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The Inverted World

Christopher Priest,

Andrew M. Stephenson (Illustrator)

3.92 · Rating details · 7,774 ratings · 715 reviews

The city is winched along tracks through a devastated land full of hostile tribes. Rails must be freshly laid ahead of the city & carefully removed in its wake. Rivers & mountains present nearly insurmountable challenges to the ingenuity of the city's engineers. But if the city does not move, it will fall farther & farther behind the optimum & into the crushing gravitation ...more

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Hardcover, 239 pages

Published May 28th 1974 by Harper & Row (NYC) (first published May 1974)

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Jul 22, 2015 Glenn Russell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-books

With Inverted World Christopher Priest has written a work that is beautiful, powerful and profound. These are the words of critic, scholar and science fiction writer Adam Roberts. Equally important, at least for me as someone unacquainted with science fiction, is that Mr. Priest has written an accessible and enjoyable novel. And part of the enjoyment was having my imagination challenged and expanded - I felt like I do after finishing a rigorous workout, only, in this case, my mind had the workou ...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, 2016-shelf

This novel is actually all kinds of amazing when it comes to the exploration of a few core ideas and more than very decent when it comes to exploring humanity, perception, and irreconcilable differences.

The story is ostensibly a coming of age story, an acceptance of one's world, and then, eventually a deep dissent without a true solution, but it comes across so easily, so effortlessly, that I'm truly unsurprised that this was nominated for the Hugo in '75 and won the British SF award in the same ...more

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Jul 20, 2018 Jeffrey Keeten rated it it was amazing

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, nyrb, science-fiction

”We are a long way from Earth. Our home planet is one I doubt we shall ever see again, but if we are to survive here we must maintain ourselves as a microcosm of Earth. We are in desolation and isolation. All around us is a hostile world that daily threatens our survival. As long as our buildings remain, so long shall man survive in this place. Protection and preservation of our home is paramount.”

---Destain’s Directive

photo Inverted20World20Altered_zpsfah79ixs.jpg

There is certainly the ring of Winston Churchill in this directive, but ...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Apatt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, favorites

Some science fiction books are written just to entertain, some are depiction of the author’s vision of the future, and some are for conveying the author’s philosophical or political ideas. Occasionally I come a across sci-fi books that are pure thought experiments, where the authors sets out to explore some outlandish idea to its logical conclusion. For all I know Christopher Priest had some other intent for the book but clearly thought experimentation appears to be the primary purpose.

Inverted Some science fiction books are written just to entertain, some are depiction of the author’s vision of the future, and some are for conveying the author’s philosophical or political ideas. Occasionally I come a across sci-fi books that are pure thought experiments, where the authors sets out to explore some outlandish idea to its logical conclusion. For all I know Christopher Priest had some other intent for the book but clearly thought experimentation appears to be the primary purpose.

Inverted World (“The” is added to the title in some editions) is often found in “best science fiction books” lists, it is a Hugo nominee and the winner of the British Science Fiction Association award for best novel in 1975. All well deserved accolades and perhaps the book is even a little underrated. Certainly it is one of the oddest sci-fi conceits I have ever come across.

Basically Inverted World is about a city on wheels called Earth that is being moved in the northerly direction on a railway track that has to be laid ahead of the city’s route and removed after the city has passed to be laid down again ahead. An idea reused in China Miéville's 2004 novel Iron Council, but Inverted World is much more bizarre though as it is an entire city being moved, for unknown destination and even purpose. The “Earth” city’s citizens only know that if their city stops moving they will all die. The weirdness does not stop there, the law of physics appears to work differently away from the city. People and objects become wider and flatter to the south of the city and thinner and taller to the north.

In spite of the bizarre premise Inverted World is really quite readable and accessible. Priest writes in clear, uncluttered prose with a linear timeline and a single plot strand. Characters are not developed in much depth but their behavior and motivation is always understandable. I can not help but sympathize with their strange plight.

