The Universe Twister

by Keith Laumer and Adam Bright

Lafayette O'Leary was barely scraping by as a draftsman until an experiment with self-hypnosis catapulted him into the world of Artesia, an exotic land complete with swordplay, beautiful princesses,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416555978
• ISBN13: 9781416555971
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Baen Books
• Length: 721 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

The Continua Traveler

The Universe Twister (2008) is an omnibus edition of the Lafayette O'Leary humor SF series. It includes The Time Bender, The World Shuffler, and The Shape Changer. In this series, Lafayette O'Leary was a penniless draftsman living in Mrs MacGlint's Clean Rooms. He had an inquiring mind, experimenting in plastic polymers, bacterial cultures and mesmerism. One day he was reading an old book by Herr Professor Doktor Hans Joseph Schimmerkopf and tried to induce a state of autohypnosis. Time Bender (1971) is the first novel in this series. In this novel, Lafayette finds himself in a different world. Surely he is dreaming. Yet everything seems so sharp and colorful. Even the stench is authentic. Lafayette encounters various inhabitants of Artesia, a world much different from his own. Red Bull is an infamous cutpurse and smuggler. King Goruble the First is the king. Nicodaeus is the court magician and Yokabump is the court jester. Princess Adoranne is the niece of the old king and heir to the throne. Daphane is a chambermaid. In this story, Lafayette returns to his own reality and begins to understand that he is not truly dreaming. So he can imagine objects in hidden locations -- like wardrobes and saddlebags -- and have them appear. So the wine bottle was never empty. Still, his wounds do not disappear when he tries to heal himself. He decides to just go with the flow and treat it all as real. Lafayette returns to Artesia. Then someone abducts Adoranne and Lafayette is the chief suspect. But Lafayette believes the giant Lod is the most likely culprit. So he starts looking for Lod. The World Shuffler (1970) is the second novel in this series. In this novel, Lafayette has his psychic energies suppressed by the Interdimensional Monitor Service, so he can't slip in a good bottle of wine from elsewhere. Walking in the Royal gardens, he loses his way to his favorite bench and ends up on the alternate world of Melange at the top of a windmill sail. He tries calling Central, but they are too busy to help him. Climbing down, he wanders off and finds a tavern owned by Swinehild, an alternate persona of Princess Adoranne. Her cook Hulk is an alternate persona of Count Alain, who is just as jealous as the Count and who takes a strong disliking of Lafayette. Then Hulk finds him in bed with Swinehild -- she is very affectionate -- and attacks Lafayette. After Hulk is knocked out, Swinehild decides to leave the tavern. She travels with Lafayette to Port Miasma, where he intends to elicit the assistance of Duke Ruldopho, an alternate personal of Nicodaeus. Despite good advice from Swinehild, Lafayette wakes Crunch -- a ten foot tall giant -- to take them across the bay to the city and finds himself being pursued by the owners of the rowboat. In this story, Lafayette finds himself thrown in a dungeon, escaping only to be sent back. Then he escapes again and is recaptured again. This goes on several times and he discovers other alter