Author:	Christopher Priest
Copyright:	1974
Date Reviewed:	5/28/84
Rating:	7.5

Synopsis: For two hundred years, the city of Earth has moved Northward. It must do so forever. The planet which it traverses is not a sphere but a three-dimensional hyperboloid (y=1/x:). The center of the world is something called optimum, where time and the three dimensions are normal. South of optimum, time speeds up, length diminishes and centrifugal force increases. North of the optimum is the opposite. The city must always move Northward since the ground is continually moving Southward away from the optimum at about a 1/10th of a mile a day. If the city did not move, it would be ripped apart by the southern centrifugal forces.

"The Inverted World" follows Helward Mann as he grows and discovers his world. Just out of the crèche school in the city, Helward joins the Future Guild as his father before him. As an apprentice, Helward must work with all the guilds. It is during a trip southward for the guild that Helward learns about his world. Eventually the city reaches a more advanced village where it is discovered that it had never left Earth. It has traveled from China to Portugal. The city never existed on an inverted world; only the perceptions of its inhabitants where changed. The changes were produced by a power source within the city.

Review: "The Inverted World" is an interesting novel, in many ways similar to "Flatland" and "The Dragon's Egg". The story takes place in a world in which physical dimensions and laws do not work in the same way that they do in our world. Although I enjoyed the book, it did have several flaws. For one, the first eighty or so pages deal with the city and the guild and gives no indication that there even is an inverted world. Then, in the course of only a few pages, all of the secrets are revealed. A slower approach would have been more exciting. The ending and final explanation of the inverted world leaves much to be desired. The energy field which distorts metabolisms and perceptions is simply not satisfying. However, I would recommend the book.