SciFi: Omnipotent Being Creates Universes, Stories of People Within

I can't recall who wrote this book, or the title or anything. I read it in the 1990s.

There is a series of stories (3? 4?) in the book, about some omnipotent being who creates worlds/universes. The stories are about beings who are caught up in his universes and what happens to them.

It was really interesting, but I have no clue how to find it again.

Could it have been an omnibus of Philip Jose Farmer's World of Tiers books, which take place in an artificial world created by Jadawin the Thoan ?

No, that doesn't look like it.

It was one book, with about 4 chapters (long) and it was definitely sci fi, space stuff mainly as far as I can remember.

I thought it might be a mainstream sort of author, like Poul Anderson.

Thanks for the suggestion, though. :)

I'm pretty sure Poul Anderson did not write what you're specifying. He has one story where the character sort-of-dreams several worlds, and experiences living in them, but there's no space travel in that one.

That reminds me (mildly) of Five Fates. Here's the first part of my review of this book: "An interesting premise: In the prologue, one William Bailey enters a Euthanasia Center, is injected with the death drug and begins to fade into dying. The five stories that follow imagine what might happen to Bailey following that event. They are quite divergent, but it is interesting to note that in none of them does the entity "William Bailey" actually die. These stories are not tasked with imagining the afterlife. "

It's not exactly about "universes" but each of the stories takes place in a different ..."imagining" maybe...

EmScape,

That's the one I was thinking of, "The Fatal Fulfillment." Thanks. But almost certainly not what fuzzi is looking for, of course.

Thanks for the input. :)

I'm fairly sure this book was written by a mainstream sci fi author, if that helps any.

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It's been ages since I read it, but I wonder if this might be God Game by Andrew M. Greeley. I'm not sure it quite fits, but it's all I can think of.

No, it's not a Greeley book.

Thank you, anyway...

One of Stephen Baxter's Origin: books, maybe?

(11) I just read the description of the plot, and no, that's not it, but thanks.

The main premise of the book I'm searching for is about this large omnipotent being in space (I think he was just sort of floating around) and how he could be considered a god, as he creates worlds.

The book I read had several stories in it, in chronological order: for example, the first story might have been when the being created a solar system, but then the next would have been about people living there, or something like that. I think there were like four stories within the one book, and the godlike being was in all of them.

I hope someone at some point can help me with this. It would have been published before or by the mid 1980s.

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Sounds interesting, but I have no idea. I hope someone knows this one!

It sounds a bit like a short story in one of Orson Scott Card's anthologies, Unaccompanied Sonata. There's this semi-omnipotent being who has lots of children/clones and while they mature he tells them different stories. Then at the end they all go off to become their own semi-omnipotent beings and have their own children/clones and tell them stories etc. I don't remember which story it was, though--not the title one, for sure.

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...I hate it that I can't find this book.

Two years go by, another bump. :(

Fuzzi,
I've tried searching some sci-fi databases using various tags: god, creator, create worlds, create solar system, clone, omnipotent but can find nothing. I ca't bring myself to give up without a "fight". Can you supply some other tag words? A character name or reference?

MAJ

>21 majackson: thank you, but it's been so long I've forgotten. I do recall that the omnipotent being had a name, but not what it was.

I guess at this point I'm hoping someone reads the thread and recognizes the book.

>1 fuzzi: Have you tried other "lost book" forums?
http://forums.abebooks.com/abesleuthcom
https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/
https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthatbook/
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/
https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/
https://stackexchange.com/
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/
https://www.quora.com/
http://www.sffworld.com/forums/
https://ask.metafilter.com
http://www.ibdof.com

>1 fuzzi: Or hey! Look, the ultimate superhero...librarians! https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/librarian-detectives-forgotten-books

Thanks for all the links, lesmel. Here's another one.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/list_group/185-what-s-the-name-of-that-book

>24 lesmel: >25 Bargle5: thank you all for the links!

How about Zelazny's Isle of the Dead

>28 justifiedsinner: I don't recall that it was Zelazny (love his works!) but I'll take a second look at that one, thanks.

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The main premise of the book I'm searching for is about this large omnipotent being in space (I think he was just sort of floating around) and how he could be considered a god, as he creates worlds.

The book I read had several stories in it, in chronological order: for example, the first story might have been when the being created a solar system, but then the next would have been about people living there, or something like that. I think there were like four stories within the one book, and the godlike being was in all of them.

I hope someone at some point can help me with this. It would have been published before or by the mid 1980s.

Bump...