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Inverted World
By Priest, Christopher|Clute, John
Inverted World
Strand Staff Pick: Heady, new-wave SF from the early seventies, this novel is set on a city that slowly crawls across a strange planet on tracks that are continuously laid down before it. Eschewing ray guns planetary and romance in favor of brain-twisting philosophical conundrums and sociological commentary, this early work set the stage for its author's celebrated, decades-long career. -Â Kevin, Customer Service
- SKU
- 9781590172698
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Details
Authors:
Priest, Christopher|Clute, John
Copyright:
1974
Format:
Paperback
GTIN13:
9781590172698
ISBN10:
1590172698
Page Count:
336
Dimensions:
5.0x0.8x8.0
Publisher:
New York Review of Books
Strand Notes
The citry is winched along tracks through a devasted land full of hostile tribes. Rails must be freshly laid ahead of the city and carefully removewd 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 Earfth. The only alternative to progress is death. Better than anyone, Howard Mann 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. 322p.
Description
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 crches, 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.
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 crches, 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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