Trying to find a book title. Possibly "The Sundered Wor

[Anonymous]

A week or 2 ago I posted this question in www.sfsite.com and I had one reply that seemed promising. The answer was that it could be a book by Michael Moorcock called "The Blood Red Game" which I've recently discovered is also called "The Sundered Worlds". I've been unable to locate the book yet and have only found a bit of information on it on line so I'm not yet positive that this is correct. Anyway, if someone in here could read my original message (shown below) and let me know if I'm on the right track that would be very cool. I've been on this quest for far too long! :) Here's the post from the sfsite:

Ok, in my 7th grade homeroom class there was a copy of a paperback book with no cover that I started reading. I read it every day for several days for the 20 minutes or so we were in there. One day it vansished. That was over 30 years ago so this book was written before 1975. Of course it's been bugging me ever since. I really would like to finish it.

Here's what I remember:

The universe was about to collapse soon (or something like that). So this guy somehow got recruited to find a new universe to take mankind to. Someone invented some sort of drive system that would let a ship move between parallel universes. Somewhere in his travels there were these 6 legged dog creatures that when you shoot them with some sort of weapon they imploded.

That's pretty much what I remember. I sure hope someone can help me figure out the name of this book and who wrote it.

Thanks tons,

Avian

[Anonymous]

It sounds a little like The Blood Red Game/The Sundered Worlds, I don't remember any six legged dog creatures though. It's been over twenty years since I last read it, but I'm due to read it again soon. Here's a link to an Amazon review to see if it sounds familiar:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

[Marca]

That was me who wrote the last post, for some reason I'd been logged out and hadn't noticed!

[Doc]

I'm spacing a little here (no pun intended), but didn't The Distant Suns have a similar theme?

I'm like Aral. It's been a little too long since I've read any of those.

[Michael Moorcock]

The Sundered Worlds was first published by Compact Books, which was owned by the Gold Brothers, who also did New Worlds.
The Golds had become so used to owning copyrights of their Hank Janson stories that they believed they owned everything they published, in spite of contracts (which I'd drawn up) which gave rights to the authors. At one point, when The Final Programme movie came out, they tried to claim that, because part of it had appeared in New Worlds. In order to avoid further hassles (they had caused TFP paperback to be delayed until after the film appeared) I republished The Sundered Worlds as The Blood Red Game (which had been the title of the second part when the story was published in two parts in SF Adventures). The Sundered Worlds is referred to in the conversation between myself and Barry Bayley at Fantastic Metropolis. The book introduced the idea of the multiverse for the first time and also predicted such thngs as black holes and miniaturised computers. The book itself wasn't the best writing I'd ever done, but it did contain a lot of ideas. It was most recently published about ten years ago by Penguin and a bit later in the White Wolf omnibus The Eternal Champion. Quite a few editions of the book, as The Sundered Worlds and The Blood Red Game, have been published over the years, both in the US and UK.

[Marca]

I'm looking forward to reading this again. One thing I remember from my last reading was how it seemed like two separate stories combined into one, which of course it was. Which begs the question, whose idea was it to try and present the book as a continuous narrative? Was there ever the suggestion of presenting the book in the form it originally appeared in Science Fiction Adventures as two separate novellas?

[Anonymous]

Well how cool is this that after 30 years of wondering about this book I actually get a reply from the author! That's something I never ever expected. Oh, the wonders of the internet. I'm definitely going to find out where I can get a copy. From what I remember there were some pretty cool ideas in it. I'm excited to re-read it, see how much I remember and finally finish it after all these years. Thanks so much for all the replies from everyone especially Mr. Moorcock.

[Michael Moorcock]

Well the second story was a sequel to the other, though they operated individually, of course. This was pretty common in those days, when magazine appearance almost always preceded novel publication. The Elric stories, after all, were planned in much the same way.

[GuyLawley]

There's a Compact p/b first (1965) on eBay at the moment from Bournemouth, England:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...sPageName=WDVW

Though if you are elsewhere in the world a local eBay or ABE search may bring up a copy closer to home.

Later editions have quite a bit of re-writing to take in new String Theory ideas and bring the book more up-to-date alongside the second Ether material, if memory serves.

[Anonymous]

I found a few on Amazon here in the states. Thanks for the information though.

Avian

[Marca]

Not sure if you've got a copy yet Avian, but having started reading this again I can confirm it's definitely the book you're looking for, complete with six legged dog-like creatures (the Thron and Shaarn). You must have a good memory! Better than mine anyway.

[Anonymous]

I don't have one yet, but I did order a copy. I should have it in a week or so. I'm really excited about this! Thanks for the confirmation on the 6 legged dogs. It should be interesting to see how much of this I remember and how much I remember accurately.

- "My quest is at an end." :) (almost)