Welcome to the Multiverse (Sorry for the inconvenience) (Multiverse series

by Ira Nayman

This hilarious science-fiction comedy novel follows the first case for Noomi Rapier, rookie investigator with The Transdimensional Authority – the organisation that regulates travel between dimensions. When a dead body is found slumped over a modified transdimensional machine, Noomi and her more experienced partner, Crash Chumley, must find the dead man’s accomplices and discover what they were doing with the technology. Their investigation leads them to a variety of realities where Noomi comes face-to-face with four very different incarnations of herself, forcing her to consider how the choices she makes and the circumstances into which she is born determine who she is. Ira Nayman’s new novel is both an hilarious romp through multiple dimensions in a variety of alternate realities, and a gentle satire on fate, ambition and expectation. Welcome to the Multiverse (Sorry for the Inconvenience) will appeal to comedy fans who have been bereft of much good science-fiction fare these last eleven years. Ira’s style is at times surreal, even off-the-wall, with the humour flying at you from unexpected angles; he describes it as fractal humour. Anyone who has read his Alternate Reality News Service stories will know how funny Ira is. The characters we meet from around the multiverse deserve to become firm favourites with all fans of science fiction comedy. People have said nice things ***** (Paul Levinson former president of SFWA, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) “It [Welcome to the Multiverse] was freewheeling weirdness, with a distinctly Canadian bent.” (Shirley Meier, author of The Fifth Millennium series) “I sat nervously in the dentist office waiting to be called to the chamber of doom. My knuckles were white and it was a struggle to keep from bolting. I come from a generation when seeing the dentist was akin to vacationing in Spain during the inquisition. In any case, I opened my copy of Welcome to the Multiverse (Sorry for the Inconvenience) to distract myself and started reading. Moments later I erupted with a bark of laughter. The other people in the waiting room glanced at me like I had two heads. I kept reading trying to contain my mirth but it was no use. Another belly laugh tore out of me. I just couldn’t help it. Then a series of chuckles and another belly laugh. At that point the hygienist, with a sidelong glance, escorted me to my appointment. Welcome to the Multiverse (Sorry for the Inconvenience) is one of the funniest things I have ever read and it stays funny as the pages turn.” (Stephen Pearl, author of Tinker’s Plague and Nukekubi) “Ira Nayman is one of the funniest Canadian writers I know… This book is funny in the Douglas Adams sense of the world - crazy, funny bits you'd never think of on your own in a million years…” (Nicole Chardenet, author of Sumer Lovin’) “very dry, wry, sarcastic, sardonic, tongue-in-cheek, straight-forward and convoluted.” (Mia Darien, author of Cameron's Law ) “[Welcome to the Multiverse] is science fiction in a way, comedy in a way and a detective novel in a way. Read it and you will be a changed person.” (Geoff Nelder, author of ARIA) “I really, really, really, really, really liked the book, and that is five reallys, so you know I mean it” (Eric Swett, author of Apocalypse Rising) “intelligently written in a confident and quite unique voice which engages and disarms in equal measure” (Antony Jones, SF Book Reviews) “My very first impression when I began to read Multiverse was that this was a book that appeared to be written by Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams’ hyper-active love child.

Genres: Science Fiction

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 8, 2012

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time travel squared - or maybe Times Square at faster than light - or maybe E(d) Sullivan = MC-square, as Elvis, who appears as a main character in this gonzo novel, approached by Ms. Radames from the Time Agency (not Authority!), who's a Beatles not an Elvis fan, might have put it. There's also a Hindenburg (the dirigible), a Chronenberg (II'm pretty sure David), a Seldon (not Hari), and a Molly Holzschlag (either a former Connect Ed student or named after one, look it up), and lots more in this deeply frothy narrative. I'd review it for the Cross Temporal Press, if it really existed outside of this story. As it is, I can tell you: if you'd like to read something that Tom Wolfe, had he mind-melded with Kurt Vonnegut and a little with Dr. Seuss, might have concocted, snap up It's Just the Chronosphere (not Chronensphere!) Unfolding as it Should. Do it last year

[Seregil of Rhiminee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published at Risingshadow.

