The City Outside the World

Did You Know?

• This story was the fourth published in the series, after 'The Martian El Dorado of Parker Whitley,' but in terms of events it comes third, following The Valley Where Time Stood Still.
• In both publication and chronological order, it is followed by Down to a Sunless Sea.

Plot summary

In the twenty-second century, Mars is a dying world colonized by Earth, its native population oppressed by the Colonial Authority. In the divided city of Yeolarn, the Terran Ryker is fleeing both the CA and Martians when he is drawn to the native dancer Valarda. She leads him into a slum, where a mob treats her as a pariah; Ryker helps her escape, and with the native boy Kiki they join a caravan heading north. Valarda and Kiki later vanish, taking an antique amulet belonging to Ryker. He follows them to the ruins of Khuu and the Martian sphinx, a monument shaped like the insect-like Pteraton; Valarda's enemies also pursue. The amulet unlocks the structure, opening a time portal to a prehistoric era, hurling Ryker, Valarda, Kiki, their hunters, and the captive Terran scientist Herzog into the past. Beyond lies Zhiam, the original city that will become Khuu, last refuge of the legendary lost tenth tribe of Mars, Valarda and Kiki's people. Branded heretics, they were nearly exterminated in the Zhaggua Jihad. Valarda, the tribe's high priestess, had sought the key to their hiding place but was discovered. When outsiders breach the refuge, the old conflict reignites. The tribe's benevolent energy deity, Zhagguaziu the Child-of-Stars, intervenes, expelling the intruders and sealing the gateway permanently. It blesses Ryker and Valarda's passion and instructs them to found a new dynasty, implying all modern Martians will descend from them.

Reception

Den Valdron, writing in ERBzine, groups this book with The Valley Where Time Stood Still as standing between The Man Who Loved Mars and Down to a Sunless Sea, which he considers the best and least interesting of the series, respectively, noting each has particular strengths. He finds something extra in Carter's Martian novels that places them at the upper registers of his work and commends them to the reader. J. G. Huckenpohler, also in ERBzine, counts the series among his favorites of Carter's stories, showing more originality than the Zanthodon and Callisto books, though he finds them uneven and increasingly repetitious, especially the last two including this one. He identifies the standard plot: a Terran outlaw, an older Dok-i-tar, a Martian sidekick originally an enemy, and a Martian girl find a lost city, unlock its secrets, and either remain as rulers or escape.