This was Roberts’s second novel, and it’s now twenty years old, which I suppose explains some aspects of it – but I really could not understand what this novel was supposed to be about or how it was meant to explore its central premise. Tighe lives on the worldwall, a seemingly infinitely tall vertical surface, on which humanity ekes out a precarious existence on “shelves” and “ledges” and “crags”. Tighe’s village lives in abject poverty. And yet there are marginally more prosperous towns nearby, one of which charges a toll to climb the ladder to reach it. Tighe’s father is prince of the village, although this title is apparently meaningless, and his grandfather is the head priest. Tighe’s parents disappear, and he is taken in by his grandfather but soon realises the man is petty and venal (as if religious leaders are never that…), and after various arguments and such, Tighe… falls off the village ledge. This is usually a death sentence. However, several miles below, Tighe lands on a partially deflated balloon belonging to a small empire occupying several ledges. Tighe is badly injured but recovers, and is pressganged as a kite-pilot in the imperial army. The empire invades a neighbouring state, which apparently guards a door through the worldwall. The invasion goes badly, the empire is defeated, and Tighe is captured and made a slave. He is purchased by a man who takes him further east, a man who repeatedly rapes one of his female slaves, and kills and eats another of his male slaves. Tighe is rescued by a mysterious man in a silver flying craft – centuries more technologically advanced than the people on the worldwall – who explains the world to him – which has been pretty obvious for more than two-thirds of the book – and plans to use Tighe, through the machinery implanted in Tighe’s brain, to return the world to its former state. It’s all complete nonsense. Roberts provides appendices explaining the set-up, but they’re so dull it’s hard to believe he expected anyone to either read them or believe them. There’s no justification for the poverty and cruelty endemic on the worldwall, and certainly none for the cannibalism and casual rape. The door through the worldwall, and the occasional theological discussions, are complete red herrings. The invasion achieves nothing except subject Tighe to jeopardy and deprivation. I’ve always found Roberts’s novels a bit hit and miss, but the general consensus on this one seems to be it’s a substantial miss. It tells a pointless story set in a horrible world, and shows all the amoral disregard for cruelty and violence of the worst grimdark. ( )

A bit of a let-down, this (especially after Roberts' debut, 'Salt'). The setting is intriguing; a world where everyone lives on ledges on a massive wall, which is all the world seems to consist of. The sun rises in the morning from downwall and sets upwall. The main protagonist falls off the Wall, but survives and has a number of picaresque adventures before finding out the secret of the Wall and the world.

Sadly, there is little resolution in the book; a shame, since we find at the end that there are other players involved who seem to have a better handle on what is happening and seem to be trying to intervene to improve the world. But the novel comes to an abrupt halt before this can be explored in any meaningful way (and indeed, whilst we, as science fiction readers, appreciate the explanation of the world, the main protagonist doesn't). The book ends on what would be a cliffhanger if Roberts were any sort of commercial writer trying to sell a sequel; but he isn't a commercial writer and he has felt no need to go back to this world or this story.

There is some surprisingly clumsy writing in the book. We are introduced early on to the idea that there are different levels of technology in this world; but then the main character's adventures take him to societies that are fairly firmly set at an 18th-century technological level and we lose sight of this aspect of the world-building. So when he is catapulted into a high-technology society in the last quarter of the book, there is a lot of explaining to do because the character seems quite comfortable with the level of technology he is encountering. The most glaring example of this is the fact that this character is quite familiar with video screens, though we have barely seen any evidence of such technology being present in the world. Roberts has to insert a fairly major info-dump as a flashback at this point, which could easily have been put in the early part of the book to reinforce the differing levels of technology in the society and to remind the reader; instead, we get nearly two pages of recapitulation that changes our view of the society. I would have expected something better of Roberts or his editor. A pity, really; I wanted to enjoy this book. Rating would be 3.75 stars if I could award that. ( )

Great worldbuilding, poor storytelling. Might have worked better as a sequence of connected stories. The main character's story seems to be an excuse to explore the world, then explain its physics. While the physics is plausible, the character interactions are far less so. To my taste, there's too much deux ex machina, too little character motivation.

This is my first Roberts and I imagine he'd do well with strong editing and a clear plot. Despite my low rating, the first section of the book is well-worth reading, but I'd recommend stopping there, to maximize enjoyment of the worldbuilding while minimizing disappointment about character development and plot.

Well-said by http://www.librarything.com/profile/MonkeyRobo :
"I think Roberts is an author I'd like to like, but I just can't. ...some good ideas, but the characters and situations seemed clunky, and the books left me rather cold. Rating: meh." ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/59559.html

A rather wacky setting this: a world where gravity goes parallel to the ground rather than perpendicular to it, so its inhabitants perceive it as a huge wall, with settlements clinging to ledges and everyone perpetually terrified of falling off (as indeed many do). We have some great scene-setting in the hero's small home village; he then arrives in a much bigger civilisation, gets embroiled in a war, and eventually comes close to finding out the Secret Behind It All. But I was a bit disappointed; there wasn't really much closure for any of the plot threads, and I rather felt the author had given up trying to think of things to do. I much preferred his earlier book, Salt; both are written in the same sparse style that I associate with English sf writers like Brian Aldiss, Christopher Priest and Stephen Baxter. ( )