Imperium Series by Keith Laumer, Arthur C. Clarke

When Brion Bayard was kidnapped and brought to the alternate world where Earth's history took a different turn, it was not a pleasant experience. It was, however, a startling experience. Here was a world that was just like the Earth he was taken from--with just a few subtle changes. On top of all this, Brion was given a puzzling assignment by his captors. He was to secretly enter a palace, and kill a dangerous and tyrannical dictator... moreWhen Brion Bayard was kidnapped and brought to the alternate world where Earth's history took a different turn, it was not a pleasant experience. It was, however, a startling experience. Here was a world that was just like the Earth he was taken from--with just a few subtle changes. On top of all this, Brion was given a puzzling assignment by his captors. He was to secretly enter a palace, and kill a dangerous and tyrannical dictator. There was one, small catch--the hated dictator in this world was the mirror image of Brion Bayard. For on an Alternate Earth, Brion's is his own worst enemy! less

BLINDING LIGHT, NOISE BEYOND SOUND -- A JOURNEY INTO NOTHINGNESS....Imperial Intelligence Agent Brion Bayard was catapulted into nothingness by an unknown force and woke to find himself in a universe not his own. Surrounded by hulking, cannibalistic ape men who called themselves Haroon, Bayard was soon entrapped in a web of time lines... moreBLINDING LIGHT, NOISE BEYOND SOUND -- A JOURNEY INTO NOTHINGNESS....Imperial Intelligence Agent Brion Bayard was catapulted into nothingness by an unknown force and woke to find himself in a universe not his own. Surrounded by hulking, cannibalistic ape men who called themselves Haroon, Bayard was soon entrapped in a web of time lines. He found himself running from the Hagroon into the arms of Dzok, the educated monkey man of Xonijeel; transported by Dzok to a universe where Napoleon the Fifth was in power and left there to the tender powers of the beautiful witch woman Olivia; struggling in the bonds of a fictitious past, always striving to regain his lost universe of Zero-zero Stockholm so he could bring the warning which might save his world from sudden, violent death... less

THE COMING OF THE BLIGHTIt seemed as though the world was eroding right under everyone's feet. Stories disappeared from magazines; the baron's silver coat of arms, polished in the morning, was pitted with corrosion by afternoon; toadstools were springing up from every corner. And these were but the first signs of the coming plague, a cancerous orgy of patternless vitality seeking to engulf the world.. moreTHE COMING OF THE BLIGHTIt seemed as though the world was eroding right under everyone's feet. Stories disappeared from magazines; the baron's silver coat of arms, polished in the morning, was pitted with corrosion by afternoon; toadstools were springing up from every corner. And these were but the first signs of the coming plague, a cancerous orgy of patternless vitality seeking to engulf the world...TO STEM THE TIDECarefree Johnny Curlon, indelicately plucked from his fishing boat one evening, is bluntly informed by high powers that he is a man destined for a role in great affairs: only his unique powers can prevent the coming probability crisis that threatens to turn the world into bubbling chaos.... less

Three complete novels of cross-time action and suspense by Keith Laumer, grand master of science fiction adventure. Brion Bayard was an American diplomat . . . until he was kidnapped on the streets of Stockholm, and thrust into what he thought was a truck. At first, he was relieved to find that his abductors were very apologetic, and very British. Then they began speaking about nations and leaders which Bayard had never heard of... moreThree complete novels of cross-time action and suspense by Keith Laumer, grand master of science fiction adventure. Brion Bayard was an American diplomat . . . until he was kidnapped on the streets of Stockholm, and thrust into what he thought was a truck. At first, he was relieved to find that his abductors were very apologetic, and very British. Then they began speaking about nations and leaders which Bayard had never heard of. That was understandable, they told him, because they were from Earth, but not his Earth. There are millions or more parallel Earths, each different in some slight way from the other, where history has taken every possible turn, where the heirs of Napoleon rule Europe, where King John tore the Magna Carta to shreds and executed those who had presented him with it, even one where the ancestors of Homo sapiens lost the evolutionary struggle to another upright ape, who became the dominant intelligent lifeform. But mostly there are uninhabitable worlds, destroyed by the discovery of the technology to travel from one parallel Earth to another and the misuse of it. The Earth of the Imperium is at war with another parallel Earth and Bayard can stop the war by killing the ruler of the aggressor Earth and replacing him-because the ruler is a parallel version of Bayard. But when Bayard goes on his mission to the alternate Earth, things don't turn out to be quite that simple. And that was only the beginning of Bayard's adventures as he defends his new homeworld, both from internal enemies and invaders from the other side of time, becoming the staunchest and most resourceful defender of the Imperium!Publisher's Note: Imperium has previously appeared in parts as Worlds ofthe Imperium, Assignment in Nowhere and The Other Side of Time. This is the first unitary edition. less

Brion Bayard, once of our own timeline and now Imperium Agent extraordinaire, had been on some pretty dangerous missions before - but never had he encountered so noxious a foe as the invading legions of giant plague-ridden rats who walked like men, spreading disease across the miltiple universes of the Imperium... moreBrion Bayard, once of our own timeline and now Imperium Agent extraordinaire, had been on some pretty dangerous missions before - but never had he encountered so noxious a foe as the invading legions of giant plague-ridden rats who walked like men, spreading disease across the miltiple universes of the Imperium. Unless Bayard can travel to the original world of the long-tailed invaders and stop the plague at its source, the Earth of the Imperium and all the other Earths in all the universes will fall before the verminous hordes from a timeline that should never have existed in the first place. less