Surprised no one’s mentioned Slaughterhouse-Five yet.
Wait. Ilium is awesome.
Olympos however I couldn’t even finish–and that’s saying something.
But Ilium was awesome.
I don’t know if I can recommend an awesome book, though, if its sequel–which needs to be read if the story is to be complete, in this case–sucks so badly.
-FrL-
By the way, one thing I like about Ilium is the way the book contains several internal inconsistencies. See, I like this because one of the topics of discussion throughout the book involves the way classic works have used such inconsistencies to drive the reader to experience the work’s message more viscerally.
Did Simmons do this on purpose? I thought so, but apparently, as far as I can tell from all discussions of the book I’ve ever read, not.
But damn the author. There is no author. There is only the text.
Andre Norton’s Witchworld series.
Architect Of Sleep
Man finds himself transported to an earth where raccoons are the intelligent species.
Part of it was my fault - I didn’t know while reading Ilium that there was a 700 page sequel I had to read after finishing it. I was not at all pleased after turning to page 751 to see “To be continued…in Olympos!”
After choking Olympos down (and throwing it across the room several times) I was pretty sour on the whole thing.
I’ll throw in the Wiz Zumwalt series. Programmer gets summoned to a fantasy-type world, treats magic like programming (using little spells to cast bigger spells, building it all up from pieces) and gets the girl. Cheesy as hell, but fun. I’ve only read the first two, though.
Now there’s a book I’ll have to track down… 
Actually reminds me of another book of which I can’t recall the name where a scientist finds himself transported into a world where Neanderthals are the dominant species.
These are great books. I linked to the Baen Books free library.
Pyramid Scheme by Dave Freer and Eric Flint
Travel trough a universe created by invading aliens and peopled by gods and creatures from different civilizations. Humorous!
Time Traders by Andre Norton is really good series too and free following the link above. Travel through time gates into the past to beat the Ruskies in a cold war world. The prize is alien booty from the past. Off world travel in some books of the series.
Wizard’s Bane by Rice Cook is another series on that site for free.
Get transported into a magical realm to save it. It has magic computer nerds.
Read Abraham Merritt.
The Pool of the Stone God
It has a moon god, high tech disintegraters the size of a lipstick tube and flying cars. There are ancient gods from the beginning of time and genetic tampering. Moon energy.
Dwellers in the Mirage
In the North there is found a land that is hidden where the Nordic people went. Dwarfs and mystic powers of drums fight the Kraken god and the old people of the ruling class.
The Face In The Abyss
An expedition set out to find the famous hidden Inca gold. They end up in a strange land with a civilization in decline from when Antarctica was a tropical land. Genetic manipulation and high tech devices abound. This one is heavily stolen from by people. You will likely notice the X-men cartoons stole this world even using the same names for critical people.
The Metal Monster
In the Andes an explorer is searching for the blue poppy. He runs into an old friend’s expedition that is running from the lost people of ancient Mongolia. They then meet a human with semigod powers and go into a hidden place with living machines.
The Gor books by John Norman
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Flash Gordon
The Saga of the Well World series by Jack L. Chalker.
The Four Lords of the Diamond series by author Jack L. Chalker.
The Ring World series by Larry Niven.
The Harold Shea stories by the great L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. (The first three, anyway, are great fun.)
Stardust (arguably), Coraline (also kinda arguably).
The Book of Lost Things (also, arguably–it could be said that David never left the garden).
Erfworld, definitely.
Also, time-traveling Vikings.
Also, the Disney movie Enchanted had a reversal of this: characters from a fantasy world came to the real world.
I believe it was also released as Out Of This World. I agree, it’s a great game.
Little, Big, though almost all of it occurs on Earth
World of the Imperium by Keith Laumer
The Girl in the Golden Atom, an early classic sci fi story, available here from Project Gutenberg for free.
Has anyone mentioned “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”?
In hentai, the “Slavegirl Maia” episodes of “Cool Devices.”
In the South Park series, a hilarious two-parter about “Imagination Land.”
I want to second the “Witch World” series, the first book of it especially.
And among the Gor novels, the particular books to look for with transportees are Tarnsman of Gor, Captive of Gor, Slave Girl of Gor, Dancer of Gor and Kajira of Gor.
Kids’ stories:
Everworld by K. A. Applegate
When one friend is accidentally transported to another land, her friends try to rescue her.
The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane
Nita and Kit are studying to become full-fledged wizards. Their adventures have them leave Earth more than once.
The Pendragon series by D. J. MacHale
A boy and his uncle are “travellers” who try to help on the side of good in various other worlds.
Time Quartet by Madeleine L’Engle
The Tenth Kingdom
A woman and her father accidentally end up in the realm of fairytales. Pretty much the exact opposite of “Enchanted.” (like Enchanted, this mini-series is meant for all ages)
TheGemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray
Gemma and her friends discover a way to enter a parallel world. One that is both seductive and dangerous.
For Grown Ups:
The Veil series by Christopher Golden
Oliver helps Jack Frost escape a hunter, and ends up going through a veil - into the land where legends and myths have been banished to. The only problem is only legends can go back and forth between two worlds on their own, and people like Oliver’s fiancee who comes through to look for him can never go home.
The Cal Leandros series by Rob Thurman
Cal is half elf, and not the cute or dignified kind. They’re the kind with sharp teeth and an appetite for murder. Cal ends up being kidnapped by them and dragged into their world twice.
Rose Madder by Stephen King
An abused woman discovers that a painting is a doorway.
The Tailsman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Young Jack Sawyer is desperate to help his sick mother, and finds himself moving between two worlds. Skip the sequel “Black House.” Really.
If we suppose that alternate timelines existing at the same time as ours is another dimension/world, there’s also Timeline by Michael Crichton and Kindred by Octavia Butler.
Maker of Universes by PJ Farmer
Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny arguably qualifies.
And both novels were influenced by each other (a series of back-and-forth letters by both authors).
Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov - a contemporary guy is transported to a distant-future Earth
The Lost Regiment series by William R. Fortschen - a Union regiment finds itself in a world similar to medieval Russia, but with a big nasty lizard-race about to attack
Omigawd. :eek: You are the only other person I know who’s read this besides me and my son.
The author never wrote the sequel, did he? We looked for years, but as far as I know, it was never written or if it was, it was never published.
Stephen Boyett. Wasn’t that his name?
The Doomfarers of Caramonde wasn’t too bad. I liked it enough to read the sequel.
I haven’t looked for a sequel, really. I suspect one was intended. Non-spoiler The book ends (IIRC) with a very important prophetic dream which we never get interpreted for us, like all the other dreams have been. There are all kinds of other little touches which point to a sequel.