Paratime Author:H. Beam Piper This book is a collection of five short stories, written by the incomparable H. Beam Piper, and set in his Paratime universe (or more correctly, multiverse). In this milieu, human society has developed the technology to move laterally between parallel universes. This advanced society looks upon itself as 'First Level'. Second Level contains soci... more »eties that are about as advanced as First Level, Third Level is less advanced, our own 'Europo-American' world is firmly on the Fourth Level, and Fifth Level contains worlds where (for one reason or another) human life does not exist. Within each of these levels (except First), there are many parallel worlds, many only marginally different, and totaling up to ten-to-the-hundred-thousandth time-lines! Protecting the secret of the existence of this multiverse is the Paratime Police, and these are their stories.« less