The Walls of the Universe (Universe, #1)

Feb 16, 2013 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Nancy by: Dan Schwent

Shelves: sf-fantasy, library-books, parallel-universes

I love well-written time-travel and alternate world stories, and Dan said it was fun, so I knew it would be the perfect vacation read.

I was not disappointed at all. This was a very entertaining story about parallel universes, stolen lives, first love, and bullies.

John Rayburn is in his senior year in high school, living a rather uneventful life on an Ohio farm with his parents. A young man (known as John Prime) who looks just like him appears with a device that allows him to travel to other wor...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Dan Schwent rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf, 2010

What if your double from a parallel universe showed up on your doorstep one day? What if said double turned out to be an asshole of epic proportions who shunted you into another universe while he usurped your life?

That's the problem John Rayburn is facing in The Walls of the Universe. His double, John Prime for clarity, tricked him into using his malfunctioning transporter device. Will John be able to fix the wreck Prime has made of his life when or if he can fix the device and make it back home...more

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Sep 29, 2012 Richard rated it 3 of 5 stars

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Book Description: John Rayburn thought all of his problems were the mundane ones of an Ohio farm boy in his last year in high school. Then his doppelgänger appeared, tempted him with a device that let him travel across worlds, and stole his life from him. John soon finds himself caroming through universes, unable to return home—the device is broken. John settles in a new universe to unravel its secrets and fix it.

Meanwhile, his doppelgänger tries to exploit the commercia...more Rating: 3.75* of five

The Book Description: John Rayburn thought all of his problems were the mundane ones of an Ohio farm boy in his last year in high school. Then his doppelgänger appeared, tempted him with a device that let him travel across worlds, and stole his life from him. John soon finds himself caroming through universes, unable to return home—the device is broken. John settles in a new universe to unravel its secrets and fix it.

Meanwhile, his doppelgänger tries to exploit the commercial technology he’s stolen from other Earths: the Rubik’s Cube! John’s attempts to lie low in his new universe backfire when he inadvertently introduces pinball. It becomes a huge success. Both actions draw the notice of other, more dangerous travelers, who are exploiting worlds for ominous purposes. Fast-paced and exciting, this is SF adventure at its best from a rising star.

My Review: Well, THAT was fun! I have a fondness for multiverse stories, and this one's as much fun as H. Beam Piper's Paratime series. It made me think of the Star Trek: TNG episode “Lower Decks,” which shows us for the first time what the actions of the Big Boys look like from the ordinary crewmember's PoV. And like the recent success story Redshirts by John Scalzi, the hero has to figure out what's happening and how to fix it without knowing the big picture.

Why I had to knock a quarter star off the top grade the book could ever reasonably have gotten was the mega-dumb love story part...both John Wilson, the dupe, and John Rayburn or John Prime as he's called in the description above, are world-class bunglers in love. It points up the small inelegance in the book: The characters, while I liked them and invested myself in their antics, didn't always make sense as they rocketed from idea to idea. Things that should've been second nature to any reasonable semi-adult just passed right by them and caused avoidable problems for the author. It would have given him more room to flesh out the other small inelegances, like a messy sense of elapsed in-story time and a few logical gaps (view spoiler) that exist.

But heck! What's a little dent and scrape among friends? I can't wait to get the next one in the series! (less)

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Aug 07, 2012 Jeffrey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, read-in-2012

Paul Melko’s The Walls of the Universe is an engaging inter-dimensional space romp. Evoking Heinlein’s teen novels, Melko finds a way to re-introduce an old science fiction plot and make it fun again. It’s the characters, situations and story that are the key. His winning recipe includes mixing together physics, engineering, chicanery, toy design, time travel and violence. His imaginative idea - what happens if someone offers you a way to travel to a different universe. Why would you trust this...more Paul Melko’s The Walls of the Universe is an engaging inter-dimensional space romp. Evoking Heinlein’s teen novels, Melko finds a way to re-introduce an old science fiction plot and make it fun again. It’s the characters, situations and story that are the key. His winning recipe includes mixing together physics, engineering, chicanery, toy design, time travel and violence. His imaginative idea - what happens if someone offers you a way to travel to a different universe. Why would you trust this man. Because he is you, your twin, your doppelganger, but from a different universe. So you take his offer and test out his portable inter-dimensional time machine. Once there, however, you cannot get the machine to take you home. And your “friend”, this new you, he is busy taking over your life and using your universe.

John Rayburn is just a typical high school student. He likes a girl named Casey, but is too shy to ask her out. He is very good in science. He has had a run in with a local bully named Carson.

Then he meets himself, literally. Johnny Prime, as he explains, is from a different universe. Prime shows Rayburn a portable time transport machine that he wears under his shirt. With the devise, Prime says he can visit other universes. He dupes Rayburn into trying the machine, but Rayburn cannot get the machine to return him back to own universe.

