ABANDONED. multi world series from the 90s

[WTEK]

I'm sure there are a number of spoilers in my description, but I can't find this series at bookstores or for about 15years, so I doubt there's a huge number of people who will be devestated by what I reveal.

I read a number of books from a series in the 90s that featured characters who could travel through a multitude of worlds. They would use portals that could be found a variety of weird places including a giant grub. The first book started out on our Earth with a teenager/young man and his foster sister who he was in love with and an older gentleman, probably his grandfather?

I remember one of the worlds having people who live in trees, another where the protagonist was super tiny and riding around on dustmites, and that he (major spoiler) hooks up with another woman who looks just like his foster sister at some point.

There were a bunch of these games as well as a RPG that I played once as well.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

[Tab]

Wendy, was this series for teens or adults?
Remember anything about the cover?

[WTEK]

The most I can remember about the covers were they were black. I feel like there was something about world or realm in the title of the series, but I'm not sure. Also not sure if they would qualify as young adult. That wasn't much of a genre back then and the protagonist ages through the series. It's one of those on the edge of adulthood, but a little more than coming of age timelines.

[Ingo]

A first stab: the World of Tiers -series by Philip Jose Farmer?
As it is older, there may be black covers, but the ones I remember are in colour.
First book is:
The Maker of Universes
(1965)
The others are:
The Gates of Creation (1966)
A Private Cosmos (1968)
Behind the Walls of Terra (1970)
The Lavalite World (1977)
More Than Fire (1993) (copied from Wikipedia)

There are also Omnibus-Editions, which are a cheap (I think) way to get the books. And an additional volume with a person in therapy dreaming of the "World of Tiers" (comparable to "I never promised you a rose-garden"). This last additional book is different but still from Farmer, and called

Red Orc's Rage

It has been some time since I read them, but I think not all facts you tell about do fit with this series, but if it is somewhat similar, may be it will ring a bell for someone.
There are some sex-scenes, so I would not classify this series as YA (edt, for writing utter nonsense, stripped).

[WTEK]

Ingo wrote: "A first stab: the World of Tiers -series by Philip Jose Farmer?
As it is older, there may be black covers, but the ones I remember are in colour.
First book is:
[book:The Maker of Universes|2132254..."

Thanks, Ingo. At first it sounded close, but after reading the book description I don't think those are the ones I'm thinking of. I do think I've heard of those or maybe read a short story by the author.

To further clarify, in the first book the MC found out about the worlds because they had to run from someone/something that had found the older character who had been hiding out in our world. That's all I've been able to remember for now.

[Andrea]

You should check out the Best Multidimensional listopia or possibly Doors, Portals, Gates. And the description of the story reminds me strongly of the Pendragon series even though I know it can't be that (wasn't published until the 00's for one thing).

[WTEK]

Thanks Andrea, I checked them out but none of the books seems to be what I'm thinking of. I am 98% sure the author was a man though.

[Ingo]

I looked into the role-playing (RPG) aspect you mentioned.
There are only a few RPG's after books in the Wikipedia, none matches, imho. A first starting point for the RPG, if want to check that out:
Wikipedia RPG starting page

Here are two more lists to look into, both are not very long:
Books like The World of Tiers
and
Books like The Maker of Universes a quick glance did not show anything obvious to me, though, and I must admit I knew only one book from both lists, and very few writers. Maybe something will jump out to you, but I will not hold my breath.

[WTEK]

Ingo wrote: "I looked into the role-playing (RPG) aspect you mentioned.
There are only a few RPG's after books in the Wikipedia, none matches, imho. A first starting point for the RPG, if want to check that out..."

Ingo you are full of great suggestions. A few years ago I had tried the route of looking up RPGs, but was unable to find this one. I checked out all of those lists and still nothing is what I remembered. Thank you so much for help though!

[Ingo]

Bump (as I might like the solution for my TBR, and even if not, I would like to know, as always).

[Adele]

Roger Zelazny's Amber series is multiverse and has an associated RPG:

Some of the editions have black covers.

[WTEK]

Adele wrote: "Roger Zelazny's Amber series is multiverse and has an associated RPG:

Some of the editions have black covers."

That looks like a good series, Adele, but just not the one I'm looking for.

[D.M.]

Black cover sounds like world of darkness but the content doesn't match I think. Was the novel first and the rpg series based on it, or was it a novel based on a precasting series.

Also I couldn't help but think of Phillip Jose farmer's the dungeon for some reason

[WTEK]

I think that the books came first, but I'm not 100% on that. I checked out the Dungeon, but that wasn't it. Every time I hear about World of Tiers I think I've found it, but that's not it either. Ugh, so frustrating!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Wendy left the group. Moving to Abandoned.