This is a rather dated but still enjoyable read of one of the first multiverse stories. The three main characters all think they are time-traveling but then come to realize they had simply entered another (very dystopian) version of their own world, where time moves at a different pace, (or something... the 'science' in this story is very hand-wavy). Regardless of the scientific accuracy, the story is entertaining, mostly on the strength of the characters and the strange adventures they find themselves having. And really, at its heart, this is more of an adventure tale than anything else. On that level it holds up pretty well more than 100 years after first being published. ( )

I'm glad this short novel has been reprinted in the Modern Library "Torchbearers" series, since it is certainly deserving of a new audience. It's not perfect, sure, but there's some excellent dystopian world-building here. ( )

Really enjoyed this. Will write at length at some point. ( )

This story involves a vial topped by a silver image of the heads of Cerberus supposedly made by Cellini to hold dust scraped from the rocks of Purgatory. It turns out to have the ability to transfer people to Ulithis, a kind of "world between the worlds" and thence into a a world in an alternative time track (an idea this book is said to have pioneered). In this case the world, or at least the equivalent of Philadelphia in that world, is rued by a theocracy which worships William Penn, or at least his statue, as a god. Although the story is very different in other respects, the idea of a dust that transports people to a place between worlds reminds me of Lewis's The Magician's Nephew. Since he did read some American pulp fantasy magazines, I wonder if he had run across this story. ( )

This was a distinctly odd story, though not unenjoyable. The opening suggests we're in for a thriller along the lines of The Citadel of Fear, but things take a very different turn and we end up stranded in a parallel reality, via an extremely strange mystical interlude that has a bit of Greek myth and a bit of fairyland to it. Though the situation for the protagonists is grim, there's something ridiculous about the dystopia that made it hard for me to know how to take the story. The ending throws in a chunk of technobabble exposition that felt rather awkward.

I had a reasonable time reading this, but it felt unbalanced somehow. The transition of apparent genre from adventure to mystical fantasy to satirical dystopian alt-hist to some kind of science fiction maybe? just gave it an unpolished feel. It also felt a bit rough and ready, as though Stevens had some cool ideas but hadn't spent quite enough time making them fit together before publishing this. The red bell, in particular, felt clumsy to me - Stevens obviously wanted a get-out at this point, but this whole section felt rushed and underexplained, and despite the exposition I didn't get the sense that Stevens really much idea about the bell herself.

Our characters are okay, but the most interesting are definitely the bit-part Bertram and his sadly neglected lady friend. Despite the token romance, neither the protagonist nor the love interest felt very well fleshed-out to me, and they do very little. When the hero does finally take action, it's entirely offscreen and we learn about it all retrospectively, in dialogue, in a scene where it's not at all clear whether whether anyone's telling the truth. I'd also have liked to explore the antagonists more, and work out how they tick.

The ending of the story had a touch of the cop-out to it, and although it's not actually a dream sequence, it's annoying in similar ways.

I had a reasonable time with this story, and it pleasantly whiled away a journey, but I can't call it one of Stevens' strongest works. ( )