# Most... alternate... of fictional alternate realities.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999>\
**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:** 5\
**Page:** 3

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**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 7, 2011, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/41 "2011-02-07T06:40:50Z")

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> [@Andy\_L](#):
>
> The physics term. It’s a brilliant story.

Everything Ted Chiang writes is fucking awesome.

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/42 "2011-02-07T16:26:18Z")

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The Motie aliens in the _The Mote in God’s Eye_ by Niven and Pournelle have a fascinating, extremely detailed, internally consistent culture that is very, very different from ours. Great book.

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**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/43 "2011-02-07T19:26:53Z")

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> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#):
>
> 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.

Mieville’s brilliant, but you’re quite right about his stuff being dark. Rather too dark for my tastes, actually - his stuff is so unrelentingly grim that I find it difficult to read. Gorgeously written, though.

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**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/44 "2011-02-07T20:33:44Z")

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Fluidic Space from Star Trek, where Species 8472 comes from. It’s a dimension where space is filled with an organic liquid, and there exists no planets, stars, or nebulae

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**Author:** ![Lethal\_Babydoll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3be4f8/32.png) [@Lethal\_Babydoll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lethal_Babydoll)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alternate-of-fictional-alternate-realities/569999/45 "2011-02-08T18:26:02Z")

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> [@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.

\*\*“All of an Instant” \*\*is my all-time favorite sf novel. and i read a lot of sf.

if anyone cares or just likes to read lists, here my 5 favorites.

1. “All of an Instant” by Garfinkle
2. “Farnham’s Freehold” by Heinlein
3. “Memories” by Mike McQuay
4. “Far-Seer” Robert J. Sawyer
5. “The Eyes of the Overworld” by Jack Vance or “The Golden Globe” by John Varley

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