Welcome to the Multiverse (Sorry for the Inconvenience) was a positive reading experience, because it was something totally different. It's a uniquely comic approach to travelling between dimensions and alternate realities. It's an unusually funny reading experience, because the author has a good and clever sense of humour (to be honest, this book is one of the funniest sci-fi books I've ever read). I never would've believed that it would be possible to write this kind of a parody/satire of alternate realities, but fortunately everything seems to be possible.

Here's a bit of information about the plot:

Noomi has always wanted to work for Transdimensional Authority, but her first day at work doesn't go as planned and she finds out that her education at Alternaut Academy wasn't enough to give her a good job. Things change soon and Noomi becomes an investigator. She gets herself a partner, Crash, who begins to teach her. When a body is found, Noomi and Crash begin to investigate what has happened. Their investigation takes them to alternate realities...

There's a lot to like in Welcome to the Multiverse (Sorry for the Inconvenience), because it's a surprisingly entertaining book. The best thing about this book is that the author makes deliciously sharp and sarcastic observations about popular culture and well known things (Angelina Jolie's clones, Moulder Skully, Back to the Future references etc). His clever and a bit twisted sense of humour highlights the happenings.

This book is stock full of funny moments and clever inventions, but I'll only mention a couple of examples so that I don't spoil anybody's reading pleasure by revealing too much information:

The sentient and smart furniture are wonderful inventions, because they make funny comments about several things. For example, the sentient stove is a loveable invention, because it's almost like a metallic pet. The Dimensional Delorian is also a brilliant invention, because everybody who has seen Back to the Future films will recognize where the author got the idea for it.

The newsflashes from Alternate Reality News Service are simply hilarious, because Ira Nayman writes about almost anything that's going on in the world (for example, he writes about sex and peace negotiations). It was difficult not to laugh out loud while reading them. The author also writes sarcastically about computer and video games (it was fun to read the blog entries).

I enjoyed reading about the characters, because they were memorable in their apperance, nature and weirdness.

Noomi is an interesting character, because she has been a passionate fan of the show Jack Ryan, The Transdimensional Authority Police since she was a little child. Noomi is a fascinating character, because she has always wanted to work for Transdimensional Authority and when she got her chance, she was at first more than a bit disappointed, but then became happy when she got to do what she wanted. (Noomi's other incarnations are also fascinating characters.)

Noomi's partner, Crash, is also an interesting character, because he is "one of the boys", but also mentors Noomi. For example, he shows other guys that he's a tough guy by shouting at Noomi in front of others, but at the same time he tries to be a nice guy by teaching her different things.

This book is a fantastic combination of different elements:

Although Welcome to the Multiverse (Sorry for the Inconvenience) is full of humour, it also contains philosophical elements. These elements manifest themselves in the scenes where Noomi meets her different incarnations. It was interesting to see how Noomi reacted to the other incarnations and thought about her life and the choices she had made. In my opinion the author handles this thing well.

Welcome to the Multiverse (Sorry for the Inconvenience) is also an interesting and a bit different kind of a murder mystery. As Noomi and Crash travel from place to place, their investigations shed light on several things about alternate realities.

It's possible that it may take a bit of time for the reader to get used to the author's writing style, but when the reader gets used to it, he/she will love the story. The writing style differs greatly from other sci-fi authors' writing styles and that's a good thing, because the humour probably wouldn't work as well as it does if the author had written this book in a different way. His complex and long sentences are a nice change for short and easily understandable sentences, because they require more attention from the reader.

I'm sure that readers who are familiar with science fiction books, films and franchise will have a good time reading Welcome to the Multiverse (Sorry for the Inconvenience), because the author has managed to add an amazing amount of references to popular culture. When I began to read this book, I couldn't help but wonder how the author had come up with all the stuff that he wrote about, because it's been a long time since I've read anything as good and inventive as this.