The world building of Inverted World is exemplary, once you accept the weirdness of the book’s universe it becomes a fascinating place to spend some time in. The author often throws me for a loop with the strange developments in his storyline. Once I settled into the groove of the book reading it becomes quite an exhilarating and jaw dropping experience. In some ways this book reminds me of Hal Clements’s classic hard sci-fi Mission of Gravity as it is also set in a world where the law of physics appears to change from location to location. However, Inverted World is not hard sci-fi as such, there are just too many bizarre concepts for that particular subgenre label. In fact the reality warping aspect of the book where the relationship between time and space become unreliable puts me in mind of the legendary Philip K. Dick. So if you imagine a collaboration between Arthur C. Clarke and PKD you may have a fair idea of what to expect.

Most of the mysteries are explained by the end of the book and almost everything make sense. If I have one complaint it is the rather abrupt ending which makes me feel as if a few pages have gone missing. In any case Inverted World is like a gymnasium for the imagination and I can not imagine a dedicated sci-fi fans not liking it. It is already on my Favorites shelf here on Goodreads. ...more

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Dec 09, 2008 Manny rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts

So, we know from Einstein that space and time are both part of a larger concept that unifies them, and moreover that spacetime is curved.

Much to his credit, Christopher Priest manages to turn this observation into a metaphor which forms the basis of an imaginative, well-written science-fiction novel. There are some startling images, and he gets you curious right from the start. Why is the city on rails? Why does it have to keep moving? Why do they refer to the direction it's come from as "the p ...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Szplug rated it liked it · review of another edition

Feeling really burned after Nixonland, I meandered about my home horde, reading some Gass and Kronenberger essays, some of Prestowitz's Three Billion New Capitalists, dipping here and there into Borges, Scruton, and Posner, but nothing was really sticking other than my skin to the back of my chair. Then I espied my good ol' shelf of NYRB Classics, so beautifully formal, so stiffly aesthetic, redolent of that pulpy pureness that engenders almost a postcoital bliss—so why in the hell not? Summer a Feeling really burned after Nixonland, I meandered about my home horde, reading some Gass and Kronenberger essays, some of Prestowitz's Three Billion New Capitalists, dipping here and there into Borges, Scruton, and Posner, but nothing was really sticking other than my skin to the back of my chair. Then I espied my good ol' shelf of NYRB Classics, so beautifully formal, so stiffly aesthetic, redolent of that pulpy pureness that engenders almost a postcoital bliss—so why in the hell not? Summer and ciencia ficción go together like weed and inhalation psychosis, so it's Inverted World for the win.

Which proved not to be much of a victory. This is one of those Eh books, so common, in my experience, to the milieu of science fiction—entertaining, certainly intriguing at the outset, but marred by paper-thin characters, clustered action, expository text that dissipates the sense of otherness so necessary to such fantastic fiction, and an ending that proved tricky but, ultimately, unsatisfying. What's more, I've got a few questions about the point-of-view of the City dwellers that haven't been answered in the course of the story's completion, and I believe that these questions undermine an integral aspect of the resolution provided: to wit, the aging effect, which I shan't get into further for fear of spoiling the plot for those yet to partake of Priest's imaginative offering, but it seems a gaping flaw that the developments at the end fail to deal with.

I still mostly enjoyed this—stories that feature dystopian futures set amidst apocalyptic wastelands inhabited by the crude and regressive remnants of a once highly civilized humanity and centered upon an isolated collective vessel of said vanished civilization's descendants—struggling to preserve the faith, mores, and technologies of the old ways in the face of the mutations and temptations for a newer set to override and/or supersede them—always rock my boat: in this particular case, the conceit consists of a block-sized, multi-tiered City winching itself northwards along a tetrad of railway tracks that are immediately disassembled in the rear and positioned anew in the front as the city structure edges along, forever chasing the elusive optimum whose invisible geometric parameters are of a vital necessity to keep within a few miles of the city's physical structure. There's cool physics, archaic and hierarchical governing guilds, apprenticeship rituals, female population imbalance, and nifty perception perturbations that drive the story onwards, with a few narrative shifts that cast a new light upon what is taking place. Furthermore, Priest has crafted some sly allusions to our own hypertrophied hydrocarbonic era overlaid with a spicy sprinkling of Cold War bifurcations.

