(Found) Searching for book title and author name

[Lord High Commander]

I am trying to find the title and author of a book I read many years ago.
I have only a few details.
There are two alien races at war.
One of the alien races is referred to as “Scarecrows” because of the way they look.
The aliens have teleportation devices, but they only send a copy of the individual, so it is not a true transporter. Two human characters discover this when they meet copies of themselves created by the transporter.
One odd note, the non-Scarecrow aliens have floors that absorb urine and feces.
Anyone recognize this sci-fi story/novel?

 

[Dave]

I haven't read this book, but no doubt someone here has and you won't have to wait long for an answer. My only contribution would be that there was a similar query to this before here:

(Found) Teleporters create ghost-like copies of people.

This is either a book or a short story. I read it as a teenager, around twenty years ago. I might remember some of all of it incorrectly. In the story, teleporters exist and seem to work fine. A traveler steps into a room and moments later steps out at a different location. However, there...

www.sffchronicles.com

Only that doesn't mention "Scarecrows" but that the copies looked like ghosts (and it was determined to probably be Echo Round His Bones, by Thomas Disch. "Scarecrow" ought to be a good word to search upon, except it brings up mainly rural fantasy and the Dr. Who episode as results.

It would help others if you could give a date for the publication, or at least when you read it. For instance, if it was read in the 1960's or '70's that would rule out Thomas Disch.

If you read this thread first. any other information suggested there would help:

(READ FIRST) Book Search Requests

This isn't a forum to ask for recommendations for stories, novels and book series. And it is meant as a public service, not a quiz game! We welcome requests for stories' names and authors to but to help us with your query please try to provide as much information as possible: ## Questions must...

www.sffchronicles.com

 

[Danny McG]

There was an answer on Stack Exchange to a similar question:-

 

[Cat's Cradle]

This sounded interesting, so I looked into it on Wikipedia... it seems The Eschaton Sequence may have been published as three novels:

The Other End of Time (1996)
The Siege of Eternity (1997)
The Far Shore of Time (1999)

The Wiki listings are kind of confusing, so I'm not sure if this is correct, but it may be a place to start looking.

 

[PaulMmn]

Then there was a story in Analog Magazine some years ago. Earth had barely invented teleporation devices, and people reported strange things- like their car had a back seat overflowing with trash, or clothing they had thrown out years ago re-appeared in their closets.
Turns out that the teleporter didn't have a lock on the copy of the universe it was 'porting to-- you had a good chance of ending up in a universe close to but not exactly the same as the one you left.
Then there was an accident on the space station. Man severely injured. They had a transporter, but they had figured out the cross-universe problem by then. Man said "Send me anyway." The man they received wasn't 100% human, but had the same injuries. They treated him, and assumed our human was treated wherever he ended up.

 

[Ravensquawk]

Do you remember whether the aliens kill the original of the person teleported? That's an entire theme among teleportation stories that narrows it down.

I did a search for "teleport" and "in this forum". It took a while to find, but this 2020 question was specifically about teleportation by making a duplicate, after which the original was killed.

 

[Lord High Commander]

The Eschaton Sequence

I believe this is it.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Cool! That was all thanks to Danny, CC

 

[PaulMmn]

The book, Way Station, by Clifford Simak, describes a teleportation method that can reach across galaxies, but they need intermediate stops here and there-- way stations. Although minimized in the book, the process transports a beings essence, creating a new body at the receiving end, leaving behind the now-dead husk that used to be its body, to be dissolved in strong acids and slurped into vast storage tanks in the basement of the station. This was more or less casually mentioned in the book, and wasn't a major plot point, but it was there.

 

[PaulMmn]

And yet another story-- teleportation created a duplicate, leaving behind a living copy, that was terminated (once reception was confirmed) so that only one of a person existed. Story mentions teleporting a rather large person, and the designer of the equipment has to assign more buffer space while the person is being transported.
Story specifically mentions 'quiescing' the transportee (ie stopping the heart and lung activity) to make it possible to get a good snapshot of the transportee. The original can be revived if the process does not complete normally.
Story also describes one of the people involved in the transport company intentionally NOT getting rid of the original, and allowing both the original and the copy to live. Person at the sending end marvels at the news report showing the copy praising the process (he's an ambassador of some sort).
One line I remember speaks of an advertisement taken out by the company speaking of "don't throw out the baby with the bathwater."