Parallel Worlds of Richard Purtill

by Richard L. Purtill

Worlds collide in an epic adventure across time and space. Droste's eyes met mine as he said quietly, "As near as we can tell, from the time of your last genuine memory until now is about five hundred years." "Prince Casmir is fighting firedrakes in order to rescue Princess Delora when he loses consciousness and wakes up in a hospital bed. Things get really interesting when he finds out the real reason for his abilities. Demons, dragons, damsels in distress and other fantasy items in a science fiction novel would be a little hard to pull off unless you are that unusual writer. This is only one pair of shoes that Richard Purtill can wear and wear well." -Baryon-online.com This omnibus volume collects Richard Purtill's full-length SF novel, The Parallel Man, along with three previously unpublished SF stories set in the same universe of the Universal Commonwealth. Part two includes six fantasy stories originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, along with the previously unpublished fourth story in the Rus Quartet, based on Russian faerie tales.

404 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2011

About the author

Richard Purtill was the Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington, as well as an author of fantasy and science fiction, critical non-fiction on the same genres, and various works on religion and philosophy. He is best known for his novels of the "Kaphtu" universe. He wrote as both Richard Purtill and Richard L. Purtill, a variant form of his name. He was active in professional writing circles, being a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Authors Guild, and the National Writers Union. His book J.R.R.Tolkien: Myth, Morality and Religion won the 1987 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection contains a full-length novel, “The Parallel Man” and ten additional stories, including some never before published. Some of the stories are science fiction, some fantasy, some combine elements of both. Regardless of genre, they are all delightful. For example:

What would it be like to be so empathetic that it causes emotional distress, or to see the world through the eyes of others instead of one’s own? Richard Purtill addresses extreme empathy in “The Chrysenomian Way”, and the second theme in “Other’s Eyes”. The situations in both stories, like those of most Purtill stories in this collection, have unexpected, yet satisfying, solutions.

When live actors perform in the space faring Universal Commonwealth, their psionic technique creates rapport with their audience. In “Blackout” an actor learns that gods can also use psionic rapport. Will he be able to face down a god and stop its killing spree?

Can a vampire live a comfortable life on a Greek island among malicious and superstitious neighbors? Is the arrival of a beautiful stranger his key to escaping an eternity of lonely despair?

The final four stories in the volume are adapted from Russian folk tales. Although each of the four stands on its own, together they form a suite of related stories. Several feature a knight named Karl, a war veteran now weary of killing, who seeks nothing more than a worthy cause to serve. Karl’s heroic humility will charm those who read his adventures.