Prime is a hustler. He may be Rayburn's twin, but he has his own life experiences. He has made different choices and his life is fundamentally different than Rayburn. He is an exploiter. He immediately starts dating Casey. He has a notebook full of items that were not invented in Rayburn’s universe and he is going to “invent” one so he can get rich. He makes a Rubik's Cube. But all is not golden and he has continuous run-ins with Carson and other people who have invented the Cube. He resorts to crime.

Meanwhile, Rayburn ends up in a universe where his parents live, but he is not around. He enters a local college to avail himself of the tools needed to experiment on the devise and learn how it works. While at the college, he meets Grace and Henry, fellow science students, and lets slip an idea for a pinball machine.

One thing leads to another and the three students go into business with each other to build the pinball machine. But Rayburn’s idea soon attracts the attention of other universe travelers- Alarians – beings who are trapped in that universe, but have used Prime’s plan – exploit other universe inventions, to carve out a hugely profitable life. They want Rayburn’s newer ideas and are not afraid to engage in industrial espionage, kidnapping and torture to achieve their ends.

The violence escalates when the Alarians realize that Rayburn has the means and knowledge to travel between Universes.

Rayburn must use all of his smarts, his friends in his new world and reach back for help from Prime to confront the Alarians.

Its a time travel and universe spanning science fiction fun that is reminiscent of what science fiction used to be before it got so serious. The plot sometimes drags as its switches back and forth from Prime's life to Rayburn's life, but overall its a great read. Buy it, download it, read it.(less)

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Nov 11, 2010 Flannery rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: swords-and-lasers, read-in-2010, kcls, i-want-to-go-to-there, wishlist-for-books-to-keep

I picked this book up from the library after it was mentioned in an io9.com article about great sci-fi stories (and that also mentioned the movie rights to this book had recently been sold). Anyway, this book tells the story of a young man in Ohio who is visited one day by a version of himself from another universe. The story is set along the lines of a many worlds theory about universes wherein there are infinite (rather, not infinite but who knows how many) universes coexisting at the same tim...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Erik added it

If you read any science fiction that deals with the multiverse, it usually feels like an exercise in creating interesting (though usually dumb) alternate realities without giving much time to the characters. In "Walls of the Universe," Melko does the exact opposite.

You meet farmboy John, a guy you could be or could be friends with, and are shown the world around him, as well as a few characters that pop up in other universes. Instead of being set pieces they feel like actual people, so when you...more

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May 07, 2012 Travis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Travis by: Chris

The 'Multiple Universe' sci-fi story is nothing new. Pretty much every sci-fi show worth its salt had at least one episode dedicated to the subject and one (Sliders) that was completely about travelling between parallel worlds. However, that doesn't mean a new venture into this sub-genre is a bad thing. I think it's great, actually. I just wish it had been done by a more talented writer.

Before I get into my criticisms, lets talk about the good parts of this book. First, I think it is clear that...more The 'Multiple Universe' sci-fi story is nothing new. Pretty much every sci-fi show worth its salt had at least one episode dedicated to the subject and one (Sliders) that was completely about travelling between parallel worlds. However, that doesn't mean a new venture into this sub-genre is a bad thing. I think it's great, actually. I just wish it had been done by a more talented writer.

Before I get into my criticisms, lets talk about the good parts of this book. First, I think it is clear that Melko had a good grasp on the 'science' of what he was describing. For the most part he seems to know the 'rules' of inter-world travel, even if he isn't revealing everything to the reader. Second, the book is (mostly) well structured. The story gets off to a fast start (maybe a little too fast) and it pretty much hits all the beats it should along the way to the conclusion. The last quarter of the book is quite strong and sets up a continuing series very well. Despite the problems I have with the book, it is possible I will continue to read the series.

Criticisms (AND SPOILERS) start here. Proceed only if you have read the book, as I will not be explaining the characters or events that happened.

**************************

The first thing that jumped out to me was Melko's poor dialogue. It was passable in parts, but some of it was stilted and boring. The words that come out of these character's mouth sound like they were written by a fifteen year old. Let me be clear, I'm saying written, not spoken. A fifteen year old can speak far more eloquently than these 'young adults'. Anytime the word 'fuck' or its many variations appeared, it felt forced. At first, it was used as another way to show the difference between the two Johns. Later, it just kind of felt shoehorned in, because apparently 'fuck' is almost the only curse ever used. Say what you will about teenagers, when they swear they generally don't shy away from all types of profanity.

