# Help Me Identify this Novel
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/411276
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 10, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/411276 "2007-07-10T23:05:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Thrash\_the\_Almighty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thrash_the_Almighty)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/411276/1 "2007-07-10T23:05:56Z")
A number of years ago I read an incredible novel. I’d love to locate it and re-read it, but I can’t remember the name or author. Surely someone here on the dope can help me.
The plot was that a man awakes to find himself in a small room with another man. The room appears to be an office. There seems to be no way out or in. The other man seems to know more than he reveals. Eventually the lead character discovers that he is dead. When you die an exact copy of the area where you died appears in the afterlife. I believe these areas are reffered to as cubes or squares. Now dead you are still essentially mortal. You can die again and if you do you reappear in another random cube. You can move from one cube to another by finding the spot where they connect and willing yourself through the passage. He has some interesting adventures as he travels through the cubes.
I know it sounds odd, but it was quite good. Can anyone help me?
Thanks a Million
Thrash
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2007, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/411276/2 "2007-07-11T00:31:18Z")
I’ll ask in the science fiction forum at SFF World and see if anyone recognizes it. It does sound interesting.
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### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2007, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/411276/3 "2007-07-11T03:07:35Z")
It sounds like a knock off of [Riverworld](http://www.scifi.com/onair/scifipictures/riverworld/) by Phillip Jose Farmer
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2007, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/411276/4 "2007-07-11T03:09:17Z")
I thought Riverworld too. Is that how Riverworld started, with a dead guy in a room? It’s been so long, I can’t remember.
Guess not. I just read the first few pages at Amazon. That’s some pretty bad writing, IMHO. But I remember loving the first few books in that series.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2007, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/411276/5 "2007-07-11T04:51:33Z")
It has nothing to do with the Riverworld series other than the fact that it happens just after someone’s death.
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/411276/6 "2007-07-11T16:59:53Z")
Someone at SFF World asked if it might be Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys.
“A mysterious, alien artifact is found on the Moon and discovered to be deadly to anyone who enters it. With the help of duplicating technology, people are sent in to investigate it, usually dying within seconds of the last explorer. In this way, the artifact is mapped out little by little.”
But this sounds like the opposite of the OP. Instead of an **area** being duplicated, the dead person is duplicated.
Do you remember anything else about the book?
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/411276/7 "2007-07-11T17:05:33Z")
I remember _Rogue Moon_. Doesn’t sound like it to me, but I don’t recognize it otherwise. Could it mebbe be _What Dreams May Come_, later made into a Robin Williams movie? [What Dreams May Come - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_dreams_may_come)
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/411276/8 "2007-07-11T17:25:04Z")
I loved that book. I don’t think that’s it though – none of the cubes mentioned prominently in the OP.
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### Author:  [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/411276/9 "2007-07-11T22:57:38Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam]
Someone at SFF World asked if it might be Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys.
“A mysterious, alien artifact is found on the Moon and discovered to be deadly to anyone who enters it. With the help of duplicating technology, people are sent in to investigate it, usually dying within seconds of the last explorer. In this way, the artifact is mapped out little by little.”
But this sounds like the opposite of the OP. Instead of an **area** being duplicated, the dead person is duplicated.
Do you remember anything else about the book?
[/QUOTE]
I’ve read _Rogue Moon_ - the synopsis in the OP sounds absolutely nothing like it.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2007, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/411276/10 "2007-07-12T02:09:57Z")
Tell us more about the novel. When did you read it, as nearly as you remember? How old was the copy of the book? Was it paperback or hardback? Approximately how long was the book? What did the cover look like? Did the cover describe the book as a science fiction novel? (I wonder if this was sold as a mainstream novel.) Do you remember the names of any characters? Is there anything else specific you can remember about the novel?