Parallel Worlds Book1: Paraworld Zero
By Matthew Peterson
Blue Works: The Young Adult Division of Windstorm Creative, Port Orchard Washington, 2008, 251 Pages, Trade Paperback, $16.95.

As this book came to me directly from the author, I took a look at the publisher at HTTP://www.windstormcreative.com to see if they were a substantial publisher. Their web site was fascinating. They have an extensive booklist in SF, Fantasy, Shared world SF, Mysteries, Historicals, Non-fiction, Music, Gaming etc. They seem well worth checking out.

The book takes a slightly different tack on how to travel to the various parallel universes. The heroine arrives on Earth using a para-transmitter powered by Electro-Magical Energy. Electro-Magical Energy and Spells are utilized throughout the Paraverse to accomplish most tasks. The energy is used to power nearly everything. A traveler can become trapped if he or she lands in an EMless universe.

Tonya, a native of Paraworld 4329, is a beginning student at The School of Magical Learning. She arrives on Earth accidentally blundering into the troubles Simon Kent, an orphan of unknown origins, is having with bullies from his High School. She saves him and they both flee into the Para-stream dragging with them one of the bullies who takes Tonya’s Para-transmitter and vanishes leaving them to fall blindly through para-stream until they emerge into a high-tech world entirely lacking electro-magical energy.

Once established on the planet Pud, Tonya and Simon find evidence linking a past catastrophe with the onset of new danger to the planet. The planet has built a social system involving enslavement of the formerly magical Big Puds by the Small Puds. Oddly the catastrophe also seems to be linked to Simon. Since arriving on the planet he finds he can perform Magic in spite the lack of EM. Saving the planet seems to be impossible. Only a concerted effort of all and Simon’s Magic has any chance of success.

And there is more. It seems that Simon may be important to the survival of the entire Para-Verse. But more about that in future books. Look for Parallel Worlds Book 2: The School of Magical Learning in January of 2009 – Gary Swaty