Project Gutenberg 2024-04-12 Public domain in the USA. 113 Banister, Manly 1914 1986 Banister, Manly Miles Bannister, Manly Freas, Kelly 1922 2005 Freas, Frank Kelly The great illusion $aNew York, NY :$bHeadline Publications, Inc., $c1956. Produced from Super-Science Fiction February 1957. Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "The Great Illusion" by Manly Banister is a science fiction narrative that explores themes of perception, culture, and the nature of reality. Written in the mid-20th century, the book follows the adventures of Cliff Rowley, a psychic investigator in the Galactic Ethnological Survey Corps, as he grapples with the enigmatic civilization on the closed world of Hume. This world initially appears primitive and idyllic, yet Rowley senses a deeper, unsettling layer that hints at an illusion being carefully maintained. In this story, Rowley arrives on Hume to conduct investigations but quickly realizes that the apparent simplicity of the villagers conceals a far more complex truth. As he interacts with the inhabitants, he discovers their seemingly happy existence is a facade—a performance designed to keep galactic explorers at bay. The narrative unfolds to reveal that the villagers, along with their vibrant culture, are not what they seem; they are mental projections generated by the trees of Hume, which are the true intelligent beings of the planet. This realization leads Rowley to confront profound questions about identity, culture, and the ethics of interference in alien civilizations, ultimately culminating in an understanding that sometimes the greatest truths are hidden behind illusions. (This is an automatically generated summary.) 20240318163158bannister 1956 US Reading ease score: 78.8 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories Life on other planets -- Fiction Outer space -- Exploration -- Fiction Psychic ability -- Fiction PS Text Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Category: Novels 60551 2025-07-29T06:12:16.763873 text/html 35897 2024-04-12T17:27:59 text/html 406971 2025-07-29T06:12:20.638856 application/epub+zip 405753 2025-07-29T06:12:18.477932 application/epub+zip 310965 2025-07-29T06:12:17.466897 application/epub+zip 1326520 2025-07-29T06:12:22.121878 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 1319379 2025-07-29T06:12:19.964902 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 52234 2025-07-29T06:12:16.586899 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 32411 2024-04-12T17:27:59 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 17505 2025-07-29T06:12:22.291854 application/rdf+xml 35546 2025-07-29T06:12:17.910868 image/jpeg 5510 2025-07-29T06:12:17.696856 image/jpeg 2458788 2025-07-29T06:12:16.794869 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog de.wikipedia en.wikipedia