From the back cover of the DAW first edition: "In the ultimate city - He knew his name was Kyon. He wore the garb of a gardener - therefore he was a gardener. But that was all he knew. The city was a maze of wonders and terrors. The people were strangers, condescending and perhaps spiteful. Kyon had to do something, to go somewhere, but none would tell him. And it was important! It's a different sort of science fiction novel than one would expect from Lin Carter. Master of fantasy, master of other worlds, now discover Lin Carter, master of ominous projection, of future conjecture. Urbs, the ultimate city, was on the scales of history. It would be up to Kyon whether all it represented, the flowering of science, would be Found Wanting."
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