Alternities [Paperback]

Michael P. Kube-McDowell (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 383 pages
• Publisher: Ace (October 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441017746
• ISBN-13: 978-0441017744
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,905,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable book, January 27, 2008

By 

Gareth Power - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alternities (Hardcover)

This is a powerfully realised parallel universe novel, set in the 1970s. Its two main threads are:

- The experiences of everyman agent Rayne Wallace, whose marriage is disintegrating as he is drawn ever-deeper into his government's secret infiltration of a number of accidentally discovered parallel earths.

- The plot of the reckless US president Robinson to launch a sneak attack on the USSR.

The whole premise is fully thought through, and is realised brilliantly. The parallel worlds feel completely real, inhabited by real people. The story is full of astute observations about relationships and political machinations.

McDowell is a master of the thriller style. The writing, by and large, is excellent. I have just one criticism of the way the book is written - he has a tendency to over-describe emotional passages, and particular those involving physical intimacy. A tad more subtlety would have helped in these instances. This over-description notwithstanding, these scenes are intelligent and well-observed.

One striking facet of the novel is the way Alternity Blue's Norfolk nuclear incident is so evocative of the World Trade Centre attack. This book was written in the late 80s, and so obviously this was not intentional. But it's a mark of the writer's intelligence that it seems so apt in 2008.

All in all, this is an exceptionally good science fiction/political thriller novel. McDowell is clearly a writer of burning intelligence, and I look forward to reading more of his books.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read!, June 25, 2005

By 

Pro-Life - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alternities (Hardcover)

This was the perfect combination of SF and political drama. It really outlined the dangers of too much power falling into the wrong hands. All of the characters' stories were compelling. It really pulled you right in from the start. Definitely worth the read!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent novel that respects the reader's intelligence, May 8, 2009

By 

Mark Klobas (Tempe, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Alternities (Hardcover)

What would you do if you discovered a path to alternate worlds? This question is at the heart of Michael P. Kube-McDowell's novel, which begins with a businessman from a different America who stumbles across a gateway to a number of parallel Earths. His discovery is exploited by a U.S. government in a world where it is losing the Cold War. Initially using it as a means of gaining new technologies, the president is emboldened by its existence to take increasingly aggressive measures that risk annihilation by the superior Soviet forces, secure in the existence of an alternate world refuge should it occur. Yet as he pushes the world closer to nuclear war, a growing number of people in his world and another work to stop him before it is too late.

Kube-McDowell's novel is an impressively imaginative work, one that succeeds through quality writing. His genius is in respecting the reader's intelligence; whereas many alternate history authors convey the differences of their worlds through clumsy exposition, Kube-Mcdowell lets readers discover his worlds slowly through the story itself and "documentation" that he intersperses between the chapters. Though I found this approach frustrating at first, it created a real sense of investment in the text that paid off as the novel went along. Though his explanation of the gateway phenomenon at the end of the novel was not to my taste, it is a minor quibble, and one that is presented in a way that detracts neither from the plot or the ability to enjoy the novel as a whole. In short, this is a quality novel, one worth the time of any fan of science fiction.