Trips by Robert Silverberg

"Trips"

by Robert Silverberg

Form: Novelette

Year: 1974

ID: 1207

Publication history:

Comments:

Chris Cameron is a very restless man. Fortunately for him, he can travel. I mean really travel, hopping from one version of Earth to another, quickly sussing out the differences and seeing what there is to see. Here's a world where FDR died early and the US never entered World War II, so Germany overran Europe. Here's a world where Asians, not Europeans, colonized North America. Here's a world that's a radioactive slagheap. In each world, Cameron looks up Elizabeth Dudley, his wife in his world. Not all Elizabeths love him. After many trips, he returns to his own world, his own Elizabeth. Or does he?

There is no explanation of the mechanics of inter-dimensional travel. It does not seem to require any sort of device, and the transition is very quick. It was written specially for Final Stage, which is a collection of ultimate stories (the ultimate time travel story, the ultimate robot story, etc), and fulfils the role of ultimate alternate world story quite nicely.

Other resources:

[None on record]