The World Inside
Ratings3
Average rating2.7
15
Ratings3
Average rating2.7
Welcome to Urban Monad 116. Reaching nearly two miles into the sky, the one thousand stories of this building are home to over eight hundred thousand people living in peace and harmony. In the year 2381 with a world population of over seventy-five billion souls, the massive Urbmon system is humanity's salvation. Life in Urbmon 116 is highly regulated, life is cherished, and the culture of procreation is seen as the highest pinnacle of god's plan. Conflict is abhorred, and any who disturb the peace face harsh punishment—even being sent "down the chute" to be recycled as fertilizer. Jason Quevedo, a historian, searches records of the twentieth century hoping to find the root of his discontent with the perfection of Urbmon life. Siegmund Kluver, a young and ambitious administrator, strives to reach the top levels of the Urbmon's government and discovers the civilization's dark truths. Michael Statler, a computer engineer, harbors a forbidden desire. He dreams of leaving the building—of walking in the open air and visiting the far-off sea. This is a dream he must keep secret. If anyone were to find out, he'd face the worst punishment imaginable. The World Inside is a fascinating exploration of society and what makes us human, told by a master of speculative fiction. The World Inside is a 1971 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novella.
Reviews with the most likes.
Pros: fascinating world, fascinating characters
Cons: if you're prudish you won't like this book
Centuries in the future the human population has increased dramatically. Most humans live in 1000 story towers separated into cities with their own schools, hospitals, etc. Fed by communes outside the towers that urban dwellers will never see as they live their lives fully contained within their buildings.
This book starts with the premise that humans have moved into towers, foregoing privacy for a sexually liberal society and then shows what life is like for a handful of those inhabitants. It's a fascinating look at a certain kind of utopian society - and how unhappy many of its inhabitants are under their veneer of acceptance.
The stories vary in terms of interest, though each shows a different aspect of life. The first involves a lot of exposition as a urbmon dweller explains the tower lifestyle to a visiter from Venus, where the lifestyle is quite different. Another story shows a young woman's terror over the prospect of being forced to move to a new tower. Most of the stories are from the point of view of the higher middle class, though there are glimpses of how the lower, physical workers, and higher, government workers live.
Like many utopian/dystopian books there's a huge emphasis on population and sex in this book. There's a brief contrast in one of the stories between how the people in the towers encourage having children while those of the communes must keep their populations in check. While the free sexual mores are meant to reduce conflict, jealousies still arise, though not the way you might expect. There's a LOT of sex going on in this book. It's not graphic and is there to make several points, but consider yourself warned.
I'd expected the book to end with the departure of the Venusian visitor so I was a little surprised when a different character got a second story. The story did wrap things up well though, touching - however briefly - on the other viewpoint characters.
This is a pretty interesting book. There's no plot but the world and characters are quite interesting and will keep you turning pages. I did find one story, about a musician, a little boring, but the others were quite fascinating. I'd put it with Ira Levin's This Perfect Day in terms of dystopian worlds that might not be so bad to live in.