This leads to the biggest criticism I have, which is the extremely weak characters. Aside from our two protagonists (John Prime, and John Farm Boy) none of the other characters are given anything to draw in the reader. They aren't even described physically. Grace, who becomes extremely important to the story, is initially described as a 'woman with frizzy hair'. This is how he chooses to describe a female freshman in college. I'm all for women's lib, but I don't know anyone who would refer to an 18 year old girl in a freshman physics class as a 'woman'. For a character who is integral to the story I'd expect a little more detail. We never get it, other than how she changes what she wears after she becomes a millionaire and thats a pretty shallow (and insulting) barometer of character.

Another example is John Farm Boy's Casey (hereon referred to as Casey2). Melko establishes that Casey2 is upset that John FB is keeping things from her, but they make up and everything is fine until he catches her cheating on him, which is a good few chapters later. Much later in the story he comes clean and she reveals it was his secret keeping that drove them apart and they immediately get back together. There is almost zero build up between any of those events. No real hints until just before she's caught cheating, and very little contact between the characters between the break up and the reunion. A reunion that only happens because he is basically forced into it. The result is two very anti-climactic scenes that I found myself not caring about. Those in-between scenes were the perfect opportunity to flesh out those characters (especially Casey2) and find out what made them tick. Unfortunately I think Melko is incapable of writing dialogue worth of those scenes, so they were left out.

This book seems to take the easy middle road, rather than exploring interesting ground. Great stories break their characters down and test them. John Farm Boy is put into a corner twice in in this book. First when John Prime tricks him into leaving his world, and second when his friends are captured and held hostage. Both sections are the most interesting part of the story, and the reason I didn't give this book two stars. But I wouldn't have cared about the dull story if the characters had been well rounded and interesting. Instead, they plodded along, just sort of coasting through life. Just like I coasted through reading. This book took almost no time, as (apart from the science-y stuff) the language was fairly simple. The thing is, the story never once went in a direction I didn't expect. This was a slowly curving road, compared to a (far superior) zig zag story like Ender's Game or Harry Potter. I mention those books, because they were ostensibly written for young(er) readers, but manage to take the reader on a journey on a much more mature journey than Melko could ever manage.

My last critique is far more nit-picky and nerdy, but here it goes. The fucking Metric System? Ok, I get it. Maybe most of these universe's use the metric system so all the characters are going to think that way. Fine. The problem is that the author doesn't follow through. People are described on multiple occasions as being 6' 2" or 5' 1", then later 2 Meters. He also gets it wrong when John Prime remembers being pulled over for thinking the speed limit signs were in miles instead of kilometers. If he was going 60 Kph in a 60 Mph zone, then the only thing he could possibly been pulled over for was going too slow. I admit, this is kind of dumb and pointless thing to complain about, but to me it just shows a pattern of the author's inability to string together a well written narrative.

So, to summarize, I wouldn't recommend this book. The lack of any real emotional connection to the characters (other than John FB) makes it very hard to justify the experience. The story is plotted well, but there should have been far more twists and turns to make the journey interesting. I commend Melko for his effort, and clearly he was aiming in the right direction, I just don't think he has the talent to pull this story off.(less)

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May 11, 2011 Jonathan Ko rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have read a book called The Walls of the Universe. I enjoyed while I was reading this book, and I couldn’t stop turning the pages, and I would like to share my enjoyment after reading this book.
As this novel is a science fiction, the story starts with a parallel universe. This book talks about two youngsters which are named John and Prim John. The setting of this story was that these two boys with the same identity and outlook came from two different universes. Although the imaginative setting...more I have read a book called The Walls of the Universe. I enjoyed while I was reading this book, and I couldn’t stop turning the pages, and I would like to share my enjoyment after reading this book.
As this novel is a science fiction, the story starts with a parallel universe. This book talks about two youngsters which are named John and Prim John. The setting of this story was that these two boys with the same identity and outlook came from two different universes. Although the imaginative setting in the book could never happen in the reality and doesn’t seem interesting, this was in fact the reason why I love this story that much. I was fully attracted by the words the writer Melko used to describe the imaginative universes. As technology doesn’t allow us to travel universe to universe, the writer used lots of words describing the differences in two universes and did well in creating a virtual image to me. I felt I was really the person in the story and was jumping from one place to the next place together with the two Johns.
The story also attracted me with the betrayal of Prim. Although the concept of the infinite number of universes is across reality and doesn’t make sense, the inter-personal connection between John and Prim is what we can meet and see in the reality. I can’t agree more and was totally attracted by the words the book writer used in describing the in-heart feeling while John found that he was betrayed by Prim. The author of this book is also good at leaving the readers with some fascinating problems. This book has 40 chapters and the writer used some attractive links between chapters. This setting with the perfect story plot makes me couldn’t stop while I was reading.
This novel is no doubt is an attractive and interesting science novel, however there are several things that I felt disappointed. Firstly is the weak ending. In my opinion, this marvellous story ends in a brief way really has disappointed me. The story ends by simply talking about how John got that device work properly. Although people often say that the ending of a novel is the most interesting part, I rather was disappointed by the ending. Secondly, as the writer has to go back and forth while describing John and Prim’s journey, the story wasn’t smooth. Although the has well created a Utopia in this story about two characters, I felt a bid mess while the writer changed his point the another character. I think it would be much better if the writer could make the story more tightened up and make things clear
To conclude my whole feeling about the book, I totally enjoy this novel, as the book is very enjoyable. I hope that the there would be a follow-up book and what I expect would really happen.
(less)

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Sep 03, 2010 Dale rated it 5 of 5 stars

Five out of five stars, but he almost lost one in the last 40 pages.

