The protagonist, Herrin, is such an arrogant, unlikable jerk that I didn't really care what happened to him, which made it difficult to stay invested in the story line, particularly the first 60% or so about the sculpture. It picked up a bit after that, but I was disappointed that we never really learned anything about Keye or the alien civilisation (other than just Sbi). ( )

Wow. Just wow. In this short novel Cherryh does what she usually does in her stories, creates a world, and culture, both alien and familiar...but this time it's on a scale that even she rarely attains. With virtually no fighting or other actions so common in SciFi, she hurls the reader along in this story of an artist who went too far and threatened a society conditioned to be blind to reality. Superb. ( )

Nearly a perfect little SF novel. In many ways, I found this reminiscent of Le Guin's City of Illusions. Where Le Guin explores the meaning of truth, Cherryh toys with the individual's perception of reality; how the strength of one person's intellect and charisma can sway the perceived reality of weaker minds. Exploring class structures, racism, and alienation through a solipsistic lens, Cherryh writes a tight narrative that, as I have come to expect from her, starts somewhat slowly, but then builds inexorably to a satisfying conclusion. ( )

If one's subjective reality clashes with objective reality, or someone else's subjective reality, what happens to reality? Can all realities be true?

On a planet named Freedom, in a metropolis named Kierkegaard, the Artist and the First Citizen share a subjective reality. Until, one day, the Artist begins to notice things which should not be there. These "things" are the Ahnit, natives of Freedom, who have been ignored by the colonists for generations so as to have become Invisible. What, then, becomes of the Artist's and the First Citizen's realities? What happens when war comes to Kierkegaard at the behest of the First Citizen's expansion of his subjective reality?

Simple, yet complex, this is a novella which demands more than one reading. I found it both intriguing and mind bending. And enjoyable. ( )

Not as good as her other Allaince/Union books but still quite an interesting read. ( )