Inverted World (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Christopher Priest
- First Published: 1974
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—closed universe
- Time of Work: The twenty-second century
- Setting: Portugal
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction
- Subjects: Perception, Future, Portugal or Portuguese people
- Locales: 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...
[The entire page is 914 words long]
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