The World Inside

by
Robert Silverberg

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The World Inside

by Robert Silverberg

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 876 ratings · 88 reviews

Earth 2381: The hordes of humanity have withdrawn into isolated 1000-story Urbmons, comfortably controlled multicity-buildings which perpetuate an open culture of free sex and unrestricted population growth. Nearly all of Earth's 75 billion live in the hundreds of monolithic structures scattered across the globe, with the exception of the small agricultural communes that s...more

Published (first published 1971)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 1,631)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

May 15, 2012 Kat Hooper rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

In the year 2381, the Earth contains 75 billion people. Despite the dire warnings of 20th century prophets, humans have not exhausted the Earth’s resources. There is plenty of food for everyone, but because 90% of the land must be covered in farms, most of the people live in Urban Monads — 1,000-story skyscrapers housing 800,000 people each. Citizens aren’t allowed out of their building, and many aspects of society are rigidly monitored. Everyone is marrie...more ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

In the year 2381, the Earth contains 75 billion people. Despite the dire warnings of 20th century prophets, humans have not exhausted the Earth’s resources. There is plenty of food for everyone, but because 90% of the land must be covered in farms, most of the people live in Urban Monads — 1,000-story skyscrapers housing 800,000 people each. Citizens aren’t allowed out of their building, and many aspects of society are rigidly monitored. Everyone is married at age 12 and each couple is encouraged to have as many children as they can because fertility and children are blessings from god.

In such a close community, it’s dangerous for people to be protective of private property or possessive of their mate, so sharing is actively encouraged. Thus, everyone has sexual access to everyone else and men are expected to go “night walking” to find other partners while their wives stay home and make themselves accessible to any man who opens their door. There is no war, crime, privacy, jealousy, or sexual restrictions, and the citizens of the Urban Monads are happy. The few who express dissatisfaction are sent to “Moral Engineers” for reprogramming, or may be thrown “down the chute” where their bodies make fuel for the building.

The World Inside (1971) is the story of several people who become dissatisfied with their lives in Urban Monad 116. It’s a thoughtful look at what life on Earth might be like if our population ever reaches the level where we need to grow vertically instead of horizontally. I was fascinated by Silverberg’s Urban Monads where everything that’s necessary for life is in one building, and where blocks of floors represent different classes and cultures.

But what I liked best about The World Inside was the idea that, because dissidents are sent down the chute, possessiveness, rebellion, jealousy, and other forms of social strife have been selectively bred out of the human population. Perhaps it would be possible for future humans to be happy in an Urban Monad, but 21st century readers will be horrified by Silverberg’s setting. Being satisfied with that kind of life would require some major evolutionary changes in our genome and, by introducing us to the citizens of Urban Monad 116, Silverberg suggests that along with those nasty traits we might like to get rid of, go many beautiful human traits such as wanderlust, curiosity about the world and, perhaps, a hope for something better around the next bend.

Robert Silverberg’s major focus on free love and his inclusion of hallucinogenic drug trips, psychedelic music, and orgies isn’t surprising (I’ve seen all this before in his stories), but they do serve to remind you that you’re reading a story that was published more than 40 years ago. The excuse for the drugs, music, and orgies, I suppose, is that they induce a hive-mind mentality in the building, but they really seem like a self-indulgent way to induce sexual titillation. I didn’t find it at all titillating, though, especially since it was so vulgarly done (e.g., women are referred to as “slots” and the act is constantly called “topping”). And then there’s the incest, which I’ve also seen before in Silverberg stories. Ick.

But my main problem with The World Inside is that it doesn’t make sense. If this is a free love society, why does everyone have to be married? And why encourage childbearing at all? To me, this bizarre societal goal seemed like a jab at religious people who are against birth control. Silverberg has his characters constantly saying “god bless, god bless, god bless!” and other religious-sounding speech. And if they’re so disgusted by “primeval 20th century attitudes,” why are women still expected to be home preparing dinner, taking care of the kids, and nagging their husbands to be ambitious so the family can move up the social ladder? Why do men get to go night walking wherever they like while women have to stay home and be “topped” by whoever shows up at their door?

