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Christopher Priest
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Inverted World (New York Review Books Classics) Kindle Edition

by Christopher Priest (Author), John Clute (Afterword) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 943 ratings
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Featured in Science Fiction: The Best 100 Novels
Winner of the British Science Fiction Award
Nominated for the Hugo Award

The “devilishly entertaining” masterpiece of hard science fiction, set in a city moving through a strange, dystopian world—from the multi-award-winning author of The Prestige (Time Out New York)

The city is winched along tracks through a devastated land full of hostile tribes. Rails must be freshly laid ahead of the city and carefully removed in its wake. Rivers and mountains present nearly insurmountable challenges to the ingenuity of the city’s engineers. But if the city does not move, it will fall farther and farther behind the “optimum” into the crushing gravitational field that has transformed life on Earth. The only alternative to progress is death.

The secret directorate that governs the city makes sure that its inhabitants know nothing of this. Raised in common in crèches, nurtured on synthetic food, prevented above all from venturing outside the closed circuit of the city, they are carefully sheltered from the dire necessities that have come to define human existence. And yet the city is in crisis. The people are growing restive, the population is dwindling, and the rulers know that, for all their efforts, slowly but surely the city is slipping ever farther behind the optimum.

Helward Mann is a member of the city’s elite. Better than anyone, he knows how tenuous is the city’s continued existence. But the world—he is about to discover—is infinitely stranger than the strange world he believes he knows so well.
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  1. Print length
    324 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    NYRB Classics
  5. Publication date
    December 12, 2012
  6. File size
    1017 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Christopher Priest's reissued novel Inverted World presents the reader with a city surrounded by high walls and a populace unaware that the entire polis sits upon tracks, pulled by a giant winch in order to stay ahead of a crushing, slowly moving gravity field...You feel the kind of surprise and exhilaration here that you do when a magician reveals (though they're not supposed to) the simple method behind an illusion.”
—Los Angeles Times

“... his well-crafted books play fun tricks on the reader. In this devilishly entertaining 1974 novel, Priest tells of a city called Earth that must perpetually move on rails to escape its hyperboloid planet's oppressive gravity.”
—Time Out New York

“A somber psychedelic journey through a landscape that seems a collaboration between Breugel the Elder and M.C. Escher, Priest’s book is an engine of epiphany, and a formal marvel: a narrative in the exact shape of the conundrum it presents.”
—Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn

“The most famous book from those days, Inverted World...upended existence, revealed a planet to be infinite, in a finite universe; between its poles, pressure warped every dimension of the body.”
—Guardian

“A unique and original world.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A marvellous thought experiment.”
—The Independent

“Inverted World will be remembered for many years, I would guess, as one of the few science fiction novels of the 1970s to come up with a new idea.”
—Foundation

“The Inverted World reads like a classic science fiction book--the physical concepts of the world in which it takes place are filled with a sense of wonder.”
—San Francisco Signal

“A science fiction mystery story about a world whose ‘secret’ is as incredible, but as acceptable, to its readers as it is to its characters—which if you think about it is one of the highest compliments a critic can pay to a novel. A well-structured, finely written, mature narrative that is very compelling and thoroughly entertaining. It is a ‘must’.
—Luna Monthly

“A marvelous thought experiment in which our familiar spherical world is replaced by a hyperboloid one. Rudy Rucker is equally known for his arithmetically generated science-fiction novels.”
—Independent on Sunday

“The story is among those seldom found, incredibly readable narratives that the reader aches to continue reading.”
—Jersey Journal

“One of the trickiest and most astonishing twist endings in modern SF.”
—Tribune (London)

About the Author

Christopher Priest is the author of ten novels and two collections of short stories, including the prize-winning THE GLAMOUR and THE PRESTIGE which won the James Tait Black award in 1995. He lives in Hastings with his wife and twin children.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B009MY9QZK
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ NYRB Classics (December 12, 2012)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 12, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1017 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 324 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 943 ratings

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Christopher Priest

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
943 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

D.S. Cahr
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant SF masquerading as a dystopian tale from the masterful author of The Prestige
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2016
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It is best that a reader know as little about Inverted World as possible before reading it. The surprises of the narrative are a joy when matched to the growing understanding of the characters. But know this: this is a political allegory of the highest order processed through enormously clever science fiction, and it will reward any reader with its evocative images. Highly recommended.
3 people found this helpful
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Bort
4.0 out of 5 stars Wildly unique, but is it actually good?
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2023
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I’ve never encountered a book like this before. I’ve read a lot of sci fi and (obviously) so often it’s set in outer space. But this is something completely different and it makes for a fantastic read. I’m just not sure it’s a good book.

