parallel world n.
a world that exists alongside or in addition to the known world; = parallel universe n.
SF Encyclopedia
Dimensions
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1931
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Benson Herbert
bibliography
The disconcerting change of direction of gravity, catching him unawares while passing along the fourth dimension from that tri-dimensional parallel world so near to ours, together with the sudden enormous increase of his weight, proved too much for his weakened condition.
World Within in Wonder Stories Aug. 313/1
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1932
Jack Williamson
My father had studied the evidence upon the existence of such worlds invisible to us, more deeply than any other man, had published his findings, with complete mathematical proof, in his startling work, ‘Interlocking Universes.’ If those parallel worlds were to be discovered, he was the logical man to make the discovery.
in Strange Tales Mystery & Terror Jan. 347/2
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1952
Robert A. Heinlein
I do have about three cops-and-robbers jobs which I can do, one a parallel-worlds yarn and the other two conventional space opera.
Letter 16 July in R. A. Heinlein & V. Heinlein Grumbles from Grave (1990) 224
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1964
Robert A. Heinlein
You've heard of parallel worlds? A million worlds side by side, almost alike but not quite? Worlds where Elizabeth married Essex and Mark Anthony hated redheads?
in If July 48/2 -
1971
Next step is the big-brother of the time machine, the machine that enables one to go from one parallel world to another. It might seem like just a variation on the old journey-to-other-worlds story, but it is not. There is a whole brand-new set of paradoxes in the parallel-world theme.
Science Fiction 127
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1990 Thrust Winter 7/3
However, Card’s tornado of magic is a far cry from…Unicorn Mountain, where unicorns suffer from swamp fever and TV programs originate from a parallel world.
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1992
Lisa Tuttle
To call them ‘parallel worlds’ isn’t really accurate; it makes more sense to visualize these universes as splitting off at right angles.
Lost Futures 92
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1994 Interzone June 44/3
I think I have solved this problem in Timeswitch… the new novel about parallel worlds. Timeswitch is really not set in our reality. It is set on Earth, in the 20th century, but it is not our 20th century.
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2005
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Michio Kaku
bibliography
The world of The Man in the High Castle and our world are separated by only the tiniest of accidents, a single assassin’s bullet. However, it is also possible that a parallel world may be separated from ours by the smallest possible event: a single quantum event, a cosmic ray impact.
Parallel Worlds vi. 148
Research requirements
antedating 1931
Earliest cite
Benson Herbert, The World Within
Research History
Mike Christie submitted a 1964 cite from Robert Heinlein's "Farnham's Freehold".James A. Landau submitted a 1955 cite (probably by John W. Campbell) from a synopsis prefacing a serialized version of H. Beam Piper's "Time Crime".
Rick Hauptmann submitted a 1932 cite from Jack Williamson's "The Wolves of Darkness".
Rick Hauptmann submitted a 1931 cite from Benson Herbert's "The World Within".
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1971 cite from Sam Lundwall's "Science Fiction: What It's All About".
Earliest cite in the OED: 1968.
Last modified 2020-12-16 04:08:47
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.