Inversions
Review
Inversions, by , is the sixth Culture book, but it is very different from typical Culture novels: there are no spaceships and almost no advanced technology. Instead, it follows Culture citizens DeWar and Vosill as they manipulate a medieval society.
Inversions is polarizing: on goodreads it has a reader score of 3.95—lower than any other Culture novel except Consider Phlebas. I understand why: the Culture series is generally “space opera”, and Inversions doesn’t have a single spaceship, ray gun, or Mind. It reads like standard fantasy with only hints of technology. And I loved it.
The title, Inversions, refers to several different things:
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The book is an inversion of the standard Culture narrative. In The Player of Games and Use of Weapons, we saw the Culture manipulate less advanced civilizations from the Culture’s perspective. In Inversions, we see it from the perspective of the manipulated civilization.
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DeWar and Vosill’s ideas of how best to do good invert in the story. In DeWar’s tales of their past, he thought sometimes evil was necessary for the greater good while Vosill believed it wasn’t. In the present, DeWar is a bodyguard who kills only in defense, while Vosill steers the course of the world through manipulation and assassination.
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There are many role inversions as well: DeWar is an assassin who protects, Vosill is a doctor who kills. UrLeyn is an oppressive anti-monarchist, Quience is a democratizing monarch.
Inversions is similar to The Shadow of the Torturer. Both are sci-fi novels that take place in a “fantasy world”, with hints of but no explicit advanced technology. A torturer’s apprentice is even one of the first characters to appear in Inversions when he summons Vosill and Oelph to his master.
I really enjoyed the two parallel stories, which only become clearly intertwined at the very end. The characters were compelling, especially how Vosill’s true nature is revealed when it’s insinuated that she was behind all the murders and poisoned the king to insure her own escape. UrLeyn’s gradual descent was also subtly portrayed, explaining why DeWar didn’t see it coming.
My one critique is how sexual violence is used against the two primary female characters. Perrund’s backstory revolves around being raped by UrLeyn after he murdered her family, while Vosill faces an attempted rape before her knife missile intervenes. This reliance on sexual assault to threaten the characters feels exploitative.
With Inversions, has become one of my favorite authors. He reinvents his style with each book in the Culture series: telling the story from the point of view of the Culture’s enemies in Consider Phlebas; through the lens of a reluctant game player in The Player of Games; backwards and forwards simultaneously in Use of Weapons; with a heavy focus on the Minds in Excession; and now from a low-tech perspective with intertwined narratives in Inversions. Each novel brings something fresh to the series while expanding our understanding of the Culture. I can’t wait to see what he does in Look to Windward.