And why can’t the Monad citizens go out of the buildings? Their food, families, friends, jobs, and all social support systems are inside the buildings. There’s nothing to keep them outside, so why can’t they go out and get some fresh air? And what if there was fire, or poisonous gas, or some other emergency? They don’t even practice evacuation procedures. I was expecting some big creepy revelation about why people where encouraged to have babies and why they were kept from knowing what was outside, but this never came. I can’t help but think that Robert Silverberg just wanted to write a story about overpopulation, free love, and selective breeding, so he stuck them all together in the same book.

In the end, the plot didn’t hold together, but I still enjoyed the setting and many of the ideas in The World Inside, so I didn’t feel like it was a waste of my time. The World Inside was nominated for, but didn’t win, the Hugo Award in 1972. I listened to Audible Frontier’s version which is almost eight hours long and is read by Paul Boehmer, who did a great job with the narration. If you’re going to read The World Inside, I recommend the audiobook.(less)

5 likes · like · see review

Aug 17, 2011 Teel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia

The SciFi I've been reading from about '67 to almost '79 is so distinctly different from anything written in the last fifteen-plus years, and so similar in style & tone to other books from the same period... There is a certain blandness to the modern books, and a monotonous repetition the older ones are prone to, though I think I like the ideas of the older ones, like this one, somewhat better.

One thing I noticed/appreciated while reading this (and other dystopias from the period) is that wh...more

6 likes · like · see review

Dec 29, 2011 Invadozer Saphenousnerves Circular-thallus Popewaffensquat rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

R Silverberg's "THE WORLD INSIDE" is
about the giant apartment communistic/yet caste ridden
complex (the floors are divided up according to job
'importance). Reading this I thought this is the straight bullet shot to the future. Population goes flippo so the powers that
be make a huge ass 1000 floor apt. complex where
everyone is supposed to just keep on poppin' pills and
out-slotting babies while holding down comfy jobs. Sex is free
with anyone, the apts. are always unlocked for the
'nightwalking' sexp...more

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 07, 2008 Nicolas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: anticipation, dystopie, pollution, utopie, ville, rayon-fantasy-et-sf

Les monades urbaines est un roman-mosaïque de Robert Silverberg décrrivant la vie dans des tours gigantesques d’ici deux cent ou trois cent ans. Il s’agit naturellement d’une forme d’utopie (et oui, encore une) banissant la propriété sus toute ses formes. Chacun est un membre de la monade, et c’est tout.

Contrairement à Kirinyaga, il n’existe pas ici de manière claire de qualifier cette utopie. Est-ce le bien, le mal ? Aucun moyen de le savoir, si ce n’est par le traitement infligé aux "anormos"...more

like · see review

Mar 13, 2013 Sandy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In Robert Silverberg's 1970 novel "Tower of Glass," obsessed business magnate Simeon Krug builds a 1,500-meter-high structure to enable him to communicate with the stars, and since 1,500 meters is roughly equal to 4,500 feet, or more than three Empire State Buildings, the reader is suitably impressed. But the following year, in his novel "The World Inside," Silverberg wrote of a group of buildings that make Krug's structure look like a pip-squeak. This was just one of four major sci-fi novels re...more In Robert Silverberg's 1970 novel "Tower of Glass," obsessed business magnate Simeon Krug builds a 1,500-meter-high structure to enable him to communicate with the stars, and since 1,500 meters is roughly equal to 4,500 feet, or more than three Empire State Buildings, the reader is suitably impressed. But the following year, in his novel "The World Inside," Silverberg wrote of a group of buildings that make Krug's structure look like a pip-squeak. This was just one of four major sci-fi novels released by Silverberg in 1971, the others being "The Second Trip," "Son of Man" and "A Time of Changes." "The World Inside" AND "A Time of Changes" were nominated for the Hugo award in 1972, ultimately "losing" to Larry Niven's "Ringworld." ("A Time of Changes" DID go on to win a Nebula award.) This was Silverberg's 45th sci-fi novel since his first, "Revolt on Alpha C," in 1954; his 21st since his more mature and literate "second career" began in 1967.

