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A review by matthewcpeck
The Inverted World by Christopher Priest
4.0
4 stars and a half. "Inverted World" is surprising - not just in the sense of its mind-bending plot, but in the sense of exceeded expectations. I've finally read it after purchasing it - years ago - as a bargain e-book that sounded somewhat interesting, and now I want to seek out everything by Christopher Priest.
Priest, best known for "The Prestige", begins the novel with an enigmatic prologue, after which we are inserted into the life of a young man named Helward, who has just come of age and is starting an apprenticeship in a city called…Earth. Helward discovers that his city is actually mobile, and its survival depends on a painstaking, Sisyphean process of continuously assembling and dissembling a system of railroad tracks so it can be winched forward a tenth of a mile each day, northward through a rugged landscape populated by the occasional squalid village. This central image - which seems plucked directly from the subconscious - is fascinating enough. But as the protagonist continues his education and explores the reality of his environment, stuff gets really bizarre. And then, in the book's final third, the rug is pulled out from under the reader in a truly spectacular fashion.
"Inverted World" may not be a book to read for witty dialogue and diverse characterization. But this is a novel that successfully generates tension, wonder and mystery from physics and geometry - hard science! - in the way that science fiction should. Priest's calm, controlled prose creates a sense of eeriness, and he thankfully keeps the usual SF world-building lingo to a bare minimum. The structure of its story is an astonishing feat of imagination. If this sounds even a bit interesting to you, I recommend that you read it.
Priest, best known for "The Prestige", begins the novel with an enigmatic prologue, after which we are inserted into the life of a young man named Helward, who has just come of age and is starting an apprenticeship in a city called…Earth. Helward discovers that his city is actually mobile, and its survival depends on a painstaking, Sisyphean process of continuously assembling and dissembling a system of railroad tracks so it can be winched forward a tenth of a mile each day, northward through a rugged landscape populated by the occasional squalid village. This central image - which seems plucked directly from the subconscious - is fascinating enough. But as the protagonist continues his education and explores the reality of his environment, stuff gets really bizarre. And then, in the book's final third, the rug is pulled out from under the reader in a truly spectacular fashion.
"Inverted World" may not be a book to read for witty dialogue and diverse characterization. But this is a novel that successfully generates tension, wonder and mystery from physics and geometry - hard science! - in the way that science fiction should. Priest's calm, controlled prose creates a sense of eeriness, and he thankfully keeps the usual SF world-building lingo to a bare minimum. The structure of its story is an astonishing feat of imagination. If this sounds even a bit interesting to you, I recommend that you read it.