Parallelities is a 1995 science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel by Alan Dean Foster

Alan Dean Foster

Alan Dean Foster is an American author of fantasy and science fiction. He currently resides in Prescott, Arizona, with his wife, and is also known for his novelizations of film scripts...

. The story centers on Max Parker, a Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 tabloid reporter whose client accidentally inflicts him with a condition causing him to experience encounters with parallel worlds

Parallel universe (fiction)

A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...

, dubbed "paras" in this novel. He has no control over the process, and it gradually causes his entire life to unravel.

Characters

• Max Parker – a Los Angeles tabloid newspaper reporter, protagonist
• Barrington Boles – a rich inventor

Plot summary

Max is sent to interview a rich man, Barrington Boles, who claims to have invented a machine that can break through the barrier between parallel worlds, or "paras." Max first assumes the man is a typical loony, but after returning home, he finds his apartment burglarized by identical triplets who don't seem to know one another. Later, he meets four "sisters" who look almost but not quite identical, and who claim never to have met before the previous night. Mystified, he rushes back to Boles's place to ask the inventor what on earth is going on. Boles informs him that the machine must have turned Max into a nexus who pulls the inhabitants of other worlds into his own. Max is frantic, but Boles reassures him that the effect will probably wear off in a few days, and that if it doesn't, he should come back on Tuesday.

Max tries to resume his life, but his neighbor's canary turns into a hundred identical birds, and the next day Max runs into a double of himself at work. The double (whom he calls "Mitch" to avoid confusion) has no idea what's going on, apparently coming from a para where Max never interviewed Boles. After Max explains the situation to him, they decide to pose as twins. They go to a zoo to work on a story about a painting elephant, only to find the zoo overrun by fifty female chimps.

Sensing that the situation has gotten out of hand, Max and Mitch decide to visit Boles again. But on the way, they spot a herd of bighorn sheep

Bighorn Sheep

The bighorn sheep is a species of sheep in North America named for its large horns. These horns can weigh up to , while the sheep themselves weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates that there are three distinct subspecies of Ovis canadensis, one of which is endangered: Ovis canadensis sierrae...

 and a condor

Condor

Condor is the name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere.They are:* The Andean Condor which inhabits the Andean mountains....

, species extinct in Los Angeles. Max realizes that he's no longer simply pulling things from other worlds into his own, but drifting into other worlds (apparently taking Mitch with him). When they arrive at Boles's mansion, this version of Boles doesn't remember their second meeting and has no idea how to help them.

On their way home, Max and Mitch encounter two identical pairs of English-speaking aliens

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...

 who don't understand why the local spaceport

Spaceport

A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching spacecraft, by analogy with seaport for ships or airport for aircraft. The word spaceport, and even more so cosmodrome, has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories...

 has vanished. Later, Max gets briefly separated from Mitch, and when he returns, Mitch has been replaced by a female version of Max who is an actress rather than a reporter. After he successfully convinces her what has happened, the two go home and make love, realizing that they're the only two people who know exactly how to satisfy each other. In this para, Australia has become the dominant power in the world due to discovering a cheap form of electricity.

After falling asleep on a couch at her workplace, he wakes up in his own workplace, where a familiar coworker invites him to a basketball game on the weekend. He assumes that the effect has finally worn off and that he has returned to his original world, until he discovers that the entire world has been taken over by Elder Gods (of H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

 fame), who demand weekly human sacrifices. Somehow, earth's populace has adapted to this reality so completely that everyone continues to live relatively "normal" lives that include tabloid newspapers and professional basketball. After fleeing his building and entering a subway station

Metro station

A metro station or subway station is a railway station for a rapid transit system, often known by names such as "metro", "underground" and "subway". It is often underground or elevated. At crossings of metro lines, they are multi-level....

, he shifts to a new para where the entire world has been destroyed, and he meets a sickly version of himself who informs him that this was the result of the "Boles Effect."

Max next finds himself in a utopia

Utopia

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...

n, futuristic version of Los Angeles with hovercar

Hovercar

A hovercar is a transport vehicle appearing in works of fiction. It is used for personal transportation in the same way a modern automobile is employed. You must steer it, like you would a normal vehicle...

s, courteous citizens, and no pollution. While he would love to remain there, he has no control over the Boles Effect, and soon he finds himself back in a more familiar version of L.A. He goes home, but when he wakes up the next day he discovers that he's a ghost

Ghost

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

, because the local Max died in a shooting. He wanders out onto the beach, converses with an old man ghost, and soon encounters two identical couples who have just died—implying that the Boles Effect works even on the dead.

After shifting to a para where he's alive once again, Max is at the end of his ropes, bewildered by the metaphysical

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...

 truths he has learned, disillusioned by the Boles Effect that never seems to end. After contemplating suicide, he finally goes home and sleeps again. During the night, he has a series of bizarre dreams in quick succession, and he concludes that he must have been "para dreaming," implying that "not only was the cosmos

Cosmos

In the general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from the Greek term κόσμος , meaning "order" or "ornament" and is antithetical to the concept of chaos. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the word Universe . The word cosmos originates from the same root...

 composed of para realities, it was rife with para unrealities as well."

When he drives to work, he discovers that he's entered a para where every man, woman, and child in the world is a version of himself. Everyone not only looks like him, but has aspects of his personality too, and for the first time in his life he becomes aware of how unpleasant a person he is. His boss assigns him to interview a man named Max Parker, who lives in what Max thinks is his own apartment. This local Max claims to be experiencing dreams where a man named Barrington Boles has zapped him with a condition that makes him sail through parallel worlds. Max doesn't recognize the name of the newspaper that this Max works for, The National Enquirer

The National Enquirer

The National Enquirer is an American supermarket tabloid now published by American Media Inc . Founded in 1926, the tabloid has gone through a variety of changes over the years....

.

Max has had enough. He concludes that so many parallel worlds must exist that "a single universe [is] but a pinprick." After having met so many clones of himself, his whole sense of individual identity is coming apart. His mind can't take it anymore. He drives to Boles's house, witnessing some bizarre sights on the way, but hoping against hope that by the time he arrives he will have found a version of Boles who can end Max's condition.

This Boles remembers their second meeting and works the machine on Max once again, attempting to destroy the effect. After all that he's been through, Max will not allow himself to believe that everything is back to normal. But as he leaves Boles's mansion and returns home to his apartment, he grows more and more relaxed—until the reflection in his mirror frowns at him while he's still smiling.

Publication details

• 1995, USA, Del Rey Books ISBN 0-345-48358-8, Pub date ? March 1995, paperback (First edition)
• 1998, USA, Del Rey Books ISBN 0-345-42461-1, Pub date ? September 1998, paperback
• 1998, USA, Del Rey Books ISBN 0-345-38373-7, Pub date ? December 1998, hardback