In the book, which takes place in the year 2381, Earth's population has reached the staggering figure of 75 billion! The bulk of mankind resides in three-kilometer-high (3,000 meters is almost 9,000 feet...twice the height of Krug's tower!), 1,000-story buildings called "urbmons" (short for "urban monads"), each urbmon being but a single unit in a "constellation" of 50 or so, and each containing around 800,000+ people! Urbmon residents spend their entire lives inside their building and never leave it (hence the book's title), their food needs being taken care of by the farming communes nearby. "The World Inside" introduces us to several dozen residents of Urbmon 116 in the Chipitts constellation, which the reader quickly deduces lies in the 400-mile stretch between CHIcago and PITTSburgh. We meet a "sociocomputator" in Chapter 1 who introduces a visitor from Venus--as well as the reader--to the wonders of the urbmon (this first chapter was initially a short story entitled "A Happy Day in 2381"); a young couple that worries about being evicted from 116 and placed into the brand-new Urbmon 158, due to their bad luck of being childless; a young musician from the city of San Francisco (Urbmon 116 is divided into 25 "cities" of 40 floors each); a historian who is obsessed with looking at tapes of the way those savages lived during the 20th century; a young go-getter who will seemingly, someday, attain to the uppermost city of Louisville, home of the urbmon's administrators; and a computer maintenance man who, in perhaps the novel's most exciting segment, goes "flippo," escapes from the building, and explores the outside world....

Although many of Silverberg's works after 1967 featured a hearty leavening of sex, "The World Inside" is absolutely replete with sexual situations, and for good reason. One of the hallmarks of urbmon society happens to be "nightwalking," during which any male can open the door of any apartment and engage in coitus with any adult occupant, no questions asked, be it male or female; even incest is okeydokey in this society...anything to reduce societal friction! So while this is a novel of social, extrapolative science fiction, "The World Inside" also turns out to be a bit of a sexual fantasy, as well. I mean, imagine having sex with anyone you desired! (It seems that the book's title just might have another, more lascivious meaning!) This unlimited sexual access almost makes urbmon life seem like a very desirable thing. And Silverberg, in some typically uberintelligent passages, has his characters discuss the pros and cons of 24th century existence, and the arguments for the vertical, indoor lifestyle almost start to make sense. But ultimately, after no less than three major characters go flippo (one is brainwashed back to "normalcy," one is put to death, another commits suicide), in addition to several others, the reader is left with little doubt on which side the author stands. Though some of the novel's characters defend the urbmon lifestyle, the reader knows better. The book, then, is ultimately a very sad one, almost hauntingly so, and its opening and closing sentences regarding another "happy day" become tinged with bitter irony. We come to care for all the major characters in this book, and Silverberg really allows us inside their heads. How wonderful it is when their paths cross in the humongous building during the course of the novel, a novel that, despite its comparative brevity, succeeds in making many significant points. Reveling in his new freedoms as a writer, Silverberg also rails against both the sexual puritanism of the 20th century and its silly ban on certain words in literature; our historian acquaintance in the novel cannot even believe such taboos ever existed! And neither, it seems, can Silverberg (a writer who penned his own fair share of sex novels in the early to mid-'60s)!

The bottom line, then, is that "The World Inside" is still another superb piece of work from this sci-fi great. It is supremely well written, involving, unputdownable, with a remarkable amount of detail and invention on every page (just get a load of that 24th century concert given by our musician friend's "cosmos group"!). Silverberg's book here is nearly perfect, aside from a very occasional gaffe (such as when he tells us that when our young go-getter was with Louisville's upper echelon, he was "a cherub among the archangels"; since cherubim are much higher in the celestial hierarchy than archangels, shouldn't that be the other way around?). And if I may cough up one more quibble, it would be the dearth of any older characters in this novel; just about everyone we encounter seems to be under 25, and it might have been interesting to see how 24th century urbmon life affects the more senior folk. Still, this remains another stunning accomplishment in Silverberg's 1967-'76 streak. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to open the door of the hot blonde's apartment on the third floor of my building, slide into her bed, and see if she'll have sex with me. What could possibly go wrong?(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Jul 17, 2012 Shelton TRL rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

World-building; Character-driven; Intricately plotted. Strong sense of place; Thought-provoking.