So, there you have it—a book to which I bestow a somewhat tepid three-star rating. I'm sure that I've inflated its flaws in my mind, and downplayed its cleverness, but the bottom line is that my initial enthusiasm, which was appreciable, began to deflate roughly around the third part of the story, never to regain its momentum. I cannot shake the sense that I should be partaking of more serious fare, that such frivolous and flimsy material, whilst fine for a dude in his twenties, has been outgrown and should be consigned to my days of bong hits, beers, and Bits-n-Bites™. How in the hell can I possibly continue to leave Proust and Powell and Kundera and Serge and Marías idling upon the shelf to follow a track-bound city turtling across the open plains? Perhaps this explains why my Culture collection—Phlebas, Games, Weapons, Excession—gather dust in a corner. If I actually got into them, that recently promoted literary section of my reading consciousness would berate my escapist self to no end—and if Banks' fare proved no better than Inverted World, it just might have a point. ...more

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Jul 17, 2020 L.S. Popovich rated it liked it

Shelves: 3-star, science-fiction, 2020

This was like China Mieville, but without the Baroque prose indulgence. Christopher Priest wrote it in an unadorned style, and the characters and world are not as unbounded by mundane constraints as the forward led me to believe. Too straightforward and not surprising enough to engage me all the way through. A slow-crawling novel, which slithers like the Leviathan city-snail at its heart. The imperceptible character development was stunted and bland. As a metaphorical concept, there was a lot to ...more

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Jul 22, 2011 Krok Zero rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: winter-11-to-12

You know how dumb-asses will describe something as being "like ___ on acid." This book is like if Philip K. Dick wasn't on acid. Like, if Dick had been a studious young man into engineering and physics instead of a drugged-out freakazoid. The content of Priest's novel is wacked-out and mind-bending in a sort of Dickian way, but the tone is dry and the prose is stilted (well, in that one respect it's not so far from Dick) and the details are scientific. Somehow it manages to be highly engaging an ...more

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Apr 26, 2020 Baba rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi, sfmasterworks

SF Masterworks (2010- series) #14:
Helward Mann, like all children had spent his entire life in the Creche, but now he has come of age he will be free to live in The City and take up a Guild. In a city where people only know anything, on a need-to-know basis, Helward step-by-step begins to find out the very surprising reality of The City and its eternal race against time!

Another SF Masterwork that kicks the ball out of the park! A story awash with innovative ideas and concepts, with continual mys ...more

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Oct 29, 2019 Jamie rated it it was amazing

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality.

The mystery shrouding the bizarre world of the mobile city on a relentless march of survival is devilishly captivating. What? Where? When? A city on wheels (OK, tracks)? Huh?? Many questions you have. Time this will take ...

This mystery is peeled back in stages as we follow the coming of age of Helward Mann, city resident, on his journey as junior apprentice and later senior guildsman. Helward gradually uncov ...more

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Feb 09, 2022 Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

4.5 Stars
This was a fascinating piece of science fiction that blended hard science into a coming of age, post apocalyptic story. I loved the mystery, slowing learning about the narrative of the world along with our young protagonist. The worldbuilding was amazing. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an underhyped science fiction novel that explores some interesting mathematical ideas.

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Nov 10, 2021 Spencer Orey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow this was a mind bender. I imagine when it came out it was even better, but it's still great. Some gender stuff hasn't aged well of course. The overall puzzle and story is cool and such a strange twisted thing to piece together. It was a blast. ...more

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Nov 23, 2008 Stephen rated it really liked it

Shelves: award-nominee-british-sf, award-winner-britsh-sf, award-nominee-hugo, sf-apocalyptic-and-post-apocalyptic, multiple-award-nominee, award-nominee-locus

4.0 stars. Outstanding science fiction novel. This is the first novel by Christopher Priest that I have read and I plan to read the rest of his wroks based on the strength of this novel. Great premise, good characters and and tightly woven plot that is never boring. Unlike some other reviewers, I thought the ending was great. Highly recommended!!

Winner: British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel
Nominee: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel

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Nov 14, 2008 Terran rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: SF readers who enjoy abstractions and mysteries

Shelves: reviewed

I found this book both fascinating and frustrating. Overall, I would highly recommend it, but with caveats.