It’s impossible to talk about the book without spoiling things, but this is due to the structure of the story and I’m seeing this as a bit of a fault. Or, I think I do. This book is all bread crumbs until the end. The only real conflict is shared between our main character and the reader: basically, what the hell is going on? And I’m not sure that’s a real conflict. It’s only a “reason” to keep reading. If the book started by laying everything out for you in the beginning the rest wouldn’t be all that interesting.

I suppose you could compare this to something like 1984, where our main character senses the world isn’t as it seems and perhaps he’s been given a narrative he needs to expose. But in 1984 we get incredible world building. There’s not much of that here, and if there is it’s all sort of revealed in a very plain way.

But as I type this, I realize I can’t quite stop thinking about what this book is trying to say about our real world and the nature of those that govern Vs the ones that are governed. The idea of keeping your head down and just continuing to do things because that’s the way they’ve been done. Maybe I’m not giving the story enough credit.

Either way, I’m very happy to have found another example that sci fi isn’t always lasers and space ships. No matter what I recommend reading this one just because of how unique it really is.
7 people found this helpful
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Adman
5.0 out of 5 stars Hard on the science, soft on the soul
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2017
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The problem with so called hard SF as numerous readers without Physics, Astronomy or Astrobiology Phd’s can testify after going through the Andersons, the Bears and the Clements (warning: do not try Clement alone) is that, more often than not, the numbers, the concepts, the algorithms, the computroniums, the compuquanta and the compumerates, all this meaningless and sometimes right out silly mumbo jumbo is becoming too much and overshadows what could have been a decent, or even outstanding idea.

Not so in Christopher Priest’s Inverted World. Not by a country mile. This is a novel, hard on the science but soft on the soul. This is a novel already approaching the half century mark but feeling like it will be written in the 2020’s. This is a novel with an A-list idea, but not C-list tricks, no magic, no dei ex machina, no easy 21st century cop outs.

What Christopher Priest has packed in 300, other writers would need 300 thousands of pages. Where to start? From the “optimum”? From the “City” on rails? From going “South”? From the protagonist Helward Mann who, unable to grasp, comprehend and embrace change reminds us of every one of us in this pre-Singularity era?

You don’t need to be a scientist to immensely enjoy Inverted World. Human will do. Get this gem.
31 people found this helpful
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Sy
3.0 out of 5 stars great mystery, unsatisfactory solution
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2018
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As you should already know from the description, this book is about a moving city. It's been done before of course, from Mortal Engines to Absolution Gap, but the reason why the city in Inverted World moves is quite original and engaging until you realize the whole thing is so far fetched and contrived that for me it fizzled out into one giant eye roll. And that's a shame because most of the book, that is before we learn what's really going on, was quite entertaining. I personally love mysteries and enigmas and this book has them in spades of course, from the secretive guild system to the riddle of how this strange world came to be. Are they on Earth on not? Did some cataclysm happen to the fundamental laws of physics? Is it a different dimension? This guessing kept me interested all the way to the moment the above questions were answered in the unsatisfactory and anticlimactic manner I mentioned, but that of course comes at the end of the book, so the reading experience was mostly positive.
7 people found this helpful
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OldGuy
4.0 out of 5 stars POWERFUL SF
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2009
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An extraordinarily powerful book which stretches your mind as you attempt to understand Priest's world. His characters are genuine individuals, their friendships and conflicts are entirely natural and believable. Yet the book remains genuine SF. I agree to some extent with the reader whose critique said the ending is a little weak. Still, I wonder how better it could possibly have been done. In any event, it follows chapters of extremely powerful distorted realism. This is a book I will long remember and confidently recommend to any SF enthusiast.
4 people found this helpful
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Ol' Salty
5.0 out of 5 stars You'll be amazed at how your understanding has changed
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2015
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Think "perspective", then read the book, then think "perspective" again. You'll be amazed at how your understanding has changed. This story throws the reader into a completely different world, albeit inhabited by humans, right off the bat and begrudgingly explains the differences between what the reader (believes he) knows and this world. I say "begrudgingly" because the reader is thrown in with the protagonist of the story, Helward. It's not only one of the best books I've ever read, it's one of the most enjoyable.
5 people found this helpful
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John French
4.0 out of 5 stars So good I read it twice
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2009
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I first came across "The Inverted World" in a SF collection of short stories many, many years ago. The funny thing is that the ending was very different and to be honest a lot more plausible than the one in the full length book which does require a great leap of faith.