To deal with a growing population in the future, massive tall buildings each become homes to nearly one million people. These redefined countries have attitudes towards sex, procreation, and going outside that vary greatly from modern thought. The book traces the paths of several inhabitants in one of these buildings as their lives intersect with and diverge from one another.

***Warning: the sexual mo...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 24, 2010 Natalie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-scifi

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Ironically I read this book while on a backpacking trip. It's a fascinating glimpse into a future Earth - a world where people now live completely inside in 1000 story buildings and serve god (lower case because, as the book tells us, why would god care if it's capitalized or not?) by being blessworthy. That involves being a good citizen, avoiding interpersonal conflicts at all costs, and breeding like rabbits.

Each chapter of the book is about life in the Urban Monads (urbmon for short) told thr...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 18, 2012 andrea rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: wwe-grand-master-challenge

my rating is closer to 3.5 than 3 stars. not much happened in this book and for a 233-page book, it did drag on a little, hence the 3.5 starts, but still i enjoyed reading it. also, written in 1971, it clearly shows with the emphasis on groovy sex and drugs. most interesting to me was the main character, the building itself, called the Urbmon (short for Urban monolith? Urban monstrosity? ;) )

ehrlich's population bomb was published in 1968 amid a lot of hoopla and i see this book as a direct res...more

like · see review

Nov 28, 2012 Rufus rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: tasty, science-fiction, psychology, well-written, intellectual-history, philosophy, should-have-read-sooner, technology, depressing

The World Inside (TWI) somehow reminds me of another architecture-based science fiction: the cyberpunk manga by Tsutomu Nihei called Blame! Both are really good in using space to create an alien atmosphere and setting. There is a sense of largeness in both that paradoxically engenders claustrophobia. I have finished the manga series Blame! and I am writing this while I am half-way through TWI. Whereas TWI teems with people in its corridors and rooms, the world Killy inhabits is a vast and mostly...more

like · see review

Aug 25, 2012 Clark Hallman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

In The World Inside, Robert Silverberg creates a very interesting Earth civilization that copes with a World population of 75 billion people in the year 2381. The book was first published in 1971 at a time when many people were concerned about the sustainability the Earth’s population growth. Authors such as Paul Ehrlich warned about starvation and devastating societal problems due to over population in the future. At the time limiting births was probably the most recommended strategy for averti...more In The World Inside, Robert Silverberg creates a very interesting Earth civilization that copes with a World population of 75 billion people in the year 2381. The book was first published in 1971 at a time when many people were concerned about the sustainability the Earth’s population growth. Authors such as Paul Ehrlich warned about starvation and devastating societal problems due to over population in the future. At the time limiting births was probably the most recommended strategy for averting the devastating prognostications. However, Silverberg takes a different approach in The World Inside. The people of 2381 live in huge skyscrapers (called urbmons) that are 1000 floors in height. Each Urbmon consists of 25 cities of about 40 floors each, and over 800,000 people live within each urbmon. They live their entire lives in very small one-room apartments which afford almost no privacy. This vertical world frees much space for agricultural purposes, and of course there are farming communes where relatively primitive communities of people grow and transport food and raw materials to the urbmons. Within the urbmons cities, are arranged hierarchically with lower-class cities (and people) at the bottom and higher-class cities (and people) at the top. Citizens never leave their urbmon and many never leave their cities. People do not go outside. They live, play, learn, work, and build careers, all within the urbmon where they were born, unless they are selected to populate a newly constructed urbmon. An interesting feature of this future civilization is that population control is thought of as extremely immoral and is absolutely banned. Instead, it is strongly encouraged that all couples have as many children “littles” as possible and those who have only a few children are severely criticized and thought to be immoral. In addition, women are required to submit to any man’s sexual demands, not only their husband’s. The custom of “night walking” allows any man to enter any apartment (usually within their own city, but even in other cities) and have sex with any woman, even if the woman’s husband is home at the time. Women may “night walk” also, but they usually wait for a man to come to them instead. This custom of open sex is deemed one of the necessary privileges that helps keep the populous under control in this very structured, controlled, and invasive civilization. In fact, any deviation from expected behavior is dealt with very severely through psychological/emotional therapy and/or almost instant execution by throwing the perpetrators “flippos” down the nearest waste recycling shut. Silverberg’s story follows the lives of a small group of people. Not surprisingly, it focuses on the difficulties that some people endure due to the extremely proscribed and unnatural lifestyle. In my opinion, the vertical society that Silverberg created is the most interesting aspect of this book and the story is secondary and almost superfluous. The book is worth reading but not one of Silverberg’s best.
(less)

