Inverted World by Christopher Priest
"Inverted World" is a science fiction narrative set in a unique environment known as Earth City, which is continuously in motion on railway tracks that are perpetually laid ahead while being removed from behind. The city’s survival hinges on this movement, as remaining stationary would lead to dire consequences, which are gradually unveiled throughout the story. The protagonist, Helward Mann, embarks on a journey of apprenticeship within various guilds essential for the city’s maintenance, starting with the track layers. As he explores the distorted landscape beyond the city, he encounters strange phenomena, including physical alterations in the people he meets and unusual time distortions that challenge his understanding of reality.
The narrative gradually reveals that the inhabitants of Earth City are actually survivors of a failed expedition from Earth, living on a hyperboloid planet where only the constantly shifting "Optimum" supports conditions similar to Earth. A crucial turning point occurs when Helward learns from another character, Elizabeth, that the city is indeed on Earth and that their reality has been altered due to a catastrophic experiment following a major societal collapse known as "the Crash." This revelation complicates Helward’s perception of his world and raises questions about identity, survival, and the nature of reality itself. "Inverted World" invites readers to ponder the implications of their environment and the truths that shape their existence.
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Subject Terms
Inverted World
First published: 1974
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—closed universe
Time of work: The twenty-second century
Locale: Portugal
The Plot
The setting and notion behind this novel first appeared in a short story of the same title published in New Writings in SF 22 (1973), though the idea was more fully developed in the novel. The setting is Earth City, a curious structure that is winched along a set of rails that are perennially being removed from behind the city and replaced in front. The city must keep moving or it will suffer a terrible fate. What this fate is, and why, is revealed only gradually during the course of the novel.
Helward Mann, having reached adulthood, is apprenticed to the Future guild, though he must first spend time working with each of the other guilds that are vital to the citys survival. He begins with the track layers and learns that the city must keep moving in pursuit of “the Optimum,” though he does not yet know what the Optimum might be. He also discovers that the sun is a flattened disc from which infinitely long spikes protrude top and bottom.
Later, Helward learns more about the threatening nature of the world when he escorts a group of native women back to their village. The further south from the city he goes, the more the landscape is distorted. A deep chasm that delayed the city while a bridge was built has turned into a narrow creek. The women start to grow shorter and fatter. He himself feels an almost irresistible pull, like centrifugal force, that nearly sweeps him away. There are time distortions as well, so that a journey of only a few subjective days in fact takes many months.
Helward pieces together the information he has about the city and concludes that its inhabitants are survivors of an expedition from Earth on a hyperboloid planet where the ever-moving optimum is the only place where Earthlike conditions obtain. Elizabeth, whom Helward meets on one of his expeditions north of the city, reveals a different, more devastating truth: They are actually on Earth and are survivors of an experiment with a different sort of power made at the time of “the Crash.” The experiment has inverted their perceptions of their world.