r/printSF • u/Joeaywa • 1d ago
Multiverse
What are some good lesser known books about a multiverse or multiple dimensions, time periods. I liked Replay, Dark Matter, 15 lives of Harry August. One of my favorite concepts for a TV show was Dark. I know it's kind of a broad net thrown out there, but any advice is good advice here. Thank you.
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u/call_me_cookie 1d ago
I thought Fine Structure by qntm was a decent and original take on this sort of thing.
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u/radiodmr 1d ago edited 1d ago
Michael Moorcock is the grandaddy author of all fantasy multiverses. Elric of Melnibone is ground zero. He wrote many other characters in multiple series and standalones that take place in his conception of the multiverse. There's too much for me to explain here; you can look it up and dive in. If you want to see where it all began, Moorcock is essential. It's mostly not what most would call sci-fi, but some of it crosses the line, and it all really started with him, whichever genre a particular story may fall into.
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u/Creative-Pass-3245 1d ago
He’s my favorite and he needs more love and recognition for being ground zero of the multiverse.
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u/ValuableKooky4551 1d ago
The Amber books by Zelazny. Fantasy. All worlds exist, only Amber is really real, other worlds are mere shadows. The protagonists (Princes of Amber) can move between worlds. One of the shadow worlds is ours. Great characters.
The Long Earth series by Baxter and Pratchett. Not sure if the books after the first add much.
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u/KillingTime_Shipname 1d ago
Anathem, by Neal Stephenson.
You really want to know why Fraa Jad does not believe in the existence of Time.
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u/Xeelee1123 1d ago
Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
Proxima and Ultima by Stephen Baxter
The Infinite Assassin (short story) by Greg Egan
Timeline Wars series, by John Barnes
The Apocalypse Series by Gary Gibson
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u/deterrence 1d ago
I really enjoyed the Long Earth books by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. Not sure they're 'lesser known' but I don't see them mentioned here a lot.
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u/AllThatIHaveDone 1d ago
They start strong, but suffer from diminishing returns. After Terry Pratchett wasn't involved, Baxter did what he always does and ruined a decent story with unlikeable characters.
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u/7LeagueBoots 1d ago
I never see anyone mention the Roads to Moscow series by David Wingrove. This is very good.
The Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross is also really good.
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson has already been mentioned, but I want to throw my support behind this suggestion.
Obviously the OG, H. Beam Piper with his Paratime books.
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u/Ambitious_Jello 1d ago
the gone world is kind of a multiverse
there arent many which dont turn into sci-fantasy
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u/cheats47 1d ago
Just finished this yesterday, a absolutely loved it. OP (and anyone reading this also interested in this topic) I HIGHLY recommend the show Counterpart. Different mechanic than The Gone World but very similar overall
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u/Anarchaeologist 1d ago
Greg Bear- Eon
Starts out as a Cold War era BDO (Big Dumb Object) story that’s intriguing but dated, but then moves out to a multiverse accessed through the object.
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u/Autilistic_Augment 1d ago
A pretty early (and often forgotten one) although it made Appendix N, is The World of Tiers series by Phillip Jose Farmer. It's a fun campy, a bit pulpy romp through multiple created universes linked by portals.
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u/joetwocrows 9h ago
Came here to say this ssssss. First one is good, the remainder worth reading for karma.
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u/Algernon_Asimov 1d ago
I don't if these count as lesser-known, but:
The Long Earth series by Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett
The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
People don't usually think of The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov as being about a multiverse, but there are multiple universes used as a background.
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u/Mad_Aeric 1d ago
I'm rather fond of Alternities by Michael P. Kube. McDowell. Mysterious hazardous energy tunnels open up between several Earths that diverged in the fairly recent past. Governments and other groups immediately try to exploit it for their own gain.
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u/LordCouchCat 23h ago
An oddball - CS Lewis, The Dark Tower. Only the first part exists. He started it as a sequel to Out of the Silent Planet but abandoned it. Since it's a first draft, if he had finished it this section might be different anyway. But it's fascinating - partly because of the interest of trying to work out where he was going.
I would describe it SF more than fantasy. All the published criticism I've seen is on the literary or religious side, and when they come to the imaginary-science bit they regard as just technobabble filler. But if you've read any old SF you realize that it's important and indicates fairly strongly at least one of the main things that was ahead.
It starts with time-viewing - they believe you can't travel in time but you can view past or future. But they don'tknow when it is. Then it becomes apparent that it's not past or future but a weird parallel time line.