like · see review

Feb 25, 2011 Pepper Thorn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The World Inside is like the girl in high school who dressed like a slut but didnt put out. Nice enough, but know going in that she's a tease.

I gave it an "average" rating not because there is anything average about it but because in the end, everything I did and did not like about the book sort of averaged out. There was a lot that I really liked, even loved about this book but there was a proportional amount of things that I disliked or that really bothered me. So what follows is a breakdown...more

like · see review

Feb 05, 2013 Lars rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

'The World inside' is a classic example for Soft Science Fiction, as the book focusses on the possible look of a future society and the role a single being plays in it. 200 years from now, mankind is living in giant skyscrapers 1000 levels, the population of earth counting 75 billion. Because of the constant constriction, society changes in a lot of ways. An example: although people still live in a monogamous relationship, having sex with strangers is considered to be quite normal. The inhabitan...more

like · see review

Mar 22, 2013 TrumanCoyote rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Unfortunately spends too much time doubting the virtue of the urbmon system to really be believable as a contemporary account. I suppose Silverberg thought that since there were so many nattering nabobs of negativity circa 1970 that that would happen in the 24th century too--but looking back on those guys now they just look like a bunch of indulgent, buttpicking whiners. Also the present-tense stream of consciousness style becomes facile, a habit and a routine (like in that awful--and big--colle...more

like · see review

Jul 06, 2010 Leonardo Etcheto rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A series of short stories set in the future when we live in Urbmons - huge 1,000 story skyscrappers that allow valuable farmland to be preserved while the earths population goes to 65 billion.
Start very interesting, but the stories get dark towards the end as the main characters basically cannot handle the life that is focused purely on having babies. His concept of a privacy free culture, with no impulse suppression, no denial of others urges (lots of sex ofcourse) and make work that machines c...more

like · see review

Mar 29, 2011 Michele rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia-apocalypse

Seriously creepy dystopia. And the creepiness, well, creeps up on you. At first it's just your average overcrowding/individuality-is-antisocial/super-high-rise dystopia, but as I went on I became progressively more and more uneasy with what was happening to the main characters. Particularly interesting was the discussion late in the book between one of the "urbmon" dwellers and a "free" woman from one of the communes that produces the food for the world's 75 billion people. Obviously the differe...more

like · see review

Jul 28, 2011 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi, overpopulation, standalone

