Out of the set of 3 novels that makes up the beginning of the Hainish Novels, City of Illusions is far and away the most complete feeling of the bunch. While similar themes existed in the other two stories - that of worlds alien to their protagonist being slowly revealed, deconstructed, and finally progressing to a hopeful future - City of Illusions certainly feels like the point Le Guin found her footing.
The first part of the book was an interesting examination of human nature. In it, characters like Zove, the solitary man in the woods, or the Prince each exhume a type of perspective, that all in one way or another directly relate to this graciously oppressed post-apocalyptic Earth. Each one has a type of wisdom to assist in our titular character's journey of self-discovery, and flesh out the world nicely.
The second part of the story, where the truth is revealed both about Falk and about the Shing was quite interesting to me. I very much could not guess where they were going or what was planned, because Le Guin had established the uncertainty of the Shing's very existence so well throughout the book. And the culmination of self-discovery for Falk seemed rewarding to me; a kind of synthesis of old and new, neither being preferential, both being a great strength. I do wish perhaps there had been a little time devoted to fully unraveling what it meant for our main hero to truly understand that the journey itself was his defining persona, not what he lost.