden high in a mountain range, it is a worn citadel protecting a lost culture. It harbors a handful of aliens stranded on Earth, waiting for rescue and running out of time. Over years of increasing poverty, an exodus to the human world has become their only chance for survival. The aliens are gradually assimilating not as a discrete culture but as a source of cheap labor.

But the sudden arrival of ill-prepared rescuers will touch off divided loyalties, violent displacement, and star-crossed love. As unlikely human allies are pitted against xenophobic aliens, the stage is set for a final standoff at the Secret City.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Aliens, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy

209 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Carol Emshwiller is an American writer of avant garde short stories and science fiction who has won prizes including the Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards. Ursula K. Le Guin has called her "a major fabulist, a marvelous magical realist, one of the strongest, most complex, most consistently feminist voices in fiction." In 2005, she was awarded the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. Her most recent novel, The Secret City, was published in April 2007.

She is the widow of the artist and experimental filmmaker Ed Emshwiller . Their son is the actor, artist, screenwriter, and novelist Peter Emshwiller .

Reviews

[Res · Rating 1 out of 5]

The one where the aliens came long ago to vacation on earth and were stranded here, and the home planet finally comes to take the offspring home.

Present tense is a tricky choice for a novel, because novels use time in complicated ways -- for instance, they often need to skip ahead to the next interesting part and then loop back briefly to cover what's been left out, which is difficult to do in present tense.

I've seen it work -- I think Bright Lights, Big City is in present tense -- but there it makes perfect sense to have strobe-flashes of immediacy punctuated by absences, because the protagonist is stoned all the time.

It doesn't work here. It gives the entire book a dreamy, static feel of waiting for something to happen, even while things are happening, which gets old fast.

The characters are problematic, too. As soon as we meet Lorpash, he's developing relationships -- with his jailer, with the old woman -- and yet we're supposed to believe he's lived well into adulthood without ever making a friend, taking a job, having any sort of connection. Allush doesn't know how to track, how to hunt, how not to injure herself, even though she's apparently survived in semi-wilderness conditions and is in her mid-twenties.

It's obvious on page 1 that Youpas is a psycho, but people continue to trust him so that he can provide peril when needed.

I think this could have been a lovely short story. I don't think much of it as a novel.

[Bri Fidelity · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a first chapter that reads like a wonderful and perfect Emshwiller short story - which it turns out it is: 'World of No Return' ('Asimov's Science Fiction', December 2005) - The Secret City turns oddly frustrating oddly quickly, and I can really only blame myself.

I'm biased. For some reason - bad genes; bad upbringing; who knows? - I just can't stand it when a long text decides to adopt the rapidly-alternating viewpoints of two or more first-person narrators. It just makes me angry. Especially, for some even more obscure reason, when each section is helpfully headed by the character's name. (The Time Traveller's Wife, I am looking balefully at you. And then I'm coming to get you.)

Emshwiller's full-length novels have a maddening tendency to do exactly this thing that I hate, and if she weren't one of my all-time favourite short story writers, I'd have probably wiped my hands of her long ago. When she finds one narrator and sticks with them for long stretches, she's a boss! (Almost certainly why I prefer the near-identical Mister Boots to the fan-favourite Ledoyt - and, yes, somewhere in the world, Ursula K. le Guin has just shuddered violently and doesn't know why.) Here, all the pogoing around just serves to undercut the text's momentum - and, here more than in any of her other novels, there's really not enough story for that to keep happening, however much the present tense keeps trying to tell me that these events are immediate and vital.

There's a lot of charm here - and at least, unlike Ledoyt and Leaping Man Hill, there are only the two observing characters to contend with. This could easily be adapted into, say, a heartwarming family film. And I adore that opening chapter (I hope it's part of The Collected Short Stories someday, so I can see how it really stands alone). But it's no The Mount, that's for sure.

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

They came as extraterrestrial tourists, but something went wrong and their rides home never showed up. They can pass for human, although they are a little rough around the edges and think all earthlings dress in Hawaiian shirts and Bermuda shorts. And there is a language problem. But they make do. The older generation remains disdainful of our backwards little planet, but the second generation find they kind of like it here. As the parents die off, the diaspora of alien young have to make it on their own. They can take low-paying jobs where people don't ask too many questions. Some slip into homelessness, Some dream of a Secret City where others of their kind live in anticipation of the long overdue return flight.

Emshwiller's short novel is a well-told and entertaining variation on the immigration story central to American history.

[Ryandake · Rating 4 out of 5]

so what would happen if a bunch of mostly-humanoid aliens came here for a tourist junket and got stuck?