A creative view of a possible future world where pro-lifers won out but had to team up with free love. In the future, most of the earth's population live in urbmons--buildings 1,000 stories tall containing around 880,000 people each. The hive dwelling requires a complete lack of privacy, even down to no locks on apartment doors and a universal acceptance that any time an adult asks another for sex, they must comply. A series of vignettes builds up to a reveal of the interconnectedness of the cha...more

like · see review

Oct 06, 2011 D.C. Musgrove rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Robert Silverberg may be one of the most prolific writers of Science Fiction still alive today. Certainly a giant up there with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. The World Inside was nominated for a Hugo award in 1972 and rightly so. It portrays the future world of Earth in the late 2300's, where population growth has skyrocketed, outstripping the ability of the land to support it anymore. Earth's leaders have solved that one problem by moving civilization inside 3 kilometer tall towers dubbed...more

like · see review

Feb 17, 2013 Eddie Dobiecki rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is not a novel. There is no real plot; it is a bunch of short stories. Certainly, it is interesting, and was groundbreaking in its time. It's yet another dystopian view that Judge Dredd has cribbed from, and it proposes an entire and interesting world.

But there is no Story here, capital-S. Only some thematically linked concepts and a neat idea. This book violates Vonnegut's cardinal rule: "Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted."...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 05, 2013 Arcania rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Une dystopie écrite dans les années septante, qui se passe en 2380... ça promettait l'intéressant.

Nous suivons la vie de plusieurs personnages qui sont amené à se croiser à un moment ou un autre de l'histoire.
Suite à la surpopulation du 21ème siècle, l'homme à construit des tours hautes de 3kilomètres qui peuvent accueillir presque 900 000 personne chacune. Personnes n'en sort, absolument heureux de la vie "libre" qu'ils mènent dans leur tour...

J'ai eu l'impression de lire un documentaire. Il so...more

like · see review

Jan 02, 2013 Richard rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An interesting concept and look into the possible future of a overpopulated world. Concepts of love, privacy, freedom and hope are all throughout this book. A bit disturbing, is the author's concept of "grown up youth" as I call it. Children as young as 7 having adult sexual relationships and getting married as young as 12 to other children. Unlike the movie "Logan's Run" where in a futuristic society all people who reach age 30 are sent to die and be "reborn", this novel shows that all persons...more

like · see review

Mar 10, 2012 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A vertical world, where fertility is worshipped and frequent sex with as many partners as possible is not only encouraged, but mandated. Program whatever meal you wish, and with a push of a button it is delivered. Hallucinatory drugs, calming potions, and psychedelic concerts as desired. (Yes, this was written in 1971). The down side? A million people to each 1000 story building. Living areas for families, only about 20x20. Never step outside, never breath fresh air or see the ocean. This book,...more

like · see review

Feb 28, 2013 Ariadna73 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lo interesante y enganchador de esta novela es lo ingenioso de la propuesta de una civilizacion donde el ser humano gana estatus dependiendo de la cantidad de hijos que tenga y lo temprano que comience a reproducirse. Es muy interesante ver a donde se dirigiria una sociedad cuyos valores estuvieran centrados en algo que a muchos preocupa ahora: el crecimiento demografico. Es muy interesante tambien ver como el ser humano tiene siempre los mismos demonios, y como el exito no es sinonimo de felici...more

like · see review

Jul 03, 2012 Suz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dtb-own, among-others-biblio, award-winner, dystopian, feminist, grand-masters, grand-masters-2012-challenge

In the world of 2381, society has discovered a way to deal with overpopulation. Instead of sprawling out, society has sprawled up, creating giant 1000 storey megatowers (“monads”) that house 800,000-900,000 citizens. There are thousand of these towers. They can house endless billions and still leave most of the land free for agriculture to support the mouths of these billions. The towers themselves are rather self contained, largely recycling and creating what the denizens need to live with supe...more In the world of 2381, society has discovered a way to deal with overpopulation. Instead of sprawling out, society has sprawled up, creating giant 1000 storey megatowers (“monads”) that house 800,000-900,000 citizens. There are thousand of these towers. They can house endless billions and still leave most of the land free for agriculture to support the mouths of these billions. The towers themselves are rather self contained, largely recycling and creating what the denizens need to live with superefficient energy systems. Every tower is divided into “cities” of 20-40 stories or so. The cities are arranged in a caste like system, with the more lucrative (higher up) apartments going to those with “higher” jobs (monad - administrators and bureaucrats at the top, followed by white collar, and then blue collar jobs/castes).

