[FOUND] Parallel Earths, psychological misfits, varied histories and dimensions

[mintoji]

It has become apparent that we are not alone, multi dimensioned earths with different histories and physical realities exist along side our own. The best and the brightest when sent travelling to these strange worlds come back quivering wrecks. What's needed are the loose and dysfunctional who are not likely to be phased by the physical and social disparities between our reality and those experience elsewhere. Our hero is just such an individual. The story becomes more involved as a least one other world sends an agent to explore our world. The plot I cannot remember, but I suspect a race against time to establish peace and understanding before the panicked straights demolished the cosmos. I read this in the late sixties, it was for young adults and I would appreciate any help in finding it. Thanks, Ian

 

[Riselka]

It's probably not the book you're looking for, but it sounds at least somewhat similar to QUEST CROSSTIME by Andre Norton.

 

[Doctor Crankenstein]

Whatever it is, It sounds fascinating...

 

[mintoji]

There is a element of the Andre Norton about this but as you suspected its not the one I'm thinking of. The physical manifestations of the people are alarmingly different between the worlds. Hence you don't know if you'll be a precise geometry or an amorphous blob when you arrive on the other side. At one point the the traffic in "our" New York is brought to a halt when someone comes over from another dimension and arrives on the side walk of Fifth Avenue as a naked young woman. In her world they're a jumbled of spinning triangles, the point being that there are few points of absolute comparison between the realities, hence the difficulty for a well grounded "normal" person to make the journey without coming to psychological harm. I hope some of this rings a bell in someone's memory. I can see the shelf in North Shields public library from which I picked the book decades ago but just did not commit the author or title to memory. Anyway thanks for giving it some thought. all the best, Ian

 

[Ursa major]

I recall a thread in Book Search about a series of YA books concerning parallel Earths (and recall contributing to it). Sadly, the Search function isn't functionaing very well and I can't find it.

I only read one book in the series (almost certainly the first). My recollections are hazy, but then I haven't seen the book for nearly forty years. But on the off-chance that they may jog your memory (or that of someone who contributed to the other thread), here they are:

The folk on Earth (which isn't ours) have discovered a fast way of travelling between places on their own world. Unfortunately, most things come back inside out. (I think one was a pencil which returned with the "lead" on the outside.) The main character in the book can travel this way. He or she (there's a counterpart on our Earth and I'm not sure which is the boy and which is the girl) is able to make a turn not in the usual 3 dimensions but in another one. They then pass (walk) through a shadowy realm until reappearing some distance away in their own. The shadowy realm is, needless to say, a parallel Earth. The girl (from whichever Earth it is) has violet eyes.

There were, I believe, one or more sequels which may better match your recollections. I could not, and cannot, remember the title of the book, series or author, but these were correctly identified in that other thread.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Have fun

AllReaders.com Precision Book Search

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Hmm...I've read Ursa's book(s), and I may have read Ian's, and I couldn't tell you whether they were the same or not, nor what they were. Fat lot of help I am!

I'll go poking through a cabinet full of books that one of them might be in, when I get a chance.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

World Walker - Melisa Michael

(Maybe)

Involes an agency trying to prevent people crossing between worlds (appaently)

 

[Ursa major]

I've found that other thread:

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/42869-help-book-read-in-70s-about-absolute-zero.html
​

The book for which the OP in that thread was looking turned out to be The Universe Between by Alan E. Nourse.

(It may or may not have been the book of which I was thinking. And the "violet" eyes may have been purple.)

 

[mintoji]

I believe Ursa has majored! Anyway having read the synopsis, I've ordered a copy of Dr. Nourse's book and will confirm or otherwise in due course. Independent of outcome thank you for your diligent efforts. This has also saved me an additional post as I was going to ask about another book that turns out to be by the same author. all the best, Ian

 

[Ursa major]

Don't forget to let us know if our guesses turn out to be correct.



(By the way, Wiki says that the novel, The Universe Between (1965) is a fix-up of two novelettes: High Threshold (March 1951) and The Universe Between (September 1951), both published in Astounding.)

 

[mintoji]

Yes. It's The Universe Between by Alan E. Nourse. Still a good read after all these years. My memory was not perfect but good enough and Uras major is correct as regards inside out pencils, violet eyes, and Astounding. Thanks all for the help. Ian.