I bought this book from the author at Context, a science fiction convention in Columbus Ohio.

First the good stuff: It has been a long time since a book has grabbed me and made me want to keep turning pages even though I had a lot of other things that desperately needed to be done. This one did. The combination of the plot and characters I cared about kept me reading. The next issue of Point of Divergence may be a day or two lat...more Five out of five stars, but he almost lost one in the last 40 pages.

I bought this book from the author at Context, a science fiction convention in Columbus Ohio.

First the good stuff: It has been a long time since a book has grabbed me and made me want to keep turning pages even though I had a lot of other things that desperately needed to be done. This one did. The combination of the plot and characters I cared about kept me reading. The next issue of Point of Divergence may be a day or two late, but this was worth it.

This book is solidly alternate history, though the histories of the universes involved are generally rather sketchy. Most of them are penciled in with a few well-chosen details--enough to that they seemed solid, but not enough to slow down or overshadow the story.

The bulk of the story follows two versions of a farm boy, John Rayburn as he/they live his/their lives, mostly separately, but with some overlap. The first of those overlaps comes as one version (John Prime) tricks the other into swapping lives with him. Details of the second meeting would involve spoilers, so I'll let you discover that on your own. There are other overlapping characters, including a nemesis and a love interest.

One of the stronger aspects of this novel is the way that Melko approaches the way intellectual property transfers across the realities. That sounds boring stated that way, but he handles it well, technically accurate, realistic, and kind of exciting. Another strength: the way the experiences of the two versions of John shape them into substantially different people by the end of the book.

Now the weakness: Notice that I still gave this one five stars, so this didn't spoil the experience for me. With that in mind, the last forty-odd pages of Walls seemed considerably weaker than the rest. The writing wasn't as smooth. The characters didn't seem quite as in-character. There were a lot of little line-edits that should have been made to tighten it up and make things clearer. The rest of the book was excellent. Those last forty pages or so felt like they had the same potential, but needed one more edit pass for clarity and conciseness.

Again, notice the five stars. I read a lot of alternate history, and this one grabbed me about as thoroughly as a book as been able to grab me in the last year or two, relatively weak ending or no. I'm glad I bought this one, and would buy a sequel if one comes out. (less)

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Apr 07, 2009 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Alan by: io9 (SF website)

Paul Melko's second novel merges thriller and alternate-universe science fiction almost seamlessly in this fast-paced entry. There's nothing really ground-breaking here; anyone who's read Richard C. Meredith's Timeliner trilogy (At the Narrow Passage; No Brother, No Friend and Vestiges of Time) or even, God help me, watched the TV show Sliders for more than one season, will recognize most of the furniture and settings being used here. But Melko has no pretentions to anything more than a good yar...more Paul Melko's second novel merges thriller and alternate-universe science fiction almost seamlessly in this fast-paced entry. There's nothing really ground-breaking here; anyone who's read Richard C. Meredith's Timeliner trilogy (At the Narrow Passage; No Brother, No Friend and Vestiges of Time) or even, God help me, watched the TV show Sliders for more than one season, will recognize most of the furniture and settings being used here. But Melko has no pretentions to anything more than a good yarn, and his breezy style is well-suited to catching and holding interest.

Johnny Rayburn's a farm boy in Ohio - a bright kid, though he's made some enemies, including the oafish Ted Carlson - when he meets himself out behind the barn. Actually, this second self is a different John Rayburn, this one a traveller between parallel universes. John Prime, as he (rather arrogantly) calls himself, persuades Johnny to use his interuniversal transfer device - a small thing, about the size and shape of a personal CD player, if they have those in your universe - to skip to the universe next door... upon which Johnny discovers that there's no way for him to get back. He's stranded in time, doomed to go ever onward from universe to universe, until he dies or finds one in which he can bring himself to settle down. As, it seems, John Prime has done in tricking Johnny out of his own universe. Simple - but of course nothing's ever really that simple.

Johnny does manage to find a fairly close analogue of his own Ohio, one in which the folks who would have been his parents are childless and happy to more or less adopt him without any uncomfortable questions. He even tries to settle down, start dating the sweetheart he never had the nerve to ask out "back home," but, of course, Johnny's interrupted. It turns out that there are ways to control one's travel across time; the transfer device is not inherently incomprehensible, either, and Johnny's new goal is to reverse-engineer it before time, for him, runs out.