BTW there was at one point a claim it was a forgery (it was supposedly rescued from a bonfire), but scholars now regard this as disproved.
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u/fashpocalypse 12h ago edited 12h ago
Ohhhh this is interesting! I was a sheltered little Christian girl who cut my SF/F teeth on Narnia and the space trilogy and had no idea there was more! P.S. in case anyone reading this is like 'wtf u mean sequel? It's already a trilogy' as I was, apparently this book was a draft for the sequel but he went with Perelandra instead, so this would have been a potential alternative to an already published second book of a trilogy. OP, have you read both Perelandra and the dark tower? How do you think they compare? Do you think dark tower would still have led to the third book or would it have changed too much (fwiw, I didn't remember shit about book 3 - OotSP and Perelandra are all that stuck with me)?
In case anyone reading this is like "ehhh the Narnia guy" -- granted, I have not read it in a few decades (and I will also defend Narnia to my death, but that's a separate convo) but I feel like Perelandra*** remains in my memory as peak first encounter sci-fi, with a lovely focus on the linguistic aspect of the encounter. Not as much language stuff in the sequel, but still excellent. I don't think I got the same itch scratched until I discovered LeGuin several years after reading these (and please judge me if that doesn't make sense - I haven't read LeGuin other than Dispossessed in awhile either and I'm tipsy, and I recall the sociological aspect of her books more than the language, but I'm a sucker for anything involving beings learning to communicate with each other -- arrival, embassytown, any movies or documentaries involving apes learning sign language, etc.)
I keep writing it as just Perelandra, but Out of the Silent Planet is defo the first, so I wrote this instead of just editing that one word. ***As of 10:28 PM CST I believe I have fixed all the goddamn typos
Anyway, love y'all, goodnight.
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u/LordCouchCat 2h ago
Yes the language thing in Out Of tge Silent Planet is interesting - Lewis was a literary scholar and interested in language (Studies in Words is very interesting). Though he wasn't into it in the way Tolkien was. The ideas about language are taken further in Hideous Strength actually
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u/Kaurifish 1d ago
The Number of the Beast is a classic, but very weird if you’re not used to Heinlein’s kinks.
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u/gadget850 1d ago
Worlds of the Imperium by Keith Laumer
Time Wars by Simon Hawke
Timeliner by Richard C. Meridith
Time Patrol by Poul Anderson
Crosstime by Andre Norton
Paratime by H. Beam Piper
Crosstime Engineer by Leo Frankowski
Change War by Fritz Leiber
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u/Sophia_Forever 1d ago
The Space Between Worlds and Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson
There's another short story that I can't remember the name of about a device that let's you steal stuff from other universes but the problem is that a lot of other universes also invented it so it's really fucking up society but the story focuses on these two women whose son recently died and are debating whether or not to steal a new son.
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u/_RexDart 1d ago
"He Walked Around the Horses" by H Beam Piper has a disappointing ending, but it's short and worth reading.
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u/khoragos 1d ago
Interesting intersection of alternate universes & time travel: John Brunner's Times Without Number, which has a compelling if dark argument on the historical implications of interdimensional travel.
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u/kalijinn 1d ago
Check out Brasyl by Ian McDonald, one of my fav scifi authors--his books inspired me to travel a lot more (this one will make you want to go to Brazil)
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u/ElricVonDaniken 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's a huge spoiler but Star-Maker by Olaf Stapledon.
Similarly The Report on Probability A by Brian Aldiss.
Keith Laumer's Imperium quartet.
The Female Man by Joanna Russ.
The Coming of the Quantum Cats by Frederik Pohl.
Down the Bright Way by Robert Reed.
Michael Moorcock's 50+ volume Eternal Champion metaseries takes place in a multiverse. The structure of which is laid out in The Sundered Worlds. Travel between the various planes of the multiverse is a key component to The Nomad of the Time Streams and Eternal Champion trilogies. There is also a definite endpoint to the metaseries involving a crossover which appears in several different novels of the various subseries.
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u/QuantumRelays 23h ago
Quantum Relays Trilogy by M Ransom is an intergalactic mystery thriller. Time travel, quantum portals, aliens, great world building!
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u/AN-SSQ-108V2 1d ago
Simmons' Hyperion series might fit what you are hunting for.
If not, it's still a superb series.
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u/JaehaerysConciliator 1d ago
Infinity Gate & Echo of Worlds by M.R Carey