A Dark Traveling

A Dark Traveling, Roger Zelazny, Walker and Co, 1987

The Wiley's seem like your average family; but they aren't. They are guardians of the transcomp, a machine that permits travel between parallel worlds. Anything learned from the other worlds, good or bad, is leaked into this world through various sources.

There are a number of known parallel worlds, called "bands." The whitebands are those that are friendly and willing to engage in trade, of goods and information, with Earth. The inhabitants of the graybands are warlike, and much more interested in conquest of other bands than in peaceful coexistence. The darkbands are those where the civilization has been destroyed, either from an internal or external force.

One day, Thomas Wiley, the father, is working in the locked transcomp room. A disturbance is heard inside, and his adopted children, Ben, Becky and Jim, rush in to find him gone and the transcomp damaged. The only way to get out is through the transcomp. There's no way for them to know which band it was set for at that moment. Was he kidnapped by people from one of the graybands? Is he injured in one of the dark bands and unable to signal for help?

Just to make things worse, word is received that one of the graybands has been recruiting soldiers from the other graybands in preparation for an attack on Earth. The Wiley children, each born in a different band, are just average teenagers. Ben is a martial arts master, Becky claims to be a witch, and Jim is just a werewolf.

This young adult novel is actually pretty good. It's short, a very easy read, and anyone who is new to science fiction could do a lot worse than read this book.