The book has some flaws, certainly. Melko's usually taut writing is occasionally marred by infodumps, and the whole book reads like the first book in a planned series - several threads are carefully left unresolved, and several mysteries unexplained. Also, the level of violence (especially later in the book) and the moral ambiguity of Melko's characters may be offputting. But all in all I really liked this one, and think it succeeded both in aiming for and in hitting its target.(less)

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Jul 16, 2009 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2009, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really, really liked Paul Melko's "The Walls of the Universe." The problem is I wanted to love it.

The first third of the novel unfolds at a breathless pace as we meet John Rayburn and his double from a parallel universe, John Prime. Prime has come to John's universe with a device that allows the user to pop from one parallel universe to the next. Prime offers John the chance to explore the next universe over, promising John that he can pop over, recharge the device and just pop back. Little d...more I really, really liked Paul Melko's "The Walls of the Universe." The problem is I wanted to love it.

The first third of the novel unfolds at a breathless pace as we meet John Rayburn and his double from a parallel universe, John Prime. Prime has come to John's universe with a device that allows the user to pop from one parallel universe to the next. Prime offers John the chance to explore the next universe over, promising John that he can pop over, recharge the device and just pop back. Little does John suspect that Prime's device only allows you to journey forward to the next universe and not backward and that Prime is looking for a way to steal John's life out from under him.

For the first third of the novel, we alternate back and forth between John's journey and Prime's scheming in John's home universe. Prime has come forward with ideas and inventions not yet seen in John's universe, intending to claim them as his own and take the credit and fortune that comes with them. We slowly see how Prime works his way into John's seemingly ideal life, not only getting the girl John has always had a crush on but also working out the first stages of fame and fortune by introducing the Rubik's Cube to that universe. Meanwhile, John must learn the ropes of travel, eventually deciding to settle down in one safe universe and going to college to try and understand the device.

In the course of the story, Melko allows the reader to both root for and against each John. Prime could easily be a one-note villain, but as Melko explores the character and allows us to get to know him, we become more sympathetic toward him and even begin to pull for him as some of the later events of the story begin to unfold. And while John may be initially be a victim, he eventually begins to take on some of Prime's traits that early on made us pull against him, leaving the reader with some fascinating questions about nature vs nurture. And, like all good sci-fi, he presents the arguments and allows readers to draw their own conclusions.

The book also brings up some interesting ideas about "destiny," as we see John's journey to ending up with the same girl in two universes as well as having to tangle with the same bully in both.

It's once other various inhabitants from other parallel worlds show up that things begin to drift off course a bit. The story tries to expand the concept of the infinite number of universes, each one slightly different than the next, with concepts about people who only exist in one universe and the morality of jumping from one place to the next and trying to cash in. We also find that John's machine is damaged and that through study John is able to reverse engineer a working device to return to our world.

However, once John gets a newly working device, things begin to derail a bit. The problem is these concepts come up so late in the story that they seem tacked on and aren't as fascinatingly explored as some of the concepts and characters early in the novel. It may be that Melko wanted to have some hard science in a character based sci-fi story, but it just feels a bit out of place.

But that shouldn't keep you from reading "The Walls of the Universe." For 300 pages, it's one of the most fascinating, compelling and page-turning sci-fi (or really any genre) novels I've read in a long time. I'm hoping that Melko might return to the universe he's created here and show us the last 50 or so pages are all about setting up a great follow-up. (less)

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Mar 30, 2013 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

Something out of the ordinary, in a good way.

Farmboy John Rayburn's other self from a different alternate universe tricks him into using the universe jumper he has, without explaining that it only works in one direction and he won't be able to get back. He then hijacks John's life.

What happens next, though, is that both Johns grow and develop in their different settings. Johnny Farmboy becomes tougher and smarter, and John Prime, the hijacker, becomes a halfway decent person. Both end up with di...more

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Apr 07, 2010 Tippy Jackson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

3 days. I didn't even add this to my currently-reading section because I finished it before I had the chance. It was awesome, although I had a very long work day after staying up way too late to read it. The science was fun. The characters were awesome. I like that the Johns were complex characters. He starts you off with a good John and an evil John, but then he plays with it, having the "good" John progress as he gets desperate, and discovering a good side to "evil" John, or at least an unders...more

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Nov 04, 2010 Aaron rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2010

I checked this out from the Library after the positive review it got on io9.com and after I saw that the author had sold the movie rights. The book was described as evoking Back to the Future, but with universe hopping instead of time travel. Perhaps my expectations were too high, as a result of the BttF comparison, but I didn't think the book was that great.