I had never read Priest before, but I picked this up randomly when I was on travel and running out of reading material. It was shelved next to The Prestige, his 1996 (IIRC?) novel that was recently filmed. Susan and I really enjoyed the movie, so I thought that this Priest guy might be worth a gamble. I avoided The Prestige as a first cut because I wanted something new. (And I knew how tha ...more

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Apr 23, 2012 AC rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Though my knowledge of SF is obviously nearly less than zero – surpassed only on the downside by my understanding of science in general, I’m going to hazard a few thoughts about what seems (from my point of view, at least) to be wrong with this genre.

Browsing today through the Sci-fi lists of some of the GR people I follow, I’m stunned to see that even those who are big, BIG readers of this genre think most of the books that they’ve read are, basically..., crap (or mediocre, anyway – two and thr Though my knowledge of SF is obviously nearly less than zero – surpassed only on the downside by my understanding of science in general, I’m going to hazard a few thoughts about what seems (from my point of view, at least) to be wrong with this genre.

Browsing today through the Sci-fi lists of some of the GR people I follow, I’m stunned to see that even those who are big, BIG readers of this genre think most of the books that they’ve read are, basically..., crap (or mediocre, anyway – two and three stars abound). That’s DEFINITELY not a good sign….

I think the problem is two-fold. First of all, SF – *good* SF – must be incredibly hard to write. It requires that one be a good writer, obviously – no, an excellent writer – and be able, of course, to develop wonderful plots and characters…, and ALSO have the imaginative genius of a Nabokov… (otherwise, all the fantastical material comes off, as it often does, as merely contrived)…; well, ALMOST Nabokovian, since a REAL Nabokov would be producing literature, and not genre.

On the other hand, there’s a huge appetite for SF; …hence, a supply-demand imbalance…. In other words, a lot more SF, than there are brilliant writers around… Moreover – this appetite comes heavily from that part of the brain that’s (still) a 12-year old boy (when a lot of these GR reviewers admit they read this-or-that book which they say they loved so much….). This creates a problem for someone approaching this genre in maturity and without any baggage.

Also – a lot of this stuff is simply written too quickly – people writing 20, 30 books in a career shows a certainly carelessness… That sloppy use of phony-sounding names that I keep harping (let’s take anything that pops into our head approach) is a sign of this…

My guess is that a lot of the best SF probably comes in the form of short stories, rather than novels, where the shorter format is probably better able to sustain the reach that’s necessary… So maybe I should try to focus more on those.

Anyway – this may all be completely wrong.... So I reserve the right to look unashamedly stupid here six months from now…

And that said – this PARTICULAR book just knocked me out – flat-out loved it.
...more

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Feb 05, 2010 Bart Everson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: both science fiction fans and people who think they don't like science fiction

Shelves: octavia-sf

I've enjoyed an ongoing debate for a few years with a friend about the role of characters in literature. My friend argues that great characterization is more than just a hallmark of great writing. According to him, it's kind of the whole point.

I disagree. In the main he's right, but there are exceptions. Borges comes to mind immediately. And also this novel by Christopher Priest

When I first read Inverted World some thirty years ago, it made a huge impression on me. It might make an impression o ...more

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Jan 08, 2011 Andy Wixon rated it it was amazing

Shelves: to-re-read

This is a warning as much as a review - I'm sorry to say that I haven't looked at this properly in about a decade - but basically I just want to say: this book will mess with your head.

Really. The first time I heard of it, it was preceded with the words 'hyperbolically strange' and that's a better capsule description than any I can give. Basically, it's the story of a young fellow named Helward Mann (possibly a crashingly unsubtle piece of metaphor, possibly not) who's just coming of age as a ci This is a warning as much as a review - I'm sorry to say that I haven't looked at this properly in about a decade - but basically I just want to say: this book will mess with your head.

Really. The first time I heard of it, it was preceded with the words 'hyperbolically strange' and that's a better capsule description than any I can give. Basically, it's the story of a young fellow named Helward Mann (possibly a crashingly unsubtle piece of metaphor, possibly not) who's just coming of age as a citizen of his city - the opening sentence 'I had reached the age of one hundred thousand miles' may tip you off as to the weirdness of what's to follow'. And as part of learning what makes things tick around the place, Helward is sent off to supervise the ripping-up of some railway lines south of the city, and then see them shipped up north of it...

