# Most... alternate... of fictional alternate realities. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 3, 2011, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999 "2011-02-03T08:23:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/21 "2011-02-03T16:56:41Z")
Zelazny’s CREATURES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS is fairly odd. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/22 "2011-02-03T17:01:54Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > Garfinkle’s other novel, “All of an Instant” (he also has a self-published novel somewhere out there; I guess he was a bit too weird for a mass audience) is probably even stranger than Celestial Matters. > > AOAI is a time-travel story more or less in the vein of Asimov’s THE END OF ETERNITY, but with everything turned up to 11 or 12. Yes. I liked “All of an Instant” very much. Garfinkle has an interesting mind (I was on a panel about time travel with him once) ---
**Author:** ![enigmatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@enigmatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigmatic)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/23 "2011-02-03T17:15:33Z")
I seem to remember reading a short story which implied a society in which everyone was born male, potentially changing gender as they entered into a relationship. A bit of googling suggests that is “The Wound” by Lisa Tuttle ---
**Author:** ![enigmatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@enigmatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigmatic)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/24 "2011-02-03T17:17:34Z")
Seems to be freely available online [here](http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/wound2/) ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/25 "2011-02-03T17:59:35Z")
Stephen Baxter’s [Raft](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raft_%28novel%29)comes to mind. The book is set in a universe wherein the force of gravity is a billion times stronger than it in our universe. Humans (who have a perceptible gravitational field) live in an oxygen nebula in orbit around a massive black hole. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/26 "2011-02-03T18:29:44Z")
Vernor Vinge’s **Fire Upon The Deep** is good for this sort of stuff. Featuring a universe with an uncountable variety of different lifeforms ranging all the way up to god-like superbeings, “pack-mind” creatures who are effectively immortal (barring accidents), prosthetically enhanced plant lifeforms on trolleys, sentient computer viruses and a galaxy-spanning internet in which all these (and more) different lifeforms try to communicate with each other without misunderstanding. ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/27 "2011-02-03T20:48:22Z")
One of the best books about aliens, IMHO, is the[Foreigner series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreigner_universe) by C.J. Cherryh. Much of the conflict is caused by the dissonance of aliens that superficially resemble humans, but think and react differently. [Pyramid Scheme](http://www.webscription.net/p-328-pyramid-scheme.aspx) and its sequel feature a parallel world that really works the way the ancients understood it. Besides all the gods and monsters, if you fire a gun in that world, instead of a chemical reaction, a small demon tries to push the bullet as fast as possible (this is not very effective). ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/28 "2011-02-03T21:54:48Z")
James Tiptree, Jr. “Love is the Plan the Plan is Death” is told from the POV of aliens who are quite alien. I was also blown away by the alienness of the aliens in Octavia Butler’s _Xenogenesis_ trilogy, who conquer Earth… only they don’t really have the concept of hierarchy, so they have a completely different conception of it. Highly recommended. I also really like Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life,” which postulates aliens that think about things in terms of the principle of least action rather than cause-and-effect, which shows up in their language as well. (It does take place on Earth, with a human linguist who is trying to understand the aliens.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/29 "2011-02-04T00:40:10Z")
> [@](#): > > I also really like Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life,” which postulates aliens that think about things in terms of the principle of least action rather than cause-and-effect, which shows up in their language as well. (It does take place on Earth, with a human linguist who is trying to understand the aliens.) Is this “principle of least action” as in the technical physics term, or a layman’s understanding of “action”? Because if the former, that could be a fascinating book to read, albeit not very widely accessible. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/30 "2011-02-04T03:12:31Z")
I was going to mention a vaguely remembered story where the characters were geometric shapes but I am 99% sure what I had in mind was Flatland mentioned elsewhere. The Alternate history I have read that is the most divergent but still could be called alternate history was West of Eden. The premise was that the dinosaurs never died and in the Old World evolved into an intelligent society based around organic genetically engineered technology. In the New World, specifically North America, primitive humanoids evolved. The story is the ensuing culture clash. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/31 "2011-02-04T03:30:55Z")
