Inverted World

No cover

Inverted World (2010, Orion Publishing Group, Limited)

English language

Published March 29, 2010 by Orion Publishing Group, Limited.

ISBN:
9780575088689

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Inverted World (The Inverted World in some editions) is a 1974 science fiction novel by British writer Christopher Priest. The novel's basic premise was first used in the short story "The Inverted World" included in New Writings in SF 22 (1973), which had different characters and plot. In 2010, the novel was included in the SF Masterworks collection. In the novel, an entire city and its residents travel slowly across a supposedly alien planet on railway tracks (it is left unclear to the reader whether it truly is not planet Earth). The city's engineers lay track ahead of the city, reusing old track the city has crossed over. Many people are unaware that the city is even moving. A crisis ensues as its population decreases, the people grow unruly, and an obstacle looms ahead.

15 editions

Rightfully a classic, but left me feeling unfulfilled

No rating

I've only read one book by Christopher Priest before, A Dream of Wessex.

This one, Inverted World, is not in any way related to that but has a similar quality in that you gradually learn about the strange world in which the narrator lives by following their own disoveries about that world.

By around two-thirds of the way through the nature of the world starts to become not just apparent but largely explained, although the reason for its existence don't get touched upon until the very final few pages of the story.

And the story felt ... truncated. I wasn't clear to me what the final resolution was or what Helward (the main character) was going to do, or indeed what any of the characters were going to do next. I honestly feel like it could have done with another 50 pages or so to tie everything up.

Still, it's …

Subjects

  • Fiction, science fiction, general