History Literature / TheInvertedWorld

* BaseOnWheels: The City of Earth, which moves on rail tracks so slowly that most inhabitants aren't even aware it does move.

%%* BaseOnWheels: The City of Earth.

* AlienGeometries: Encountered far North and South.
* ArrangedMarriage: Helward and Victoria.
* BaseOnWheels: The City of Earth.
* CityInABottle

* CoolTrain: Earth-city.

* EldritchLocation: The far south.

[[Helward Mann MeaningfulName]] is a citizen of the City of Earth, a massive rail-mounted structure which has somehow become TrappedInAnotherWorld. Upon coming of age, Helward joins the Future Guild, allowing him to explore the world outside the City for the first time. The story follows Helward as he tries to understand the nature of the strange inverted world in which he finds himself, and learns why the people of the City must forever struggle to keep moving it endlessly forward.

Helward Mann is a citizen of the City of Earth, a massive rail-mounted structure which has somehow become TrappedInAnotherWorld. Upon coming of age, Helward joins the Future Guild, allowing him to explore the world outside the City for the first time. The story follows Helward as he tries to understand the nature of the strange inverted world in which he finds himself, and learns why the people of the City must forever struggle to keep moving it endlessly forward.

* ContrivedCoincidence: The fact that up until the end of the novel, the city just happens to have been travelling over land for thousands of miles, never encountering a sea or major lake. [[spoiler: Subverted, as the Atlantic Ocean is simply the first body of water flat-out impossible to drive around]].

* FantasticMeasurementSystem: A very strange example. Because of the weird features of the hyperboloid world, units of distance and time are used interchangeably. A "mile" can mean a distance of one mile, or the time period over which optimum moves one mile. The direction in which the City travels is called both "North" and "Future"; backward from the city is "South" and "Past" (and "North" and "South" aren't the same thing for the natives).

* RiverOfInsanity: The City's sisyphean struggle forwards towards optimum as it constantly moves away from them. A hopeless journey towards a nonexistant destination...

* SuperweaponSurprise: [[spoiler:Those "primitives" the City's been exploiting? Turns out the City's only encountered deeply impoverished villages so far. Word of its rape and pillage has been spreading to the North, where the natives have rifles and grenades...]]

* EarthAllAlong: [[spoiler:The device which powers the city fucks up human perceptions of space and time.]]

->"I had reached the age of six hundred and fifty [[{{Microts}} miles]]"
->The opening sentence of the book

* InfantImmortality: Averted.

* ContrivedCoincidence: The fact that up until the end of the novel, the city just happens to have been travelling over land for thousands of miles, never encountering a sea or major lake.

* FantasticMeasurementSystem: A very strange example. Because of the weird features of the hyperboloid world, units of distance and time are used interchangeably. A "mile" can mean a distance of one mile, or the time period over which optimum moves one mile. The direction in which the City travels is called both "North" and "Future"; backward from the city is "South" and "Past". (And "North" and "South" aren't the same thing for the natives.)

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* AfterTheEnd: [[spoiler:Earth after the Crash]]
* AlienGeometries: Encountered far North and South
* ArrangedMarriage: Helward and Victoria
* BaseOnWheels: the City of Earth

* CoolTrain: Earth-city

* EldritchLocation: The far south.

* TheReveal: Elizabeth's speech at the end, reveals what has been going on with the world's shape the whole time.

* StayInTheKitchen: Because of the City's population problem, women aren't allowed to join the Guilds; their job is to marry early and produce as many children as possible

* ToxicPhlebotinum: [[spoiler:Destaine's translat generator]]

* FantasticMeasurementSystem: A very strange example. Because of the weird features of the hyperboloid world, units of distance and time are used interchangeably. A "mile" can mean a distance of one mile, or the time period over which optimum moves one mile. The direction in which the City travels is called both "North" and "Future"; backward from the city is "South" and "Past". (And "North" and "South" aren't the same thing for the natives.)

* WorldShapes: The story takes place on a hyperboloid planet. [[spoiler: Or does it?]]

* [[spoiler:AfterTheEnd: Earth after the Crash]]

* [[spoiler:EarthAllAlong: The device which powers the city fucks up human perceptions of space and time.]]

* [[spoiler:SuperweaponSurprise: Those "primitives" the City's been exploiting? Turns out the City's only encountered deeply impoverished villages so far. Word of its rape and pillage has been spreading to the North, where the natives have rifles and grenades...]]
* [[spoiler:ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: If Elizabeth is correct, much of what Helward sees throughout the novel is delusions caused by the translat generator.]]

* UnitConfusion[=/=]FantasticMeasurementSystem: A very strange example. Because of the weird features of the hyperboloid world, units of distance and time are used interchangeably. A "mile" can mean a distance of one mile, or the time period over which optimum moves one mile. The direction in which the City travels is called both "North" and "Future"; backward from the city is "South" and "Past". (And "North" and "South" aren't the same thing for the natives.)

* WorldShapes: The story takes place on a hyperboloid planet. [[spoiler: Or does it?!]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: In addition to the fact that the City is in trouble with the natives and experiencing shortages and unrest, the Guilds have no way of crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Because the inhabitants are literally dependent on staying near optimum, when they are no longer able to do so, it will end very badly for them. Not to mention the fact that they've pissed off everyone around them.]]

* SlaveRace: The native "tooks" are treated this way by the people of the City.

''The Inverted World'' is a science fiction novel by Christopher Priest, taking its concept (but none of its plot or characters) from a short story of the same name. Originally published in 1974, it was republished in 2010 as part of the SF Masterworks Collection. ''The Inverted World'' won an award from the British Science Fiction Association and was nominated for a Hugo.