parallel earths, intelligent dinosuars (man-sized reptilians), portal in basement, invasion, intelligent ape-like men

[finney]

Howdy
The story opens with an invasion by intelligent lizards from an alternate earth/reality kicked off through the basement in some guy's house. An agent from a seperate alternate reality (and a bio-mechanical dog) seek to thwart this cross dimensional invasion. If I recall accurately, the lizard's means for opening cross reality portals was something like a chair crossed with a saddle that one sat on to direct where the portal would open.
There's quite a bit of travel between alternate realities as the story progresses, and I remember there were intelligent ape-like (yetis?) 'men' that assisted the primary protagonist in his eventual triumph over the lizard's invasion plans towards the end.
I've been trying to run this story down (I had it in paparback form) for quite a few years; so far, no luck. ANY help is appreciated.

Thank you,
Robert Finney

 

[Dave]

Could it be some kind of spin-off novel from the Sliders TV series?

 

[finney]

Howdy, all. I need help. I've been looking for several years for the title of a paperback I read years ago. I've searched online in general, paperback sci-fi publishers from back in the 70s and 80s (which is when I must've read it, based on where I was living), Wikipedia and Wikimedia, sci-fi groups such as this one, chat rooms going back to .alt stuff, and even published works reference books at larger college libraries, all to no avail. I've described the storyline so often, I could just about re-write it myself, but I can't find anybody that can even recall such a story, let alone give me the title. It's a parallel worlds theme.

So. Here goes:

The story opens with a special agent type guy awakening at night in the backyard of the man he's about to replace as his doppelganger in this world. That guy's going to die in a few minutes anyway, so there won't be any real danger of having too many whoever-he-is around. The reason he's there is to thwart an invasion of this particular world from intelligent dinosaurs (man-sized) that have learned how to open portals between parallel worlds and use those portals for conquest.
The story develops along expected lines with a series of encounters across various worldlines between the invading reptiloids and those seeking to oppose them. Towards the end, our hero is enlisting the aid of intelligent ape-like men; big, hairy, muscular, and just as smart as humans or reptiloids, but I don't recall if the author had them as evolved neanderthals, apes, gorillas, or some Yeti type. All I remember is they were big, strong, hairy, and willing to join in the fight to stop the encroachment of the reptiloids on other parallel worlds.
The cover art was of an early scene as seen from the basement; an over-the-shoulder look at the open portal (about an eight-foot circumference) with a reptiloid operator sitting in the background on some sort of device (I think it was tripodic, but ain't sure about that) in a saddle fit for his body with two or three other reptiloids about to come through.

Anybody that can help me with this? It's not like it's the greatest story to see print or anything, it's that I can't run it down that's the problem. Nobody but me seems to've ever read it, too.

Thank you for your time.

I posted back in 2012 looking for the same book, by the way.

 

[BAYLOR]

Ive read a alot science fiction and that book doesn't sound like anything ive ever read. it could that the book didn't stay in the stories for very long, lots of books come and go with little fanfare. Have you tried crosstie cover referencing it via Google images ? You might find it that way.

 

[BAYLOR]

There was A series done some years ago Calle Ray Bradbury Presents Dinosaur Empire , it spanned 8 volumes, ive never read the series but maybe your book might be one of those?

 

[otistdog]

I take it that your previous post was this one? Perhaps a moderator can merge them.

This one doesn't sound familiar to me, but perhaps a few questions can jog loose some additional details:

• Can you remember the first or last name of any character, or things suggested by/rhyming with the name?
• How does the protagonist know that this particular world is targeted for conquest?
• Is there a standard method of operation for the reptilians' conquests? If so, what is it?
• What is the "geography" of the multiverse? In other words, how are different worlds located with respect to each other? Are some "nearer" than others? Are all parallel worlds arranged with respect to each other along one dimension (like a number line), along two dimensions (like a plane), or via any kind of coordinate system? If so, what determines the coordinates?
• Is the protagonist replacing a version of himself or is it someone else entirely? If it is someone else, how does he expect to do this -- via disguise or surgery?
• How does the protagonist's "team" know that the person he is replacing is about to die?
• How does the person being replaced die?
• Are the portals to other realities all in the same "place" in the universe (i.e. all connecting one version of Earth to another)?

Even shaky details about which you aren't entirely certain and vague impressions only half-remembered can be helpful for this kind of search.

 

[tachyon]

This sounds bonkers and awesome and I hope we find it.

