SOLVED. parallel universe in which a senator kills his double [s]

[Justin]

So, OK. I read this novel in the early nineties. I could have sworn it was called Sliders and that the subsequent TV series was very loosely based on it (basically borrowing the title and the multiverse concept).
The main things I remember is that there was a creature that lived between the universes that would attack travelers and that there was some senator or general that had killed one of his multiverse twins and had taken his place in it.
Thanks for your help!

[Emily]

Hi. This sounds like it:

The Coming of the Quantum Cats
Frederik Pohl

Frederik Pohl's latest novel, THE COMING OF THE QUANTUM CATS (Bantam, Paper, $3.50) takes off from the premise that, at crucial moments in history, reality somehow ''branches,'' so that there exists, for example, another universe in which Lee Harvey Oswald's bullets missed President Kennedy, and yet another in which Senator John F. Kennedy lost the Presidential election in 1960 to Richard Nixon, and yet another in which Jack's older brother Joe lived to become President Kennedy, and so on. The notion of parallel universes or branching time-lines is not new in science fiction, but only in the last few years have theoretical physicists, in an effort to account for some of the bizarre findings of quantum mechanics, begun speculating about similar hypotheses. Mr. Pohl is well aware of these speculations; he is also aware of a complication that the physicists have yet to deal with - that each of us would have a nearly identical double in each nearly identical universe.

In ''The Coming of the Quantum Cats,'' a way is found to travel between universes; inevitably, some of the nearly identical doubles come face to face, with results that are every bit as confusing as you might expect. A character named Dominic DeSota is a mortgage broker in one universe, an army major in a second universe, a United States senator in a third. Nyla Christophe, a concert violinist and the senator's lover in one universe, is a nasty government agent in another.
...
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage...

[Justin]

that seems close but I dont think it is quite it.
thanks though!

[Clare]

How about Double Star by Robert Heinlein?
One minute, down and out actor Lorenzo Smythe was--as usual--in a bar, drinking away his troubles as he watched his career go down the tubes. Then a space pilot bought him a drink, and the next thing Smythe knew, he was shanghaied to Mars.

Suddenly he found himself agreeing to the most difficult role of his career: impersonating an important politician who had been kidnapped. Peace with the Martians was at stake--failure to pull off the act could result in interplanetary war. And Smythe's own life was on the line--for if he wasn't assassinated, there was always the possibility that he might be trapped in his new role forever!(less)

[Ann aka Iftcan]

I don't think Clare has the right book from the description the OP gives. But that's a really GOOD book, so reading it can't hurt. :o)

[Andy]

This is Alternities by Michael Kube-McDowell (http://www.amazon.com/Alternities-Mic...) - complete with evil Senator and monster in the maze between worlds.

[Justin]

Hey-O!!!! Thanks : That is it.

[Andy]

Great! Glad you found your book (especially after all this time)