Birth control is illegal, and everyone hopes for as many “littles” as possible. To encourage more breeding (and less frustration, since we’ve eliminated jealousy and strife) men go on “nightwalks” going into apartments and having sex with the women they find there. Refusal is not totally illegal, but society shames on it, and if you don’t play nice, they may decide to throw you down the chute.

Most of the current societal mores are gone. Universal sex (with anyone, of any sex) is not a problem and drug use is not prohibited or limited. Just fit in and do your part with society, staying in your tower (especially city) and don’t question society. There is no privacy, there is no faithfulness, and no reason to trust.

This book focuses on a few characters in Urbmon 116, going through the daily lives of some of the men living in the Shanghai area of the Urbmon. This book is almost like a series of short stories regarding each of these men and are closely linked to each other. We have an artist, a sociocomputator, an urbmon administrator (or future administrator), a technician, and an historian. They each delve into the part of themselves and/or the system that is imperfect.

I believe this book is just as interesting in 2012 as it might have been in 1971. In this utopian dystopia, the world is a very crowded and free, yet restricted place. In the 60s-70s there was quite a bit of overpopulation dystopia due to extreme Malthusian projections by a number of scientists and economists, which clearly heavily influence the book. Now in 2012, women’s health care and the right to access birth control has become a major issue. Here, birth control isn’t just illegal, it’s anathema. People are encouraged to have as many littles as possible and one main character is actually embarrassed by his wife’s "sterility" (they only had four children). People are maturing, getting married, and having families at earlier ages (11 and 12) and are determined to increase the population as fast as possible, because there is nothing worse than not giving as many babies the chance at life as possible. It’s a GOP/Tea Party wet dream with regards to women’s rights.

Women have no bodily autonomy at all. Sex is compulsory, they can’t say no to the men that “nightwalk” into their apartments (and you only see one instance where a woman may have nightwalked, and it is mentioned that women rarely go; while not precisely forbidden, it is an unusual, frowned upon behavior... how very patriarchal)

If you don’t like this life or question it? Well, it’s either reprogramming or into the chute you go.

Anthropological questions are raised as well - Are the denizens of the society conditioned to accept things as they are, or are they actually selectively breeding a population made to live in these high density structures? I like the way the question was brought up by one of the characters, a historian that was studying the sexual mores of the past, and also carried as a thread through the book. You see some of the conditioning in action (the fears of a citizen who thinks they may have been spotting behaving aberrantly), but you also know that those who act against expected norms are either sent to some serious reprogramming facilities or just put into the chute (which does remove the ability to continue to poison the genetic pool).

At first, I was extremely annoyed with the rampant Patriarchy until I got further into the novel to see what the author was doing with it.. Women seem to exist solely to create plot and have babies. All of the jobholders are male. Every man works, and with the exception of one woman, who is an artist, we are shown women do nothing in this society, except serve as sperm receptacles. The only reason we ever seem to talk to women is to further some dramatic plot ahead, they hold no job (other than breeder), they are rarely the sexual aggressors, they don’t nightwalk, they don’t hold any positions.

And then a character escapes to the world outside. The agricultural commune that farms the areas around the monads, where birth control is strictly practiced so that the commune does not produce more mouths than they can feed, and the women are free to actually hold positions and pursue careers. I wish the dichotomy of the two cultures could have been delved into more, but Silverberg does such a thorough job describing the world inside the towers, that it’s easy to imagine what the world outside is not.

I do think the the attitudes toward sex and the scenes with regard to sex date the book as being from the free-love acid-tripping hippy times. It’s just really dated when it comes to the sex, maybe it’s the language, I’m not sure, but it’s the only place where I feel the book is really dated.