The first 100 pages were awesome, filled with mystery, action, drama, and lots and lots of universe jumping. The last 50 pages were modera...more

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Dec 01, 2009 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Pretty interesting. Having lately been involved in a debate on aliens and other lives and universes, etc, I was kind of excited to pick this book up. The premise is pretty simple, which I think is a good thing, because too often now, people want to write these epics with all this complexity and it just gets boring. John Rayburn's life is interrupted when he meets his twin from a different universe who gives him a transporting device that allows him to jump universes. Of course, each universe is...more

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Apr 29, 2009 Kathleen rated it 3 of 5 stars

The premise is a good one, if not entirely original: multiple universes where infinite versions of your life are playing out, and a device to punch a hole through to the next one. Maybe this universe doesn't have a particular money-making fad, like Rubik's Cube, so you can exploit that and grow rich. But there are others out there with transfer devices, who are watching out for signs of other travelers and they will come after you if they notice your new-found notoriety. Oh, and what do you do w...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Raechel Schink rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

The Walls of the Universe is an amazing book about traveling the universe, well universes. The story is about John and John, actually John Prime. John is your average high school student and farm boy until suddenly he's confronted with himself - John Prime. Prime lets John in on a little secret - there are more universes than just our own, more than one of you (well John in this instance). Prime coaxes John into trying out the universe traveling device, so that he can visit the other universe's,...more

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Mar 22, 2011 Sofia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: coup-de-coeur-♥

J'ai adoré!!!! Captivant avec un rythme haletant et des personnages très interessants :)
Juste une phrase qui décrit le style de ce livre. " Les murs de l'univers est aux univers parallèles ce que Retour vers le futur a été au voyage dans le temps" Aron Warner, producteur de Shrek ( qui a mis une option sur le livre pour en faire un film)

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Sep 14, 2012 Tim Martin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, reviewed, alternate-history, parallel-universe

This was a fun book, one that I found fast paced and quite enjoyable. It was an interesting take on the parallel universe sub-genre of science fiction, focusing more on the crossing-between-parallel-universes aspect rather than the better explored alternate history sub-genre (though it is that too).

The action begins very early in the book, something I liked, when John Rayburn, a farm boy high school senior in Ohio, meets his exact duplicate. Well, not exact duplicate, as this individual – who d...more This was a fun book, one that I found fast paced and quite enjoyable. It was an interesting take on the parallel universe sub-genre of science fiction, focusing more on the crossing-between-parallel-universes aspect rather than the better explored alternate history sub-genre (though it is that too).

The action begins very early in the book, something I liked, when John Rayburn, a farm boy high school senior in Ohio, meets his exact duplicate. Well, not exact duplicate, as this individual – who dubs himself John Prime – convinces what I will dub in this review our original John that he is real (not a ghost or hallucination or anything) and that he has traveled from a parallel universe with a deceptively simple looking device. Not to give too much away here, but John Prime manages to convince the other John to give the device a try. The author did a good job of showing that John Prime was worried that he would lose the device; why would our original John come back if he had all the multiverse to explore? Would you?

Again, hopefully not spoiling anything here, deliciously it is revealed that John Prime doesn’t ever want to see the device again and hated traveling. Great foreshadowing for the adventures the original John of the book has to face, for adventures he will face as our original John, for his part, very much wants to go back. And can’t. Ever. The device only goes one way; no return trip to any other parallel universe. He is cut off from his original universe forever while he has no idea what John Prime is up to!

To me a real surprise in the book – and a quite pleasant one at that – is that the book focuses on both Johns, John Rayburn, the original John we got on page one, and John Prime. Though they both settle into different versions of Ohio, they each have to deal with that universe’s parents, unrequited love, bullies, and slight differences in history, technology, and popular culture as well as contend with still larger issues.

Another thing I really liked about the book was it took an idea that my friends and I had wondered about before; what if you were to say “invent” something that did not exist in a particular universe, such as a popular game? John Prime for instance starts the process of “inventing” the Rubik’s Cube in original John’s universe, which as far as John Prime can determine, never had the toy. A great idea, but even better is how the author showed that doing something like that is much, much more complex than it looks. Do you know how to make the thing you are trying to “invent?” Do you know how to describe it to others who say might run your production line? Are you quite sure it does not exist anywhere on that world? What will you do if they say they invented it?

Our original John, less interested in “inventing” things (though he accidentally gets caught up in that too), wants to research the device. How do you do that? Who do you approach if anyone? How do you research a device in a universe that lacks certain tools and equipment? Do you invent it? If you do, how do you deal with any attention that this attracts? Do you even legally exist in this universe?

As fascinating – and realistic – as that all is (well, as realistic as anything can be in these books, though I suspect that the legal issues facing inventors as shown in this novel are not entirely fiction), there are worse problems. John Prime, living a stolen life, and our hapless original John are not the only travelers from other parallel universes. Both Johns attract their attention in different ways and the attention is not very nice at all.