Emshwiller is not your standard sf writer--she has a lovely humanist way of subverting all your expectations. this book is a surprisingly gentle meditation on difference, on outsiders, on how we can (or fail to) connect across all our differences.

this is not a plot-heavy book. things do happen, and they resolve in ways you will not at all foresee. but all the resolutions carry some inevitability, which springs from the fine characterizations Emshwiller has drawn.

this book is a rather fine, delicate thing, and trying to say much about it feels rather like stomping across new spring ferns in steel-toed boots. so i won't. but i enjoyed this book immensely. it's not a long read, but it's one entirely worth returning to.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emshwiller only started writing when she hit her 80's. Her books are full of interesting observations and quiet wisdom as well as being a really good yarn.

[Corinne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is really sloppy. I've read it was adapted from a short story, which it definitely feels like, and it probably should have just stayed that way.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

...The Secret City is a wonderfully understated meditation of being different, of not fitting in. The otherness of the mail characters is constantly present in the narrative and, usually between the lines, they are permanently struggling with it. It is perhaps not the most ambitious science fiction novel ever but the minimalist style and clear language appealed to me...

Full Random Comments review

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather childlike sci fi about aliens living among the humans.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

A group of aliens have lived on Earth for a generation now, blending in, mostly, but keeping themselves apart, posing as tourists, campers, travellers, awaiting the day their people will come for them. One of the second generation, who's lost his family, doesn't fit in on Earth but doesn't think he'll fit in on the home planet, either, but seeking a place he makes his way for the secret city he knows others of his kind have built to await the return.

My second Ermshwiller novel, and while I mostly liked the first (even if it was a bit heavy-handed at times) which one's a much odder book and I don't think as successful. It's got some interesting themes but mostly doesn't go deep enough into them, just raises questions. And the story structure feels pretty odd, almost as though it was a series of short stories linked into a novel later, except most of the short stories wouldn't really work as stand-alones, either, because they require too much context (and the POV switches mid-story). Like, the main character lives with someone for a while and then is alone again and out looking for the secret city and then is an outcast and then is travelling with another of his kind, and so on, and it's not like we're skipping ahead, each development happens on screen but I never really felt a sense of "okay yes this is where the story IS, and the last parts obviously were what led up to it." Instead I felt "Oh, we're doing this now? Okay, I guess." and never really connected. Even at the end, there was a resolution, of sorts, but it just sort of... lay there.

Which is a shame because there were times I was really interested to read the story of a second generation alien stranded on Earth, or how they might relate to going home, or their interactions with others of their kind on Earth... just it never happened to be this story I got interested, just hypothetical stories that could be done with that material. Most of the characters don't really feel natural, which, since they're aliens might be kind of the point but still I mostly felt like they made irrational actions just because that was what the plot required.

There's also kind of a weird subplot towards the end with a seeming adult (even if possibly just barely adult) having a mutual crush with a thirteen-year-old girl. It's not the main character and the main character certainly doesn't approve of it but it almost feels like the narrative doesn't entirely disapprove (or at least that its attitude is something like "this certainly isn't a good idea but they don't really know any better so it's kind of cute") Which is definitely a weird feeling to walk away with, again, with an adult and a young teen. I don't think it necessarily crosses a line, it's just a bit WTF.

All in all, I'd call the story okay, two stars.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilers: Confusing at first and had to reread the dueling chapters . However, this could have been because the beginning of the story (aside from the prologue) was very sloooooooowwwww going for me. I have a short attention span when it comes to science fiction fantasy, so it's already a lot for me. However, once I started getting into, I had more interest in the story and characters. In some ways it made it easier to read, because I could go back and forth and think oh this is Lorpas oh this is Allusha, etc. I do think the characters seemed a bit similar to one another, devoid of any particular personality besides the bare basics and their culture. I'm not a big fan of writing in this manner, though I understand it in certain examples, for instance in Faulkner. The different character's viewpoints in Faulkner are so distinctly different that it works, and it's easy to deterimine who is who. For the most part. In this book, I'm not sure if it was the most effective utilization, perhaps 3rd person would have worked just as well, but maybe the use of different characters reinforced some of the things that were happening in this world.

[Christina Packard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trying to get unto Sci Fi books, but I didn't get into this one. Didn't follow who was where or why. I kind of got the gist of the book, but what I read did not seem to get that point across interestingly enough.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was first published in 2007, but it feels so much like something written in the 60's, I had to double check to make sure it wasn't. It's a quick read with a fairly straight-forward message. I mostly enjoyed it.

[Brown Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short novel feels like the desert: sere, lonesome, cool in the shade...an empty quarters book with consolations for the mind-weary. The premise is outrageously provocative, almost surreal, like a Krazy Kat strip.

[Rebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird but strangely compelling. Vivid.

[Matteo Fulgheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Romantic Sci-Fi, it's a whole new genre for me. What can I say... it's beautiful.

[Victoria]

Okay the prose of this was beautiful but it was a little too slow for my taste and I was running out of time!

[Miguel Vian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and endearing novel.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You scared an old lady half to death with your snoring. She thought you were a bear."