I really loved that the book is a dystopia that’s taking on an issue. It’s done the awesome way it used to be done, with an author setting up a “utopia” that is very dysfunctional about something, to take whatever issue to its extreme end. Nowadays, dystopia seems to be “and the zombies/monsters are at us, rawr, and we made this totally dysfunctional society to live with/fight them”... I like the dysfunctional utopia calling out some social issue so much better.
(less)

like · see review

Feb 17, 2011 Jared Millet rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian, hard-scifi, science-fiction, sex, new-wave-sf, inner-worlds-book-club

Here's something you don't see much of any more - Social Science Fiction. The World Inside is a product of the era that also gave us Logan's Run and THX-1138, and is something of the same ilk. Several centuries into the future, the human race has moved into giant monolithic city-buildings called "urbmons" that each house almost a million people. Society has made some rather extreme adaptations to living in such close confinement: every freedom is supressed except for one - sex - and on sex, the...more

2 likes · like · see review

Oct 21, 2007 Nicholas Whyte added it · review of another edition

http://nhw.livejournal.com/459793.html[return][return]I first read this as a hormonal teenager and was deeply impressed by Silverberg's portrayal of a future society where most of the world's population lives in apartment blocks which are three kilometres high and, more importanlty, everyone is not just allowed but encouraged to have sex with everyone else, written up in erotic detail. Now, rereading it twenty years later, I realise that it is actually a dystopia; sexual freedom comes with a tot...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 24, 2007 kevin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: sf fans, speculative futurists

Shelves: fiction, sciencefiction

One of science fiction's trustworthy tactics is to expand a contemporary fear into a complex possible future. Living among the growing Baby Boomers, Silverberg enacts this trope to great effect in The World Inside as he constructs an extreme response to overpopulation.

Set in the 24th century, The World Inside imagines a future in which the dominant human society on Earth exists wholly within a network of impossibly tall apartment buildings. This "Urban Monad" system emerges following widespread...more

like · see review

Jul 02, 2011 Stefan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction-and-alt-history

I'm not always a fan of books that skip between a number of characters, but "The World Inside" is an exception. I didn't find "The World Inside" to be a staggering work of originality and genius, but considering its age (it was written back in the 1970s) it didn't feel that dated either. The plot flowed smoothly and the consequences of sacrificing privacy and personal liberties for high population growth was explored thoughtfully in this well-written dystopian novel.

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 27, 2010 Kallierose rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like · see review

Jan 12, 2011 Sally-Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: sci-fi fans over 13

An amazing read when you get past the sex. Set in a world were sex is the norm and to say no a deviant, were people are locked in buildings and are executed for leaving, all of it makes you think. Especially with the story of the man who wishes to swim in the sea.

I admit, there is a lot of sex, but I can live with that. It was an awesome read and that's all I wanted. Definate recommend to anyone into sci-fi (And over 13)

like · see review

Jul 25, 2011 Tori added it · review of another edition

2010- In the future, overcrowding is solved by building vertical cities. The author examines how this dystopian world functions by taking us into the lives of several of the citizens of these urbmods. My main gripe was that although I think the author was trying to show the breakdown of sexual mores in these interrelated stories, it came across more like he was a bit obsessed with sex.

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 54 55 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (22)

More editions...

Genres

Science Fiction

85 users

Science Fiction > Dystopia

17 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

8 users

Science Fiction > Cyberpunk

7 users

Speculative Fiction

6 users

Fantasy

6 users

Short Stories

3 users

Culture > Society

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Robert Silverberg

Robert Silverberg is one of science fiction’s most beloved writers, and the author of such contemporary classics as Dying Inside, Downward to the Earth and Lord Valentine’s Castle, as well as At Winter’s End, also available in a Bison Books edition. He is a past president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the winner of five Nebula Awards and five Hugo Awards. In 2004 the Sc...more

More about Robert Silverberg...

Books by Robert Silverberg

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume 1

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The World Inside

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: The World Inside
avg rating	preview: The World Inside Goodreads rating: 3.76 (876 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13341290-the-world-inside?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]/assets/nocover/111x148.png[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13341290-the-world-inside?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The World Inside by Robert Silverberg[/url]

The World Inside

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website