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Questions tagged [parallel-universe]

For questions about a parallel universe or alternative reality, a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality.

7 votes
1 answer
384 views

Book series about an orphan befriending a dragon and traveling between stars

In my early years, I read a book about a orphan boy with strange colored eyes found on a off-planet world and raised, for some reason, I keep thinking his name is Fix although this may be incorrect. ...
Gagan's user avatar
  • 71
5 votes
1 answer
277 views

Name of comic book about steam punk-ish parallel universe

I want to find the name of a comic I read in 1990-ies- it begins with a man piloting his spaceship, he crashes and wakes up in a different world- it's set somewhere between Victorian and 1930-ies, but ...
Karlis I.'s user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
4k views

When was the concept of multiverse used in comics for the first time?

The concept of multiverse, sharing different universes and characters travelling in other alternate dimensions, when was the first time this happened in comic books ?
Tango Alpha's user avatar
  • 5,811
18 votes
3 answers
5k views

Boy meets female version of self from alternate dimension after his mother dies

When I was young I read a book about a teenage boy whose life was very miserable because his mother had died. He then finds a girl in his house and she thinks she is in her house. They share about ...
Amy Lown's user avatar
  • 197
3 votes
1 answer
257 views

Where exactly is the Forbidding?

In The Elfstones of Shannara, the demons emerge from some point beyond the west boundary of the Westland, which is claimed by Allanon to be 'the weakest point in the Forbidding'. In Jarka Ruus, it is ...
TimSparrow's user avatar
37 votes
3 answers
5k views

Story Identification: Fantasy world that is "the one true world"

Sometime in the early 90's, I borrowed an audio book from a local library. I would be interested in reading it in full, but I don't remember the author or title. Given that it was an audio book in a ...
Ohndei's user avatar
  • 504
13 votes
1 answer
535 views

Looking for a book with parallel universes like pages, possibly with "maze" in title, and a black Jewish female character

Looking for a book. A series, actually. The main characters were a Jewish man and a black woman who was his wife. There was a running gag when she would tell people her last name and they thought it ...
Adam's user avatar
  • 133
10 votes
1 answer
518 views

Looking for a sci-fi collection book 2000 to 2010 containing two specific stories

First, the cover has a purple alien riding a motorbike down a road at night. As I recall it's sort of squid like, and wearing biker clothes. The two stories are: Three friends discover a device ...
Daniel The questioner's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
129 views

Why has the government collapsed in the Reckoners alternative reality?

In the Reckoners' universe, the government collapses because the epics are too powerful to be controlled, except by other, more powerful, epics. However, because all epics are evil, the epics all work ...
Mark Gardner's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
445 views

Would it have made any difference if Harry Potter didn't wear glasses?

From this interesting question and with its even more interesting answers, I deduce following: Poor eyesight cannot be healed by even Magic Harry had already been in trouble numerous times due to his ...
Karan Desai's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
269 views

Can anyone help identify a book about a group of outsider teens sucked into another universe?

I have been trying to find a book I read as a teenager for many years. I swear it was called The Outsiders with a black skull on a plain white cover, but the only book that comes up when I search is ...
Helena Rabin's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
354 views

What is the actual time relationship between the Land and our Earth realities?

In the book series The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, there is a clear time discrepancy between the Land's time and our Earth time. Roughly, between the first and second time Covenant ...
ScottS's user avatar
  • 3,580
7 votes
1 answer
239 views

What was this (novel or short) story about travel between parallel/multiple universes by tuning into them like a radio?

Many years ago I read a story about multiple universes splitting apart, and the possibility to trade between them using a radio like scanner to find where you left from. It may be a short story or a ...
Dono2000's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
1k views

Book - Man returns from Vietnam and opens portal to another world with his ham radio

If I remember correctly, a guy comes home from Vietnam and starts playing with his ham radio and somehow creates a portal to another Earth. Then I remember a jump in time. Now, it's our time and ...
user76108's user avatar
  • 324
13 votes
1 answer
626 views

Science fiction book about alien ship containing doorways into alternate worlds or timelines [duplicate]

I read this book a couple of years ago and can't remember the name or the author (also not sure if it was just one book or series - if it was more than one book, then it would be 2 or at most 3 books)....
J BR549's user avatar
  • 133
5 votes
1 answer
3k views

Anime with boy who can see fighting mecha robots in parallel world

I think this anime aired on the Catalan public TV some years ago, maybe around 2005. I only remember watching the first episode, but probably it was a TV series. Or maybe it was just an one-shot with ...
Oriol's user avatar
  • 4,305
14 votes
4 answers
984 views

What was the earliest SF work that used the idea of the "Multiverse"?