This book reminded me a bit of Douglas Adams' books, but in my opinion Ira Nayman has a slightly more sarcastic sense of humour than Douglas Adams. As I think more about the author's sense of humour, I think it's possible to say that it's pretty close to Stephen Fry's sense of humour. I recently read Stephen Fry's Mrs Fry's Diary and How to Have an Almost Perfect Marriage and they contained the same kind of sharp and sarcastic humour (the only difference is that they weren't science fiction, but humorous books about marriage and family life).

If you're looking for a funny science fiction book, please do yourself a favour and read Welcome to the Multiverse (Sorry for the Inconvenience). It's pure entertainment from start to finish. It can be recommended for all readers who enjoy reading comic science fiction. This book is almost like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the 21st century, so fans of Douglas Adams will probably love it.

Fantastic sci-fi humour!

[Cameron Currie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure I said this of one of his other books, but in the best possible way, Ira Nayman is insane. The basic idea of an infinite number of universes existing side-by-side is crazy enough, but policing it is crazy squared, and yet Nayman captures that, puts a leash on it, and serves it to us for dinner.
Aside from that, the difficulty of writing any sort of mystery in a speculative fiction setting is difficult, but Welcome to the Multiverse manages to destroy the 'technology/ a gadget did it' problem by making that a non-issue: they know a gadget did it, and what kind of gadget it was, and now they have to figure out who did it and how.
This is all thickly wrapped in cynicism, but flavoured in such a way as to keep things on the friendly side, making us grateful that this level of cynicism is not quite necessary in our branch of the multiverse... all the while ensuring a home-grown Canadian flair by including an apology on every page. Kudos!

[Margaret Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, this was a fun one. The author had me at "Funny science fiction" when I walked by his table at CanCon and this was definitely a good life choice. The humour is so very up my alley. Only Douglas Adams can be Douglas Adams, but if you like that style of humour, this book will scratch the itch. Looking forward to more ridiculous dimension hopping shenanigans.

[Boneist · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book hard to get into; I never felt a great desire to pick it up once I'd put it down. The author's interludes weren't all that funny imho, and it gave the impression they were trying too hard to make it funny.

Some of the concepts were interesting, but skimmed over.

[Geoff Nelder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I nearly didn’t receive Welcome to the Multiverse* for review. My letterbox has slimmed over the years and so the postman leaves packages behind the bin, in the bin (only once), and with neighbours, but last month he gave it a boy, who was chasing pigeons on my drive. ‘Take this to your mummy,’ the postie said. So the lad grabbed the packet, ran past the postman and up the street, his legs going like egg-beaters. I don’t think the postman will make that mistake again. An apt beginning, though, to the bizarro world surrounding this book and its contents.
Noomi Rapier, a young woman with black hair strands that all stick out at 90 degrees to each other, is our main character and we follow her strange career as a Transdimensional Authority detective. Her inauspicious beginning was at her investiture where by being presented with a yellow vest, the reader is welcomed to one of the first of many puns – mostly hilarious and lateral thinking. Noomi is given as rookie assistant to the experienced Crash Chumley. Before she develops boredom coming to terms with office protocols, such as knowing the Ten Demandments, they are given a murder mystery. Yes, like all the other stories by Ira Nayman, this is hilarious and yet the reader is poked into thinking beyond the conventional.
Interestingly, this novel has a traditional detective framework even if the setting is in a multidimensional multiverse* in which the two detectives meet several doubles of themselves - a cunning disorientating ploy by their suspect, who toys with a prototype Home Universe GeneratorTM. So, we meet the detective novel conventions of man and woman detectives teaming up – and falling for each other in spite of their friction; solve a who-dun-it crime mainly by interrogating suspects and witnesses, and driving around a lot (in a fun Dimensional DeloreanTM).
The difference is that it all takes place in and between universes, where sentient gadgets speak to each other, and with Nayman’s unique bewitching style. And where mysterious characters, such as the one with my favourite name, Jessica Cornflake, appear as a side issue, she pops up at the end making perfect sense (comparatively).
Sex also has a different role in this novel. Besides the gadgets TOM and CATE being told to get a room, the narrator tells us that explicit sex will not be found and that ‘you know how it is... if not you should get out less.’ Further to telling us about the no sex (because they are almost always mind-bogglingly 50 shades of dreadful), we are treated to an item by Frederica Von McToast-Hyphen writing for the Alternate Reality News Service, quoting explicit sex scenes to demonstrate the point. Hah.
There are many other Nayman hilarities. The sentient kitchen, for example, is so possessive that if a human tries to boil an egg ‘it turns the heat up so much you could melt a pavement.’ Science too gets the treatment. The blank pages between p236 and 241 are not a typo but an example of b=rd2 where b = number of blank characters, t=time and d is the speed of lunch squared.
There are more quotes I could throw at you but you must find them for yourself.
There are times when the plot seems laboured. For example the visit to the prison sags somewhat and I don’t think the reader needs four versions of Noomi Rapier to make the point of mulitverse life. Even so the novel is up there with the best of bizarro work such as those by D Harlan Wilson.
Welcome to the Multiverse* is science fiction in a way, comedy in a way and a detective novel in a way. Read it and you will be a changed person.