...and at this point your head sort of turns inside out, as you realise all of your assumptions about what's been happening are wrong - the technical term is, I suppose, 'conceptual breakthrough', but I just think of it as Chris Priest messing with my head. To do this so effectively once would be enough to make this a notable book, but the fact is that it happens again... and again... and again... with each subsequent expansion of your perception of the situation as startling as the previous one.

I know, I know I'm being vague. I could have put *spoiler warning* on this and gone into detail, but why bother? Suffice to say that the book incorporates some of the most astonishing imagery in SF, and - it ultimately turns out - has a point beyond the display of pyrotechnic conceptual legerdemain that Priest manages to sustain for most of the distance.

It is possibly a little bit dry, solemn, and highbrow, like all of Christopher Priest's work, and someone has pointed out to me an allegedly serious goof, in that it shouldn't be possible for the sun to rise and set on an inverted planet. I'm prepared to give Priest the benefit of the doubt on that. I would recommend you do too. Maybe you won't like it, but you certainly won't forget it.

...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Nate rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, 70s-delerium, read-in-2012, sci-fi

Reads like a simple adventure story, but with an unexpected level of cleverness and complexity, both of underlying concept and usefulness as cautionary fable. I can't entirely speak for some of the underlying physics (some "hard" sci-fi what-ifs mix well with social concerns here), but its terribly interesting and seems well-thought-through enough that I have no complaints.

Starting simply but intriguingly with a city that must constantly move through an uncertain and perhaps threatening world on ...more

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Jun 26, 2014 F.R. rated it it was amazing

The middle section of ‘The Inverted World’ is extraordinary. It’s going to be difficult to write about it without giving too much away, but if you want me to reach for easy and cliched shorthand to describe it then, well, it’s like an acid trip. I’ve always liked the big desert landscapes in Sergio Leone movies and I’ve also always liked the way that his best films have a certain dream-like quality to them; well, the huge and daunting vistas are present, but there’s also a trip of the imaginatio The middle section of ‘The Inverted World’ is extraordinary. It’s going to be difficult to write about it without giving too much away, but if you want me to reach for easy and cliched shorthand to describe it then, well, it’s like an acid trip. I’ve always liked the big desert landscapes in Sergio Leone movies and I’ve also always liked the way that his best films have a certain dream-like quality to them; well, the huge and daunting vistas are present, but there’s also a trip of the imagination which feels like a fever dream. What makes it more astounding is that before then I thought I was reading a very ‘blocky’ novel. Obviously ‘blocky’ is a highly cerebral term used by the finest scholars to have ever studied English literature, so I’ll try to make myself a bit clearer to any laymen out there. The first section reads like a story which is moving in precise, straight lines; it read like it was going to move from one block of events to another and that the whole would be those blocks piled up on top of each other. The fact that the setting is a large and domineering block-like city undoubtedly tipped me further into that kind of thinking. But what’s really clever here is that while the opening section largely in and around the block-like city does feel as if it’s following harsh and straight lines, it’s when it leaves the block-like city that it swerves sharply from those straight lines and those blocks are smashed apart to create something other.

We are in a city called ‘Earth’, which – and this is by anyone’s standards a tremendously striking image – is pulled on rails around the circumference of the globe. Our protagonist is Hellward Mann who was born and raised within the city and at the start of the novel joins The Guilds, the organisation that keeps the city moving through hard work, bartering and the constant laying of tracks. Most of the populous doesn’t really understand why the city has to move, but as a guildsman Mann is let into the terrifying secret of what they are leaving behind on this terrible planet.

