In Other Worlds

infobox Book |
name = In Other Worlds
title_orig =
translator =


author = A. A. Attanasio
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Radix Tetrad
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher =
release_date = 1985
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages = 175
isbn = ISBN 0-552-99168-6
preceded_by = Radix
followed_by = Arc of the Dream

"In Other Worlds" is a 1985 novel by A. A. Attanasio, the second in his "Radix" Tetrad. It contains humans, zōtl, Rimstalkers, other spatial dimensions, and time-travel/temporal distortion as do other novels in the tetrad, though they are re-envisioned.

Plot

The protagonist Carl Schirmer, a balding, somewhat overweight man, works at a bar owned by alcoholic widow Caitlin whose attractive daughter Sheelagh also works at the bar and with whom Carl is in love. The bar was an Irish pub that was in severe danger of going out of business before Carl lost his job as a broker and invested his savings in it. Carl spends his last day as a human experiencing unusual effects.

Carl feels 'under the weather' when he gets up. He experiences some unusual phoenomena to do with electricity such as him sparking, paper being attracted to him, others experiencing shock when he touches them and electrical appliances failing when he is near. A faint glow is noticeable around him on his way home at the end of the day and the water in his bathroom floats during his shower.

The next morning his friend Zee turns up to collect Carl for their run only to find the bathroom severely scorched and the bathroom mirror strangely etched with an image that is, upon computer enhancement by a friend of Zee's, revealed to be "Carl Schirmer's horror-crazed features."

Later, Zee writes a science fiction story based on Carl's disappearance and subsequent activities in another universe.

Carl returns to consciousness and communicates with a lake-like entity that refers to itself as an "eld skyle", a five-space consciousness. It claims to have transported Carl from 125 thousand million years ago to a "special region inside the cosmic black hole at the end of the universe." This space is called Werld and is about a light-second across. The eld skyle feeds upon inertia (a term not necessarily the same as the physical concept of inertia) or the imperfections in Carl's DNA which it imports after sending out sub-atomic spores. It "adamises" Carl, that is, it remakes Carl in an ideal human form. It also imprints information on him about Werld, and tells him that he will encounter the human (at least, human-like) Foke, including a woman called Evoë who will fall in love with him.

The Foke are humans who live outside Rhene, the city at the centre of Werld, and engage in warfare with the zōtl. Humans who live in Rhene undergo a lottery where 1% become food for the zōtl in the zōtl city of Galgul. If a citizen survives seven lotteries his name is removed from the lottery list. Citizens of the Rhene are free to leave but usually do not as they can normally survive only a few days outside of their city: many of the skyles are inhabited by dangerous predators and travel between skyles is dangerous even with training and fin-suits.

Male zōtl are like large (for spiders), black, flying spiders. They feed on pain by implanting their feeding tubes into brains and not letting their host lose consciousness. They can also control their hosts in this manner. Female zōtl are larger, black, hairy cylinders with whom males must interface regularly as the two sexes each only have part of the necessary chemicals need to metabolise food.

In order to not be hunted down by zōtl, the Foke must not use metal and hence have a low technology level. They are aware of "droppings" arriving, being brought to world by eld skyle, but Carl is the first that can speak Foke. Most droppings are left to die or traded with the zōtl for Foke prisoners.

As he can speak Foke, Carl travels with them for a time via "fallpaths" (air currents) between the various floating islands of Werld. He is blamed for the death of several Foke in a zōtl attack.

He meets up Evoë and the pair do fall in love only she is captured by zōtl who take her to the zōtl city of Galgul.

The plant-animal "thornbird" that originally transported Carl from the eld skyle to the Foke reappears and takes Carl back tot the eld skyle.

The eld skyle reveals that it needs a particular food to repair itself, that it knew Evoë would be captured, and that it brought the pair to-gether as incentive for Carl to return once it sends Carl away to procure its food. Carl is to travel to Earth, place a lynk (a sort of portal between regions of space) in the midst of the 3.5 tons of pig manure the eld skyle needs, and guard earth from the zōtl who will detect the lynk and attempt to invade Earth for food.

The eld skyle calls in a favour from the "Rimstalkers" (so named because the live on the rim of Werld) who, secure from zōtl attack due to dangerous conditions for navigation, have high technology. Carl gains an artificially intelligent suit of armour, an electrogravitic weapon of variable function, and card that can function as a changeable ID card, EFT-POS card, &c. giving him access to nearly unlimited funds that the eld skyle has arranged in the name of Alfred Omega, Carl’s new mythically inspired identity on Earth. Carl is warned that his blood must not be spilled as it contains spore that would transport the whole of his planet to the eld skyle who would be destroyed in the process.

On his return to what Carl dubs "Earth 2" (due to it having an alternate history since World War I), he procures the pig manure, sets up the lynk, spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on Caitlin and Sheelagh (who repeatedly tries to seduce him now that he has an attractive body only Carl is in love with Evoë. Sheelagh eventually succeeds when Carl reasons that Evoë would want him to enjoy himself only in her enthusiasm at his manual ministrations she scratches him. Carl reacts strongly, reveals the wherefore of his reaction, and is condemned by Sheelagh for putting her at risk of travelling to Werld because she does not wish to go there) and is condemned by Caitlin as demon possessed.

Carl also rescues Zee from an insane asylum. Zee has been experiencing trance like states called "inspelling" which allow him to reveal, with complete accuracy, the names of winning horses in races which he tells to a kindly orderly who subsequently makes money from the bets. Zee believes Carl to be in another reality. It turns out that apart from superficial differences in names, Zee’s science fiction story is an accurate description of Carl’s experience, including the character name of Alfred Omega.

Carl's Rimstalker armour delays killing some zōtl who more-or-less accidentally accompanied Carl to Earth 2 until, Carl realises afterwards, the zōtl have activated their lynk. The subsequent gravitic pulse from Carl’s weapon passes through the lynk, is amplified, and destroys half of the zōtl city.

The Rimstalkers deny sending Carl to destroy the zōtl city (they would have sent a weapon large enough to destroy the whole city had they planned an attack) and in a conciliatory gesture cede a set of tamper proof armour to the zōtl. (It is revealed that the Rimstalkers don’t simply attack the zōtl city as the zōtl would collapse Werld in the event of an attack.)

Sheelagh inform on Carl to Earth authorities and pushes him onto a drugged needle. He is taken to an underground facility and stripped of his armour. When the zōtl send this armour after Carl as part of an invasion force he is given his armour back and is released. The two armours cancel each other and Carl kills the exposed zōtl with a rock.

On his return Zee loses his inspelling visions and the Rimstalkers take back their armour but not the weapon. The eld skyle tells Carl that only 80 000 people were contaminated with his spore and that the weapon is a bomb.

Carl meets up with a suicide attack force of Foke, led by the leader of the group that first encountered Carl. He rescues Evoë and detonates his weapon, presumably destroying the zōtl.

In a government facility on Earth 2 Zee is beginning to spark indicating that he will soon travel. He offers the spore to Caitlin who accepts. He cuts his thumb and lets his blood drip on her. Shortly thereafter he disappears.