John Adams - Other Worlds Than These

He rises just before dawn, in a marvellous foggy stillness. The Camerons have been wonderfully hospitable, but he must be moving along. He scrawls a thank-you note and slips it under their bedroom door. Let’s get together again someday. Somewhere. Somehow. They wanted him as a house guest for a week or two, but no, he feels like a bit of an intruder here, and anyway the universe is waiting for him. He has to go. The journey, not the arrival, matters, for what else is there but trips? Departing is unexpectedly painful, but he knows the mood will pass. He closes his eyes. He breaks his moorings. He gives himself up to his sublime restlessness. Onward. Onward. Goodbye, Elizabeth. Goodbye, Chris. I’ll see you both again. Onward.

What follows is a selected bibliography of portal fantasies and parallel universe fiction. Some imagine multiverses; others, worlds just slightly shifted from our own in space and time. Some reveal elfin doorways to strange realities; others offer gateways to grandiose planetary romance; still others posit entire universes held within the hearts of atoms. Titles notable for their high literary value are marked with an asterisk. To paraphrase e. e. cummings: there’s one hell of a universe next door… let’s go!

To learn more about the stories in Other Worlds Than These , visit the anthology’s website at johnjosephadams.com/other-worlds-than-these.

Abbott, Edwin A.

—Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions *

Alexander, Lloyd

—The First Two Lives of Lukas Kasha

Allston, Aaron

—Doc Sidhe

—Sidhe Devil

Anderson, Pohl

—Operation Chaos

Anthony, Piers

—Split Infinity (et seq.)

Applegate, K. A.

—Search for Senna (et seq.)

Asimov, Isaac

—The Gods Themselves *

Bach, Richard

—One

Ball, Margaret

—No Earthly Sunne

Barker, Clive

—Imajica *

—Weaveworld

Barron, Natania

—Pilgrim of the Sky

Baum, L. Frank

—The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (et seq.)

Baxter, Stephen

—Raft

Brown, Frederic

—What Mad Universe

Burroughs, Edgar Rice

—A Princess of Mars (et seq.)

—Pirates of Venus (et seq.)

Carroll, Lewis

—Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

—Through the Looking Glass

Cavendish, Margaret

—The Blazing World

Coney, Michael

—Charisma

Crumley, Andrew

—Mobius Dick

Dean, Pamela

—The Secret Country (et seq.)

DeChancie, John

—Castle Perilous (et seq.)

Dick, Philip K.

—The Man in the High Castle *

Donaldson, Stephen R.

—The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (series)

—Mordant’s Need (series)

Dunsany, Lord

—The King of Elfland’s Daughter *

Egan, Greg

—Diaspora

Ende, Michael

—The Neverending Story

Farmer, Philip Jose

—Maker of Universes (et seq.)

Farren, Nick

—Necrom

Feist, Raymond E.

—The Riftwar Saga (series)

Fforde, Jasper

—The Eyre Affair (et seq.)

Foster, Alan Dean

—Spellsinger (et seq.)

—Parallelities

Friesner, Esther

—Elf Defense (et seq.)

Frohock, Teresa

—Miserere: An Autumn Tale

Gaiman, Neil

—Coraline

—Neverwhere *

Gerrold, David

—The Man Who Folded Himself*

Gould, Steven

—Wildside

Grossman, Lev

—The Magicians (et seq.)

Hambly, Barbara

—The Silent Tower (et seq.)

—The Time of the Dark (et seq.)

Heinlein, Robert A.

—The Number of the Beast *

—Glory Road

Hoffman, Mary

—Stravaganza: City of Masks (et seq.)

Hogan, James P.

—Paths to Otherwhere

Holdstock, Robert

—Mythago Wood *

Howard, Robert E.

—Almuric

Jones, Diana Wynne

—Charmed Life (et seq.)

—Deep Secret (et seq.)

—Dark Lord of Derkholm (et seq.)

Jones, Raymond F.

—Renaissance (AKA Man of Two Worlds )

Juster, Norton

—The Phantom Tollbooth

Kay, Elizabeth

—The Divide (et seq.)

Kay, Guy Gavriel

—The Fionavar Tapestry (series)

Kendrick, Mark Ian

—The Rylerran Gateway

King, Stephen

—The Dark Tower (series)

King, Stephen and Peter Straub

—The Talisman *

Kube-McDowell, Michael P.

—Alternities (et seq.)

L’Engle, Madeleine

—A Wrinkle in Time (et seq.)

Laumer, Keith

—Worlds of the Imperium

Lawhead, Stephen R.

—The Skin Map (et seq.)

Lawrence, Michael

—A Crack in the Line (et seq.)

Le Guin, Ursula K.

—Changing Planes

Leiber, Fritz

—The Big Time

Lewis, C. S.

—The Chronicles of Narnia (series)

Lindsay, David

—A Voyage to Arcturus (et seq.)

Lovecraft, H. P.

—The Dream-Quest of Unknown

Kadath

Lukyanenko, Sergey

—Rough Draft

MacHale, D. J.

—The Merchant of Death (et seq.)

McAuley, Paul

—Cowboy Angels

McDonald, Ian

—Planesrunner (et seq.)

Mellick III, Carlton

—The Haunted Vagina

Melko, Paul

—The Walls of the Universe (et seq.)

Miéville, China

—Un Lun Dun

Miles, Lawrence

—Dead Romance

Mirrlees, Hope

—Lud-in-the-Mist *

Moorcock, Michael

—Eternal Champion (series)

—The Cornelius Quartet (series)

—Warlord of the Air

Murakami, Haruki

—Hard Boiled Wonderland and the

End of the World *

Myers, John Myers

—Silverlock

Nichols, Ruth

— A Walk Out of the World

Norman, Jon

—Gor (series)

Norton, Andre

—Star Gate

Parkin, Lance

—Warlords of Utopia (et seq.)

Piper, H. Beam

—Paratime (series)

Pohl, Frederik

—The Coming of the Quantum Cats

Pullman, Philip

—His Dark Materials (series)

Reynolds, Alastair

—Absolution Gap

Robinett, Stephen

—Stargate

Rucker, Rudy

—Jim and the Flims

Ruff, Matt

—The Mirage

Russ, Joanna

—The Female Man *

Sawyer, Robert J.

—Hominids (et seq.)

Shan, Darren

—Lord Loss (et seq.)

Sherman, Josepha

—The Shattered Oath (et seq.)

Smith, L. Neil

—The Probability Broach (et seq.)

Stephenson, Neal

— Anathem *

Stirling, S. M.

—Conquistador

Stross, Charles

—The Merchant Princes (series)

Turtledove, Harry

—Crosstime Traffic (series)

—After the Downfall

Valente, Catherynne M.

—Palimpsest *

Webb, Catherine

—Mirror Dreams (et seq.)

Wells, H. G.

— Men Like Gods