Having said that this book totally sucked me in. I read it more or less straight through (I can't remember the last time I did that with a book) and then I read it straight through again (never done that). I am surprised that there has never been a film but there again Rendevous with Rama hasn't made it to the silver screen yet either. Priest builds a quite plausible little world out of a completely implausible situation.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Mind bending
Reviewed in Canada on June 30, 2023
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I found this to be absolutely fascinating and the afterword is well worth the read as it helps explain how clever this book is!!!
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abiven mael
5.0 out of 5 stars Ca me rappelle Asimov
Reviewed in France on September 29, 2015
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Un petit côté vieux jeu (en même temps je ne sais pas quand il a été écrit). Mais c'est sans doute une impression purement personnelle car j'ai rapproché le style de ce livre à mes lectures de jeunesse de I. Asimov et ses nouvelles aux chutes imprévisibles. Belle approche psychologique des personnages. Encore plus d'intérêt après avoir assisté à une audience de Christopher Priest au festival de Saint Malo, même si cette dernière fut brêve. Cet auteur a des convictions sur l'évolution du monde qui transparaissent dans son livre quand on y prête attention. On rapproche ses idées de ses écrits, cela offre une deuxième lecture, de nouvelles pistes pour penser à ce monde en éternel mouvement (le notre pas celui du livre :)
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Schelm
5.0 out of 5 stars Rätselhaft und spannend
Reviewed in Germany on February 25, 2013
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"Da geht es um eine Stadt, die auf Schienen fährt. Irgendwo auf irgendeiner Welt und keiner weiß so recht warum. Vorne werden die Schienen angebaut und hinten wieder abgebaut." – so fasste ein Kumpel von mir das Buch mit einem Satz zusammen und mein Interesse war sofort geweckt. Das klingt nach einer sehr interessanten Geschichte.

Ich weiß nicht, ob ich das Buch als "spannend" bezeichnen würde. Spannend im Sinne von "actiongeladen". So furchtbar viel geschieht in Inverted World gar nicht, aber die Atmoshpäre ist so dicht, die Geschichte so sonderbar, dass ich immer wissen wollte, wie es weitergeht und das Buch an 2 oder 3 Tagen verschlungen habe. Ein Grund ist sicherlich, dass man als Leser ständig rätselt. Wo befindet sich die Handlung? Wie sieht diese Welt aus, die da gezeichnet wird?

Es gibt genügend Bücher und Geschichten, die man liest, die spannend sind, in denen ständig irgendwas passiert, am Ende aber nur bruchstückhaft hängen bleiben. Ich habe Inverted World vor einigen Wochen gelesen und muss immer wieder an die Atmosphäre in dem Buch denken.

Kurzum, mir hat es sehr gut gefallen. Klare Kaufempfehlung. Übrigens habe ich die Auflösung im Buch als zufriedenstellend empfunden. Jedenfalls wird besser aufgelöst als in so manch verwirrendem Buch von Philip K Dick (von dem ich ein großer Fan bin).
4 people found this helpful
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R. Palmer
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb novel; justifiably back in print.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 19, 2010
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I keep meaning to read more Christopher Priest - all I have read until now is the excellent  The Separation  (also unreservedly recommended).

This is an absolutely superb novel - and I'm not entirely sure why it's been so neglected until now.

The main character, one Helward Mann, comes of age at the start of a novel and, following in his father's footsteps, joins the "Futures Guild." It's quickly clear that the world his people inhabit is an extremely unusual one. The details of this are drip-fed to the reader as Mann learns more about his world: essentially the (high) concept is their world is an infinite world within a finite one.

The plot itself is well-handled; Mann travels as far as he can in order to discover (and reveal to us) why things are the way that they are. This is done in beautifully spare prose. It never feels at any stage as though any words are wasted. Which is pleasant in of itself; it has the pleasing effect of making this an almost poetic novel (indeed Adam Roberts, in the introduction, reflects on the inherently poetic nature of the infinite within the finite). One does suspect that in a lesser author's hands we could have ended up with a horribly bloated doorstop of a fantasy novel.

There *is* a twist. Helpfully, they tell you this on the front cover...argh!

Finally, although this was written in 1975, I don't feel that it has dated particularly badly. What technology there is isn't central to the working of the novel and the concept itself (though fairly dubious) though central to the novel doesn't feel particularly bound by any time.

Enjoy!
5 people found this helpful
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Claire Melville
3.0 out of 5 stars Un bon livre
Reviewed in France on March 14, 2017
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Je trouve que c'est un bon livre, avec un concept peu ou pas utilisé jusque là. L'écriture est agréable et facile à lire. La découverte de ce monde à travers les yeux du héros et bien construite et bien menée. Mais j'ai l'impression qu'il a laissé certaines pistes inachevées et la fin m'a un peu déçue.
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