Of course there’s no way back to blockiness after the middle section, so the final third of the book ups the game even more by challenging all assumptions of the book so far. ‘The Inverted World’ is a work of astounding confidence; a fantastically ambitious piece of sometimes surreal science fiction which truly rewards patience. ...more

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Mar 24, 2011 William2 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: uk, 20-ce, science-fiction, dystopia, fiction, fabulism

I'm no great fan of Science Fiction, but this novel transcends the genre. It has a corker of a plot, which I won't spoil here. The only thing I was not crazy about was the way Priest uses dialog throughout to relay a lot of exposition. That's okay early in the novel because the narrator is a young apprentice of a guild; it's natural for him to ask questions about his new duties and surroundings. Toward the end of the book, however, the device shows its creakiness. But don't let me put you off th ...more

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Dec 13, 2018 Paul Bryant rated it really liked it

Shelves: sf-novels-aaargh

She was now a little more than twelve inches high, and her body – as the other girls’ – was nearly five feet broad. It was impossible to recognize them as once having been human, even though he knew this to be so.

Well here is one of the strangest of all worlds. I shouldn’t really say too much about it, as that would spoil all the fun, but that’s okay because I couldn’t explain it if I tried. The first 100 pages are rather dull, it has to be admitted, but after that not even the sky is the limit. ...more

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Aug 04, 2016 Joseph Delaney added it

This book is set on a world with different physical laws than we experience on earth. The explanation for why things are so is only revealed close to the end of the novel and is a real surprise!

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Nov 09, 2019 Pickle. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, six-stars, 20th-c-classics, nyrb

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

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Aug 11, 2008 Jacob rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy-etc, 00-old-reviews, i-own, nyrb

March 2009

I'll just say what everyone else is saying: this is not an easy one to review. On one hand, Inverted World appears pretty straightforward: Helward Mann comes of age in the city of Earth and ventures outside for the first time, where he learns that the city rests on wheels, forever rolling north along tracks. But as we learn what the city is moving towards--and what it is moving away from--the central mystery of the story becomes weird, strange, eerily convoluted, and--for me, at least- ...more

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Feb 03, 2020 Leo Robertson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I LOVED this one!

I do enjoy reading the SF Masterworks series, but as a science fiction writer, I mostly consider it homework, and a lot of the stories have dated. I don't think that this one has, and it's one of the few novels where I really had to read to the end to find out what happened (mostly I'm just like, "I can take it or leave it but I'll at least feel like I've achieved something if I get to the end of this", haha.)

I won't spoil anything but I really enjoyed how the plot unfolded. I t I LOVED this one!

I do enjoy reading the SF Masterworks series, but as a science fiction writer, I mostly consider it homework, and a lot of the stories have dated. I don't think that this one has, and it's one of the few novels where I really had to read to the end to find out what happened (mostly I'm just like, "I can take it or leave it but I'll at least feel like I've achieved something if I get to the end of this", haha.)

I won't spoil anything but I really enjoyed how the plot unfolded. I think there's a tendency in modern story construction to reveal as much as possible up front so as not to surprise a reader--flash forward to a murder, infodump about a world early on etc--but it's far more effective, as in this novel, when surprises are left to be revealed at their organic location in the story. Sure, there are some pointers early on, but I hadn't really picked up where this one was going at all, and the full scope of what's happening isn't even revealed until the last page.

And when you find out the perspective of different characters in this universe, it's not just an interesting science fiction concept but an analogy for how our perspectives are in life--how much we would understand one another's conclusions about life if only we saw it with one another's eyes. Which is such a frustrating lesson! But here it's as if people form different perspectives entirely against their will, as defined by the way their world looks, and to inhabit one another's ideas would mean giving up everything they know to be true. Which is often how it is. SO COOL.

Also how the city must remain in constant motion along these tracks is just like how humanity always has to make progress. As I read this at first I thought, "How exhausting that this city can't just sit still"--but then I realised, no city really can sit still. No people can sit still either--there is, just as in this novel, some destructive force clipping at our heels if we don't. Ouch.

My one minor gripe--which is true of lots of science fiction, I feel-- is that there isn't enough time taken to describe landscapes, characters and buildings etc. I think the story would have been much more effectively delivered if time was taken to let me picture these things in my mind and I typically need a lot of help. I don't have the type of imagination that will populate an empty room with stuff, unguided. Do you also have this weird thing where, the amount of time taken to describe something also relates to the size of it in your mind? Like, because there wasn't much description, the world felt smaller? That happens to me too.

But I'm mostly ignoring that, because this novel reached the highest level of effect: inspiring weird dreams. I was on the moon and we could only see Earth in its reflection in a pool, but the planet itself had gone, which was scary and wildly disorienting. A lot like how I felt reading this.