*Sorry for the inconvenience

[Nobody Loser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ladies and gentlemen, I've spent a lot of time working on nonsense manuscripts. In fact, I like comedy pieces that rely heavily on it. I enjoyed Dream Catcher and, no matter how many people tell me it was supposed to be a serious story, I'm not about it. Being John Malkovich, How to be a Serial Killer, Wristcutters: A Love Story... Some of the best fantasy novels and reads are strictly based in nonsense. I mean they literally have little basis in reality, which makes them, literally, nonsense. Imagine then what it feels like to read nonsense that has an absolutely nonsensical dialogue, inner dialogue, and narrations to boot. Think The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe.

You Can't Kill the Multiverse (But You Can Mess with Its Head) is ridiculous. I was recently sent an excerpt from the author, a fellow purveyor of nonsense like myself, and I was blown away by the writing style. It reads like intelligent gibberish, which I loved. I was stoked to find that it's part of a series for those of us who take life a little lighter than others and expect our reads to do the same.

This sequel to Welcome to the Multiverse (Sorry for the Inconvenience) is almost an invention of style itself. Very few authors would dare it and far fewer publishers would relish in the idea of publishing it. The story goes something like this: A young man, a nearly failed but still "accomplished" (in that he made it through school) wizard is working into the night. His plan is the same as every dark wizard's, to punish humanity through magic. What better way is there to accomplish such a feat than to turn every vehicle on Earth into frogs. Wait, huh? That's right, he turns every vehicle on Earth into frogs, accidentally.

So, he's a bumbling, fumbling idiot. Perhaps not the best trait for a dark wizard. That isn't even the most funny part. The narration of the entire story seems to come out almost like a thought—with pauses, doubling back to slightly change a statement, and modesty overridden by small inlets of truth. I loved it. The only thing more enjoyable are the comments from other characters that hilariously make smart remarks about their own situations or actions. Definitely a book worth checking out, or set of books as it were. Check 'em out and let me know what you think downstairs. Indie?

A http://www.fanboysanonymous.com/ review

[Mia Darien · Rating 4 out of 5]

(This got a 4.5 on my blog.)

This not being the first piece I’ve read from this author, I feel that I have the authority with which to make the following statement: Ira Nayman is, without a doubt, totally insane. I mean, really bug-nuts crazy. How could anyone in their right mind, after all, COME UP with the stuff he puts into his stories?! The answer: no one, which is why he’s obviously NOT in his right mind.

This is what I’m saying.

As such, you can imagine that his stories are about the same. And they are. But they’re really funny, which is what makes them pretty awesome. But you know what? It also makes them kind of hard to properly describe! I can’t exactly tell you about the story. You sort of just have to read and experience the machine-gun fire satirical bullets yourself.