A good book, I definitely plan to read the sequel. The build up to the end was both interesting and surprising. The bad guys came off as somewhat alien and could have been a bit better fleshed out, something I hope that the second book dives into. I loved all the subtle differences between some of the parallel universes (and with some, some very un-subtle ones). I like how also the author snuck in some of the differences with throwaway lines, talking about say makes and models of cars or popular soft drink lines. I also like how the book is more or less from the vantage point of a single person that is more identifiable to the reader than the protagonists of other parallel universe hopping works of fiction (such as say in contrast with the great families of _Conquistador_ by S.M. Stirling).
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Jan 22, 2009 Liviu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009_release_read, genre-sf, read_2009, review_fbc

Walls of the Universe reads like a golden-age sf adventure tale with a plucky young protagonist, though here there are two instances of him that star in the book, but it's also a thoroughly modern novel in outlook, sensibilities and tone.

Most of the action takes place on two similar universes with our own, around Toledo, Ohio, where John (Original) Rayburn, a senior high school teen with a love of physics, a crush on beautiful cheerleader Casey Nicholson and a problem with snobbish cat-torturer,...more Walls of the Universe reads like a golden-age sf adventure tale with a plucky young protagonist, though here there are two instances of him that star in the book, but it's also a thoroughly modern novel in outlook, sensibilities and tone.

Most of the action takes place on two similar universes with our own, around Toledo, Ohio, where John (Original) Rayburn, a senior high school teen with a love of physics, a crush on beautiful cheerleader Casey Nicholson and a problem with snobbish cat-torturer, junior high schooler and all around jerk Ted Carson, meets himself, or more precisely John Prime Rayburn from a slightly diverging world and with a slightly diverging storyline at least up to him getting the device. Prime makes John an offer to try the device and see the Multiverse in all its glory without mentioning the small detail, that the transporter has a problem. It can go only upstream to higher numbered universes, Prime coming from 7433, while John being in 7533.

John - farm-boy - as the well traveled Prime calls him to fire him up to see the Multiverse and incidentally spare Prime the necessity of killing him, is a very believable example of a talented teen with a passion for physics, but also for sports, as well as not being shy of beating the crap out of jerk Ted Carson for his nasty pranks and insults, but being afraid to ask beautiful cheerleader Casey on a date.

Prime has been like that, a year and 100 universes ago, but now he is a ruthless, determined youngster with an overriding goal. Settle with "his" family in a universe that's almost identical to his lost one, get rich by exploiting ideas across the visited universes that are new to #7533 and get Casey here too after sampling her charms in several other universes.

But for now, Prime stops short of killing "himself" when John accepts the dare, believing that he will be back in 12 hours, since the tall but believable tales of Prime mentioned that the device needs that much time to "recharge", and of course when John discovers the painful truth he is devastated.

But plucky youngsters do not give up easily and John starts an odyssey across the Multiverse - upstream for now - to find a way back home and on the way he discovers quite a few things about himself, universe-hopping, makes new friends, gets "new" parents, finds a much more sophisticated Casey and has quite a few adventures. On the other hand Prime's plans start encountering hitch after hitch, including a baby girl, a hasty shotgun marriage and much more. But he is still the ruthless universe traveler and to his surprise he finds a soul-mate in the seemingly shy and unsophisticated Casey of farm-boy's universe.

The story flows very well and I kept turning page after page to find out what's next. The dialog is fun and snappy and the two main characters, John and Prime are very well drawn, both strikingly similar and quite different at the same time. The recurring characters, most notably Casey but Ted Carson and John's parents are also very well done in their Multiverse iterations, similar and different at the same time.

This is one of the main literary strength of the novel, the ability of making the characters believable in the circumstances of being the "same person" though not quite, and here Walls of the Universe could have easily gone astray, but Mr. Melko' skill kept me suspending my disbelief time and again.

The main weaknesses of the novel are the villains who are kind of stock cartoonish, both menacing, powerful and experienced in nasty doings, as well as easily confounded by plucky youngsters, then the nature of the universe traveling device which is straight out of a B-sf movie and is seemingly something not that advanced technologically. Also the larger issues are ignored for most of the novel, Walls of the Universe being John's adventure and Prime's attempt to have a normal life, rather than an exploration of the mysteries of the Multiverse which are only hinted here and there.

There is a character rattling statistics about the likelihood of historical events across the Multiverse, stuff like in how many universes has been George Washington shot for treason - usually - in how many Napoleon united Europe - about 40% of the ones that had Napoleon Emperor - what are some of the hinges of history, but that aspect is only touched upon here and I hope a future novel in this entertaining setting will go there.