Probably inspired that novel Dichronauts, which I'd also like to read. But where Priest's world is self-explanatory in the novel, he seems to have sent the author of Dichronauts into a series of exhausting mathematical convolutions in order to create a different type of story world--apparently you have to read an essay on Greg Egan's website just to understand what's going on--and isn't that another retroactive achievement for this novel too? Haha. ...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Kathrina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nyrb, b-n-coralville-bookgroup-titles, british

NYRB, you have never failed me. This was a book group pick, and, though it was an NYRB, I didn't think I was in the mood for this. Turns out, this was exactly the book I needed. Hard sci-fi, yet surprisingly accessible, with a blow-you-away premise. There are a couple of issues I'm still troubling over, but I think that's a sign of a good read -- I want to figure it out, I'm engaged enough to keep puzzling with it, long after the last page. Priest's writing reminds me a lot of George R. Stewart, ...more

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Nov 26, 2017 ash | spaceyreads rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, to-re-read, existential-crisis, my-darlings, prose-central

Unassuming, coming-of-age, you will say, "wait, what?" a couple of times.

I really shouldn't be surprised by Priest by now. Having already read The Prestige (biggest mindblower of all) and The Adjacent, I can safely say Priest doesn't disappoint. Every book starts off with a quiet, unassuming story rooted in a reasonable, relatable reality. What throws you off is the discrepancy seeping into the plot, the little distortions in real life. Priest loves to play with perceptions, either that of the c ...more

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Jun 12, 2009 N.K. Jemisin rated it liked it

Recommends it for: People who like hard SF, people who like mind-blowing original ideas

Recommended to N.K. by: James Trimarco

Chewy and mind-blowing on the conceptual level, but not very engaging on the story/characterization level.

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Jan 17, 2021 Lumalcav rated it liked it · review of another edition

For sure it is not an easy book to be read. There are parts too dense talking about numbers, functions and electric fields that I guess some will enjoy, but not the most, at least not me.

But let’s talk about the more interesting idea that, for me, it’s this one which let me thinking about all the truths we assumed like that, like truths, because someone has told us that, just because. We don´t question, we accept and go for another thing. Maybe sometimes we should be more like a child that, alth ...more

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May 26, 2022 Jonathon Von rated it liked it

3.5 Some brilliantly imaginative ideas and rather weighty metaphor for an ultimately doomed colonialist empire. But the story and the characters are not quite on the same level as the bonkers sci fi. After some thought, I think it does make sense, but I could see how taken at face value it could be a little disappointing. My first Priest and I’m certainly intrigued.

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What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Sci-Fi: Moving city escaping for relativity. Engineer explores surrounding dry lands. [s]	3	22	Aug 23, 2020 07:41AM
Science Fiction A...: * Allan's Pick-The Inverted World	9	25	Jan 12, 2019 07:57PM
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Scifi, Guy sets off some weird town to figure out the secret of it and while he ventures, either he becomes bigger or world gets smaller? Also there something about time, he returns older? Pub date most likely before 2010. [s]	3	28	May 22, 2018 08:13PM
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Sci-fi city on wheels runs on rails... [s]	5	65	Mar 07, 2018 01:08AM
Alternate Realiti...: inverted world	1	23	May 06, 2015 12:25PM
The Evolution of ...: September 2014 Group read - The Inverted World	14	63	Apr 16, 2015 07:47PM
SciFi and Fantasy...: Christopher Priest - The Inverted World - Sept 2014	14	51	Sep 11, 2014 11:23AM

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About Christopher Priest

Christopher Priest

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Christopher Priest was born in Cheshire, England. He began writing soon after leaving school and has been a full-time freelance writer since 1968.

He has published eleven novels, four short story collections and a number of other books, including critical works, biographies, novelizations and children’s non-fiction.

He has written drama for radio (BBC Radio 4) and television (Thames TV and HTV). In ...more

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“Whatever else you may think, this place is not the centre of the universe.”
“It is,” he said. “Because if we ever stopped believing that, we would all die.” — 3 likes

“I had reached the age of six hundred and fifty miles.” — 3 likes

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