House Of Many Worlds [Paperback]

Sam Merwin Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1983

THE CLASSIC OF ALTERNATE EARTHS! Ancient, encrusted with legend, supposedly empty, the old mansion on Spindrift Key stood like a dark and lowering wraith. In this classic science fiction novel the New York Times called "a fast-moving adventure, told with engaging humor," reporter Elspeth Marriner's nose for news leads her into a world of trouble. Make that, in worlds of trouble. When she and photographer Mack Fraser, the man she loves to hate, are sent to investigate the old mansion in the Hatteras, they never dream that once inside their lives will never be the same. For the house is a gateway to alternate Earths, watched over by a mysterious group called the Workers, who guard against more advanced civilizations crossing the dimensional barriers to conquer defenseless neighbors. From the Workers, Elspeth learns that her and Mack's presence at the house is no accident. They have been personally selected by the Workers for a dangerous assignment. Their unique combination of talents and knowledge are needed to counter a threat that could plunge the entire world into war. If Elspeth accepted the assignment, she would have to cross to another world, aided only by her native ingenuity, then surmount a succession of plots and counterplots, with death the price of failure. Worse, she would have to work more closely than ever with the detested Mark Fraser. "Merwin has created characters that are human … House of Many Worlds is entertaining and realistic." San Francisco Chronicle. "House of Many Worlds is an exciting ... story, with a new and highly unusual twist … outstanding for its realistic characters and expert seasoning of thrills and horror." H. L. Gold, Galaxy Magazine.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ace (January 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441344461
• ISBN-13: 978-0441344468
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,596,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Parallel Worlds Novel, September 24, 2011

By 

John R. Grout (SF Bay Area, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: House Of Many Worlds (Paperback)

This fascinating short novel about the Watchers, a group that sees to the welfare of many alternate versions of Earth, sends two feature story journalists... poetess Elspeth, photographer Mack... as apprentice agents to two versions of North America. The first features a North America remade during the turbulence of the Napoleonic Wars... a conservative, Southern-dominated country (Columbia) set up by Aaron Burr and his allies after they overthrew the Madison Administration and a Mexican empire established by Napoleon himself after a Columbian frigate sprang him from exile in Saint Helena. The second is a somewhat fictional version of our own world, set slightly ahead of the novel's publication (with a third Roosevelt in the White House who splits his time between Washington and the emerging world capital of San Francisco, which retained the United Nations).

Though the novel spends too much time on Elspeth's and Mack's flings and their own extended flirtation, it also has many strengths. Merwin presents a series of vivid characters from Columbia (e.g., an Afro-Columbian general with a suspicious resemblance to Othello who is Elspeth's love interest, an inventor haunted by his family's techno-carpetbagging in a post-alternate Civil War New York City, a vicious agent of a foreign power) and "our" world (the team's supervising Watcher agent Juana who is Mack's love interest, President Roosevelt and his daughter Christine). I think the novel's greatest strength is how Merwin manages to sell each of the North Americas... including the lightly-sketched Brittanic one from which Elspeth and Mack originate... as full equals, each with its quirks, strengths and weaknesses.

At a panel discussion I attended years ago, Harry Turtledove and the other SF authors on the panel gave high praise to "House of Many Worlds" as a classic of alternate worlds SF.