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this novel was strange and stiff and lovely. A one-star reviewer stymied me with her “negative” comment that the present tense gave the book a dreamy sense of waiting. Agreed, it was exactly spot on. Why is it a negative? They are re all waiting for some impossible future to happen so they only live in the present.

Anyway, I enjoyed it thoroughly. It loved the stuff nature of the characters - it added to both their oddness and normality. You’d have to read to understand.

A couple of major themes are classism and living in the present.

For myself - there were some proofing errors -is that hoopla?

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of a group of humanoid aliens who become stranded while visiting Earth in the guise of tourists. As the wait for rescue stretches into years, they do their best to remain on the outskirts of society, in an attempt to keep their children from becoming enamored of our culture. This breeds a sort of xenophobic contempt among the majority of the aliens.

Carol Emshwiller tells her story by switching between first person accounts of the events that befall her main characters. As a major structural element of the novel, I believe the author makes good use of it to clarify that the story revolves around these characters.

I really enjoyed reading this story, and I would have given it a higher rating, but in the process of creating the back story, piques our interest in the alien culture without delivering more than a just a taste. I was left wondering about how the author would envision the encounter between the cultures and how they would come to terms with one another on a larger scale.

That said, once her focus clarifies, she tells a beautiful story. I look forward to reading other works by her.

[Brook · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for novel content.

Emshwiller has received mixed reviews, but this one seemed to be most up my alley. As others have said, there is "sci fi" to this book, but it is really a novella about "foreigners" working to survive in a place where they are the minority. Pick a marginalized minority in modern history, and you can apply this book to it. The race of people that don't quite fit in on Earth also might not fit in somewhere else.

Emshwiller is spotty on details about the other world, and the writing style in general is very light on details. Some "sci fi" goes into great deal about how stuff works, or makes it critical to the story. The technology and "alien" world are only incidental to the story of Fitting In, and are treated as such.

The story as a standalone is not 4 stars, however the *idea* for the story is very good. There have been fish-out-of-water stories involving alien species on earth before, but this combines that with a plain writing style of some mid-20th century American writers. Very interesting stuff.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one didn't do much for me. I feel like there's a larger commentary about "the other" here, and class, but the story is so thin that none of the ideas are developed; they're just shadows at the edges.

I didn't find much interesting in the characters, our love interests seem so similar as to basically be brother and sister, and all conflicts are resolved immediately.

We're given peeks at the mysteries of the home world, but we never see enough to know what was going on. It's not mysterious enough to stick with you, and not defined enough to teach you anything.

(For example, I feel like even the views of the Capital we're given in the Hunger Games give a better sense of an "alien" society than the Neanderthal world here.)

[Christa Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

High in the mountains, a city of aliens are living on earth awaiting a trip home. They have been there for awhile. Some of the aliens have integrated with Earthlings in "the down" and live among us. Lorpas is one looking for others of his kind when a rescue party comes and tries to take him home. Communication is poor and things don't turn out well. Soon after, Lorpas does find the secret city where others of his kind are living. He quickly falls in love with Allush. They are soon separated and an adventure follows to get them back together.

In the end, your fairly typical alien love story.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Aliens that look like Neanderthals (but can pass for Cro Magnon) get stranded on Earth during the proverbial three-hour-tour. They try to preserve their identity by not fitting in, and they end up living, secretly, on the outskirts of society. One teenage alien who has lost track of the rest of his kind goes to look for a secret alien city he heard about, hidden up in the mountains. Conflict ensues! Try The Mount instead.

[Natlyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

Intriguing premise—second generation alien castways have the opportunity to go to their parents' homeworld. It's okay as far as it goes, but really seems more like a short story. It's all character (good). The tight POV from the two aliens worked well to convey character, but created an insular almost claustrophobic feel. Answers about the homeworld are only hinted at.

Okay, but I was expecting more.

[Karen Ireland-Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prose so spare it's almost skeletal; first person, present tense: this lush, fast-moving story of stranded alien travellers breaks every rule yet I literally could not put it down. [return] Who, it asks, are really the aliens here? What is home? What happens when you don't fit in anywhere? Is biology destiny? Is class more important than species?[return] For the narrator here, those questions are answered, sometimes in ways you would not expect.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely would not mind being over 80 and still able to turn out a reasonably well-crafted book like this. Sure, none of the ideas are world-shattering, and the characterization is a bit shallow and prosaic. This was a nice thing to be able to read to balance out the heavier historical reading I've been doing.

[Tyrannosaurus regina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story just never seemed to amount to much, and while I think the spare style worked for the story she was telling and gave it a certain degree of ambiance and a vividness to some of the imagery, it never really spoke to me. That said, I did read this all in one sitting, so once I sit with it for a while I might end up changing my rating.

[Sundry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Satisfying character driven science fiction.

Carol Emshwiller plays with a couple of interesting concepts in this story of second generation aliens on earth learning about their places in the universe. I found it a quick, fun read.

If you're familiar with California's Owens Valley, you'll enjoy the subtle references to the locale.