It’s very dry, wry, sarcastic, sardonic, tongue-in-cheek, straight-forward and convoluted. It loves to play in the not-so-politically correct/but-not-so-bad-either waters. The characters interact with the narrator and accompanying literary devices, and always very amusingly. As are the narrator’s interactions with you, the reader.

Noomi and Crash aren’t the most three-dimensional characters in the world, but they’re not flat either. You just don’t dive too deep into them, but that’s okay. I think it would take away from the fun of the story if we did. There’s a plot and characters. It’s all there, and it’s good, but the story itself really is the world and all the other worlds: an infinite number of them.

I’m not really sure what else to say. I guess you’ll just have to experience it for yourself. ;-) The only reason it’s not getting a five is cause while it’s very enjoyable, it’s not the kind of story that grabs me by the throat and smacks me around, which are the types that get 5 stars, but it’s close… 4.5 stars!

[Michell Plested · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to read Ira Nayman's new book, Welcome the the Multiverse, Sorry for the Inconvenience prior to meeting with Ira. I had it on good authority that Ira was hilarious and I wanted to experience his writing first hand.

My very first impression when I began to read Multiverse was that this was a book that appeared to be written by Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams' hyper-active love child. If you know me, you know that I love both those aforementioned authors so this was not a bad thing.

As I read further, I realized that what I was seeing was less a combination of other authors and more a unique voice that had some elements of my favourite writers.

That is exciting for me because I love comedy writing and finding new authors is a real treat.

The story is about two multiverse investigative agents who are trying to solve a crime that seems to span multiple universes. Along the way they find analogs of themselves in each of the universe. People who are the same except different, either due to different decisions made at key junctions of their lives or because of different environments.

As the story goes on, Ira subtly visits the whole idea of how the decisions we make affect us as people. I enjoyed this part of the story because I often think about how my own life would be different if my choices had been different.
I enjoyed this book. It had a lot of comedy that spoke to my own sense of humour. It also had depth to it that kept me thinking about it long after I was done reading it.

Welcome to the Multiverse, Sorry for the Inconvenience is written by Ira Nayman's and published by Elsewhen Press.

[Ann Dulhanty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is definitely unique. It is certainly a satire.1Considerable fun is poked at traditional macho cop shows, modern big business especially marketing practices, the policies of large, stolid organizations and the stereotypical treatment of women in male dominated fields. The formatting and use of inserted media pieces make it unusual. I think this flagrant disregard for traditional formatting is in itself a comment on our focus on standardized presentation. The author clearly understands how to write, and satirizes some of the common ‘musts’ of writing. For example, he uses creative tags, such as inquired, retorted and adjectives to describe ‘said’ literally. (As in

“You can’t do it that way,” she said foolishly.

“Ha,” he boomed, in response.)

Amongst the satire is an interesting mystery with a credible solution. I particularly enjoyed the pacing of conclusion. The reader is carried along, through various realities, enjoying the trip, gathering clues at a leisurely pace, going on a few entertaining diversions. Then, when a critical clue emerges, the stakes escalate quickly to the resolution.

The characters are well drawn and credible. It’s a very interesting premise to imagine the same characters in a number of parallel universes and how circumstance influences our personalities. The world building is professional, with considerable thought put into Transdimensional Agency.

If you are looking for something completely different, executed by someone with a delightful sense of humour and keen understanding of science and human nature, this is it. There is lots to think of, or just enjoy, depending on your preference.

[Teri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember really liking this and finding it funny. Clearly I was drunk or insane at the time. It's not funny. It actually reminds me of that Matt Walsh video "try to laugh at feminist comics" challenge (he failed it of course, nothing is funny about their jokes). This is like watching one of those comics.

This had so much potential, good plot and characters, and then... Nothing. Just old jokes that fell flat with some SJW whinging thrown in. And cringe.


Got a star for plot, and since its really 1-5 stars (you can't rate anything less than 1 star), that makes it 2 stars.