The discussion below this question leads me to ask: What was the earliest SF work that used the idea of the Multiverse (parallel universes or alternate worlds)? I'm looking for fairly hard SF ...
Joe L.'s user avatar
  • 28.2k
5 votes
2 answers
995 views

In the Reckoners alternate universe, why did David’s father kill him?

In the book Calamity, David (the books narrator and protagonist) goes to a universe where Calamity has vanished, and some of the epics are good, some are bad. The first person he meets there is ...
Mark Gardner's user avatar
-6 votes
1 answer
485 views

Is the Concept of the Multiverse Unique to Superhero Comic Books? [closed]

I'm doing some research into the concept of the multiverse, and I was wondering: Is the concept of the multiverse unique to the genre of superhero literature? Obviously the occasional book or tv show ...
Multiverse's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
388 views

Story identification - possible series, alternate universes, maybe some kind of police force?

I'm looking for some help please; I'm trying to find out the title(s?) of a book(s?) I read over 20 years ago. I can't remember much about them — may have been a series (I think there was more than ...
Paul's user avatar
  • 359
4 votes
1 answer
535 views

fantasy kids book series where 3 main characters are from different worlds, have powers, and are fighting a bad guy

If said bad guy uses/finds out their real names he gets control over them. It starts off with a young male protagonist that is from a version of "our world" he discovers he can transform any matter ...
laura's user avatar
  • 41
6 votes
1 answer
421 views

What was a scifi short story where the universe became more complicated the more we learnt about it.

I think it was in an anthology edited by Gardner Dozois from the 90s, but I might be wrong. It's a wispy memory, it might have been in a novel by Jane Jensen.
Mark Daniel Osborne's user avatar
41 votes
6 answers
7k views

What's the most recent specific historical element that is common between Star Trek and the real world?

It is well known that there appears to be some divergence between the events of the Star Trek universe and ours (in particular, the Augments and Khan Singh, etc.) Related: Has Star Trek ever ...
ThePopMachine's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
227 views

What is the first appearance of a dark alternate world in fiction?

In many works of fiction we have seen the presence of a dark, alternate, usually near mirrored version of a world. Examples of this would be in Zelda: A Link to the Past, and more recently My ...
Scrotinger's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
755 views

Is there any evidence of alternate-reality Time Lords?

In his answer to this question, Thaddeus states that we have never seen any evidence of Time Lords from alternate dimensions. While I trust Thaddeus's judgement, the answer is from 2012. Additionally,...
Rogue Jedi's user avatar
  • 67.1k
6 votes
1 answer
582 views

Story Identification: Novel about a girl and her mother who survive by walking through people's dreams

I read a book a little while ago and I am trying to figure out the name of it. It was fiction and that much I know. It was about a girl and her mother in the real world and unlike normal people they ...
M.Cartagena's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
671 views

Looking for a sci-fi book series that starts with a girl who tries to commit suicide and is pulled into an alternate universe

The series starts out with a girl who doesn't think life is worth living any more. When she tries to commit suicide she is pulled into an alternate universe. This only able to happen because she is a ...
Ruth Frontz's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
274 views

Im looking for a book about parallel worlds

So there is this book I read a while ago on Kindle unlimited and forgot about, and now cant find the name because KU doesn't store books that you have already read :( It is about this guy who gets ...
Ranogan's user avatar
  • 63
3 votes
1 answer
122 views

1960s era story about writer in parallel universe being stalked by predator

I am looking for the title of a novel about a writer approached to publish books in alternative universes. As he has no natural predators one always comes into existence in each universe visited.
user66302's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
4k views

Movie about a man with 2 alternate lives (reality and in dreams)

I barely remember a movie about a man (or maybe woman) who had 2 lives: when he goes to sleep he wakes up in his dream, and when he falls asleep in his dream he wakes up in his real life. But he ...
psmith's user avatar
  • 191
10 votes
2 answers
911 views

Children's book from the 90s early 00s about kids discovering a parallel town. Green book cover

I read a book in the late 90s or very early 00s, and I know it had a green cover, crazy green colour with a lot of activity on it too. It was about some kids who discovered this other parallel town or ...
Vicky's user avatar
  • 101
11 votes
0 answers
304 views

Book with parallel universes being taken over by an evil presence

It would have been published around 2012. It's about a guy taking a girl with him to parallel universes. The universes are empty/dangerous because there is an evil presence there; something like big ...
surgerator's user avatar
38 votes
6 answers
10k views

Can Marty McFly ever truly return home?

In the Back to the Future trilogy, the character Marty McFly travels back in time, and meets his own parents. In doing this, he directly changes the outcome of many things including the relationship ...
Jason Hutchinson's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
360 views

How were the parts of the machine placed in our universe?