I'm assuming you read this in English, was it US or UK?
Where was the backyard (name of town, or city, state, country)?

 

[royheil]

The description makes me think out Keith Laumer. Perhaps Dinosaur Beach? I never read it, but Laumer did deal with agents taking the place of their alternate selves, trying to stop invasions, etc.. In one of his books, there were ape-like men.

 

[Tarsend]

Was the cover art more stylized or photo-realistic?

 

[Toby Frost]

The closest thing I can think of is Harry Harrison's West of Eden trilogy, which involve creatures evolved from semi-dinosaurs, but that's very much alternate history and doesn't involve any real technology.

 

[Elckerlyc]

It reminds me of Keith Laumer's Dinosaur Beach as well. And if I remember correctly, there are 2 versions. A short story and a novel.
I have the novel on the shelf and am pretty sure that the short story versions lurks there as well. They have slightly different endings.
I'll have to dust the shelves and browse through my books, to be certain. Can't anything on the Net yet.

 

[Danny McG]

Something tickling away in my creaky brain
"I know this"
"I know this"
"I know this"

 

[tachyon]

Well I have spent an embarrassing amount of my free time searching for this book without success, but finally came across:

Secret agent working for lizard overlords travels through parallel universes

Humans fighting across alternate worlds, portals, lizard people. These don't fit in all details but this is the closest I've come yet so I'm putting it here as a marker.

Timeliner trilogy by Richard C. Meredith:

At The Narrow Passage - 1973
No Brother, No Friend - 1976
Vestiges Of Time - 1978


A couple of bonus runners-up for fun:

Dimension of Miracles - 1979
Dimension of Miracles (Dimension of Miracles #1)

The cover of this looks promising (dude + dinosaur + portal) but it's something else entirely, though it gets good reviews and might be a fun read.

Red Flame Burning - 1985
Red Flame Burning

This one has the human going through the portal into the reptile-peoples' world and helping them out. Not the right setup but seems adequately bonkers and awesome so worth a mention.

 

[Dave]

I take it that your previous post was this one? Perhaps a moderator can merge them.

I did so, and I can't add to my earlier reply (it doesn't have much in common either.)

That idea of people from the future replacing people who were about to die was used in the TV series Travellers, created by Brad Wright. I had thought it was an original idea

 

[hitmouse]

Well I have spent an embarrassing amount of my free time searching for this book without success, but finally came across:

Secret agent working for lizard overlords travels through parallel universes

Humans fighting across alternate worlds, portals, lizard people. These don't fit in all details but this is the closest I've come yet so I'm putting it here as a marker.

Timeliner trilogy by Richard C. Meredith:

At The Narrow Passage - 1973
No Brother, No Friend - 1976
Vestiges Of Time - 1978


A couple of bonus runners-up for fun:

Dimension of Miracles - 1979
Dimension of Miracles (Dimension of Miracles #1)

The cover of this looks promising (dude + dinosaur + portal) but it's something else entirely, though it gets good reviews and might be a fun read.

Red Flame Burning - 1985
Red Flame Burning

This one has the human going through the portal into the reptile-peoples' world and helping them out. Not the right setup but seems adequately bonkers and awesome so worth a mention.

Dimension of Miracles is good solid absurdist SF. Douglas Adams has been accused of plagiarising it for HHGTTG. I think that is overatating things, but they are from a similar school.

 

[otistdog]

Some additional questions:

• You mentioned a "bio-mechanical dog" in your 2012 post. Can you remember anything about its anatomy, mechanisms, capabilities, level of intelligence, sex, model number, method of creation, name or nickname?
• Are there any other details, minor or major, that you can collect from your posts about this story on other sites and add to this thread?
• Do you remember anything else about the book's cover, like colors used, font size/details, approximate number of pages, etc.?

Given the amount of interest here, I'd say there's a decent chance of finding this if you can provide some more details. (Especially with dannymcg on the case.) Incidentally, there is a "sticky" post with other suggestions for getting book search help (by dannymcg) that might be useful to you.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I'm pretty sure that Laumer did the sapient dinos and neanderthals from parallel universes. But bits of what you describe sound like Paratime books (Piper) or the Crosstime Traffic by Turtledove.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[tachyon]

I'm beginning to think this book is from an alternate reality. No further progress but I have a nice list of books about parallel Earths.

 

[dask]

Sounds like something Philip Jose Farmer would dream up.