I enjoyed this novel much more than I expected, a pure fun golden-age sf adventure with modern sensibilities and I highly recommend it as well as looking forward to more books by Mr. Melko who is finally coming into his own as the great talent his short fiction presaged.(less)

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Apr 15, 2009 Steven rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a page-turning sci-fi thriller, with interweaving plots, sub-plots, and overarching conspiracies.

Seriously. Remember The DaVinci Code? Yes, it was historically crap and had flat, unbelievable characters... but what carried that book was the fast-moving plot, unveiling mysteries, and interlocking conspiracies. Take those good elements, add believable and likeable characters, and unobtrusive (but good) science - and then you've got The Walls of the Universe.

I'd definitely recommend this b...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Ron Arden added it

Paul Melko's second novel took me on another fascinating journey. This one involves John Rayburn, who discovers that there are multiple universes and multiple John Rayburns in them. One of them, who he dubs John Prime, has a transfer device that enables him to move between universes. The device is broken and only allows the user to move up to the next universe (from 2405 to 2406 for example). John Prime was tricked by another John to use the device and can't get back home. Now he does the same t...more

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Apr 13, 2010 gord mackenzie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fast, frantic fun.

This book reminds me a bit of Stephen Gould's "Jumper". Melko takes a simple, classic SciFi idea (travel between parallel realities in this case) and drops it on the head of his young protagonist. This kick-starts a world-hopping adventure that's hard to put down.

"Walls of the Universe", however, is not completely successful. There are a few false notes to be found. In particular, Melko seems to lose his way about three quarters of the way through the story. The ending wraps ev...more

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Apr 05, 2011 Celine___ rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-french, science-fiction, teen, young-adult

Voilà un roman unique qui je pense se fera beaucoup remarquer ! Les Murs de l'Univers est un très bon livre de science-fiction pour jeunes amateurs de ce genre littéraire.

John Rayburn rencontre un jour son double et apprend qu'il est possible de changer d'univers, autrement dit de se retrouver dans une autre dimension, comme de voyager dans le temps. Mais son double a vraisemblablement d'autres intentions qu'il ne lui avait dit, puisque John reste bloqué dans une dimension qu'il ne connaît pas!...more

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Apr 23, 2009 Susan Schatvet rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a fast paced sci-fi novel involving the multi-universe travel theory; imagine meeting yourself and knowing that there are millions of you in alternate universes. If you had a device that would allow you to travel through the universes would you? When John meets himself in the cornfield he is tricked into taking a journey through the universes, unfortunately the device he is given only allows him to travel forward, he cannot get back to his own universe, some of the universes he encounter...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Lianne Burwell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

The Walls of the Universe in some ways made me think of Steven Gould's Jumper series. In Jumper, a teenaged boy discovers the ability to teleport. He uses it to indulge himself until he comes to the attention of those who would like to use him.

In Walls, John Rayburn is a normal teenager, about to finish high school, and dealing with the same sort of problems any kid his age would have. But one day he is approached by... himself. This other version (refered to later as John Prime) has a device th...more

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Jun 15, 2012 Justin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: spec-fic

Have you ever wondered what your life might be like had you, or someone else, just made a different, possibly even minor, choice? Just how much would change? Such speculation provides the grist for alternate (or parallel) universe novel The Walls of the Universe. Into the life of simple farmboy and engineering school hopeful John Rayburn walks…John Rayburn. John Prime (nicknames being necessary for obvious reasons) tells John Farmboy that inter-universe travel is possible courtesy of a device sm...more

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Dec 12, 2011 Baby T-Rex rated it 2 of 5 stars

Great concept, but so many problems. It was a real struggle to finish this book.

1) Both main characters are super unlikable. John starts out not so bad, but somewhere along the way I stopped caring about him. Prime starts out an asshole and stays that way, and the love interests are just as bad. By the end of the book I hated every single character.

2) The writing is so bland. When something shocking happens (such as meeting an alternate self, or accidentally killing someone) each character react...more

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Sep 30, 2009 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

When was the last time you read a science fiction novel with doppelgangers? Yeah, that's right, I didn't think so! Do you know what a doppelganger is? It's your parallel self that lives in an alternate universe. The main character of this adult novel is John Rayburn, who is your typical Ohio farm kid. But then he meets himself from another universe and is tricked into strapping on a device and skipping to the next universe. There are thousands of universes in this world and John Rayburn is in ev...more

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Jul 10, 2009 Betsy rated it 4 of 5 stars

The premise is a compelling one. How would you survive if your doppelganger from a parallel universe tricked you into giving up your life for a supposed quick trip to another parallel universe...only it turns out the device that lets you travel forward to other universes is broken and won't take you back to your own? John finally settles into a universe that appears to have a lot of similarities to his own, except they don't have pinball or personal computers and the people who are his parents i...more

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