If no one has ever came across into our universe then how have they placed parts of the device in our universe and they even know the co-ordinates of the device parts? The device is the one that Peter ...
Usman Kurd's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
397 views

Is our universe stronger than the alternate universe?

In Fringe, It seemed that our universe is stronger than the alternate universe, because whenever someone went to their universe from ours it caused their universe's geological membrane damage, ...
Usman Kurd's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
491 views

Is it possible to index an infinite number of timelines in a universe-agnostic manner?

One of the plot devices used in Rick and Morty is the concept of an infinite number of alternate (i.e. parallel) universes. The characters in the show seem to use some sort of multi-universal indexing ...
Vatsal Manot's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
5k views

How come an older Jadzia Dax appears in DS9 ‘The Visitor’?

A UK TV channel has been re-running this here and have just shown an episode, The Visitor, where Sisko meets a much-older Jake. Not the most gripping episode, but the future includes an older and ...
MartynA's user avatar
  • 351
8 votes
0 answers
897 views

Looking for the name of the book where a character enters another world in where he is part of a prophecy

I read this book in elementary school but don't remember the title, author or anything aside from a few vivid points. The story starts in the real world (I believe it's around WW2) where a boy ...
Mika Smith's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
3k views

Where do baby daemons come from?

In the His Dark Materials trilogy, each person in Lyra's world has a daemon, which seems to be a part of their soul. Where do these daemons come from? Are they birthed by other daemons or do they ...
Adele- Nexus of Potlucks's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
243 views

Help identifying a dystopian story with someone traveling to an alternate universe [duplicate]

I read the beginning of this book, and I'd like to finish it. I think the story centered on a scientist, after a nuclear cataclysm, who had tried to help people but everything went wrong, and people ...
Mithical's user avatar
  • 39k
7 votes
3 answers
546 views

Looking for a science fiction book: single novel, slow rotation alt earth. Protagonist travels between clans/groups to unite them

Read/published in late 70s or into 80s. The hero is thrown into the story, which begins in a grassland setting where the people are nomadic because of the slow planet rotation with grass fires ...
cwpetey's user avatar
  • 81
13 votes
1 answer
1k views

Who replaced Worf Prime?

In "Parallels", our Worf finds himself uncontrollably shifting into alternate "quantum" realities, one after the other. Eventually, the crew of various alt-Enterprises succeed in locating the prime "...
Lightness Races in Orbit's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
704 views

What "time travel" story required the traveller to mentally reconstruct his world in order to return to it?

Here's what I remember about it: The protagonist is sent a relatively short distance into the future (maybe a year? I've forgotten). When he arrives in this "future" he finds himself in a completely ...
Nonomori's user avatar
  • 163
7 votes
2 answers
1k views

When and why did the Marvel Universe start to have alternative Universes?

The Original universe of each character could stand on their own as good/great stories, so why make alternate universes with different stories that couldn't cross (in most cases) with the same ...
jagc's user avatar
  • 151
6 votes
5 answers
3k views

Book about a glass world behind a mirror

There was this book that I read when I was young, maybe like 11 years old. A girl went into the mirror in her bedroom and found this world made entirely of glass. There were glass butterflies and ...
mira spiz's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
4k views

Is the Force (as some kind of fundamental physical interaction) unique to the Star Wars Galaxy?

As far as I understand, the galaxy of the Star Wars supposedly exists in our universe ("a galaxy far, far away"). So I have to wonder: is the Force (as a metaphysical and ubiquitous power or ...
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
217 views

The Heechee Saga / Gateway - Does it occur in a parallel universe?

In Gateway, by Frederick Pohl, there is a line that has bothered me every time I've read the series. Except for it, there is nothing that I am aware of in the books to indicate that the events occur ...
Jason Patterson's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
2k views

What's special about the Mirror Universe?

The Mirror Universe is depicted in no fewer than eight Star Trek episodes. It's established that these take place in the same universe. In "Crossover", Mirror Kira recaps the TOS episode "Mirror, ...
ThePopMachine's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
448 views

Story ID - Humans of various epochs are transported to a world

I woke up the other morning with this story on my mind. I've tried some googling, but my efforts are coming up with nothing useful. My memory of the specifics of the material is pretty pathetic, ...
Jason Patterson's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

A book about a girl waking up to a 'same but different' life after having a bad fight with her boyfriend by the water

Looking for the title of this book (10+ years back). A girl wakes up to what seems like her life but there are discrepancies that can't be explained. She and her boyfriend had fought the night before, ...
Rose's user avatar
  • 69

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