[_The Night Land_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Land#Plot_summary) written in 1912 by William Hodgeson. It’s almost impossible to describe. The sun’s gone out in the far future and all of humanity is gathered in one city. But there are… things… in the dark that come from beyond the Universe. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/32 "2011-02-04T03:51:55Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > “Traveller’s Rest” by David I. Masson. Set in a world where time moves at different rates depending on how close you are to the north pole. It’s been many years since I’ve read it, but [Einstein’s Dreams](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein%27s_Dreams) by Alan Lightman had a similar setup—in one chapter, at least. Each one featured a version of Earth where time operated completely differently. Not a bad read. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/33 "2011-02-05T19:03:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Is this “principle of least action” as in the technical physics term, or a layman’s understanding of “action”? Because if the former, that could be a fascinating book to read, albeit not very widely accessible. The physics term. It’s a brilliant story. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/34 "2011-02-05T19:42:48Z")
There’s the novels of China Miéville set in his Bas-Lag universe - _Perdido Street Station_, _The Scar_, and _Iron Council_. The universe contains ideas from numerous other science fiction and fantasy universes thrown together willy-nilly. Despite this, the plots aren’t at all light-hearted and optimistic. They’re gritty and pessimistic. For that matter, even though they’ve been around so long that we don’t think of them as strange, \*Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland \*and _Through the Looking Glass_ by Lewis Carroll are set in an excruciatingly weird universe. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/35 "2011-02-05T23:44:31Z")
In the Lovecraftian vein, I thought Woman Between Worlds was pretty out there. It concerns a woman from another dimension who is invisible in ours and so gets a full body tattoo to be visible here. Eventually there is a trip to the other dimension which is somewhat different. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/36 "2011-02-05T23:53:07Z")
> [@Sr\_Siete](#): > > The world shown in the third part of Isaac Asimov’s “The Gods Themselves”. It’s an alternate Earth with two coexisting intelligent species, and one of those is divide in three very different “sexes”. One native species. The “species” with the three “sexes” is the juvenile/reproductive phase of the other. After they finish reproducing, the three sexes merge into the other “species”. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/37 "2011-02-06T01:08:50Z")
China Mieville’s noir thriller _The City And The City_ has the premise that two cities in modern-day eastern Europe share the same physical space and time, but the citizens are forbidden from seeing each other or the architecture of each other’s city - other than via a carefully controlled checkpoint. > [@](#): > > The City & The City takes place in the cities of Besźel and Ul Qoma. These two cities actually occupy much of the same geographical space, but via the volition of their citizens (and the threat of the secret power known as Breach), they are perceived as two different cities. A denizen of one city must dutifully ‘unsee’ (that is, consciously erase from their mind or fade into the background) the denizens, buildings, and events taking place in the other city — even if they are an inch away. This separation is emphasized by the style of clothing, architecture, gait, and the way denizens of each city generally carry themselves. Residents of the cities are taught from childhood to recognize things belonging to the other city without actually seeing them. Ignoring the separation, even by accident, is called “breaching” - a terrible crime by the citizens of the two cities, even worse than murder. > > The twin cities are composed of crosshatched, alter, and total areas. “Total”’ areas are entirely in one city, the city in which the observer currently resides. “Alter” areas are completely in the other city, and so must be completely avoided and ignored. Between these are areas of “crosshatch”. These might be streets, parks or squares where denizens of both cities walk alongside one another, albeit unseen. Areas that exist in both cities usually go under different names in each one. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/38 "2011-02-06T16:36:36Z")
> [@](#): > > The real point of rubber-forehead aliens is not just that an actor in latex is cheaper than elaborate puppetry or CGI, but that an actor in latex still has two eyes situated above one mouth. This isn’t really relevant to my statement – I’m talking about psychology, not physiology. Besuides, I’ve written many times on this Board that the point of such rubber forehead makeup isn’t even that you’ve got two eyes and a forehead – it’s so that the human actors can show those and use them to emote. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/39 "2011-02-06T16:40:52Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > spoiler Yeah. Was trying not to give too much away. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/40 "2011-02-06T20:49:00Z")
I believe the art of Richard Powers fills the bill here. He made cover art for SF paperbacks in the 1960s that to my mind did a better job of portraying the alienness of the universe better than anyone else.[Here are a couple of images and some links to galleries of his work.](http://www.linesandcolors.com/2006/07/28/richard-m-powers/) He was influenced by surrealism, but hardly limited by it … he had a knack for combining surrealist landscapes and images with more prosaic images to convey a sense of humanity on the edge of the knowable. I wish most of the novels he did artwork for had been 1/10th as good as their covers. They would have been damn good reads! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999.md?page=3)