The Inverted World

A rather fun, quick read. However, the backcover promises a very suprising twist at the end. This doesn't really happen, since it is all quite predictable. Moreover, the explanation for an important consequence of this twist (and hence the plot as a whole) is totally unbelievable, and that ruins the book in the end.

It could have been pretty clever with better editing, but now it only merits a "Okay, you guys sure were afraid of Nuclear Holocaust back in the seventies."

Fans of hard science fiction should avoid this, since the science part of this book is ludicrous.

UPDATE 5/2018 – I read this at the beginning of my exploration of science fiction. Having read more ‘vintage’ SF now, I think I would review The Inverted World totally differently now. I think I’d appreciate it a whole lot more, as I liked reading it, but felt cheated because of the ending. That’s because in 2014 I judged that ending basically only on its Hard SF merits, but I think I entirely missed the point by doing so. There’s an insightful review on Calmgrove that didn’t miss the point, and Chris also makes some interesting points in the comments.