John DeChancie Books in Order

Space trucker Jake picks up a hitchhiker and becomes the target of pursuers convinced he possesses a complete map of the interplanetary Skyway. With his father's consciousness inhabiting the truck, he races to escape forces demanding the supposed prize.

Believed to possess a legendary map of the stars, Jake flees enemies across the Skyway in a battered space rig. Keeping his truck running becomes essential as increasingly determined pursuers chase him through lawless territory with no easy refuge.

A vast, impossible building traps the living amid stairways that go nowhere and corridors that refuse to resolve. After dark, victims scarred by atomic destruction haunt its maze, turning the structure's mysteries into a struggle for survival.

An immensely powerful being removes Jake and his crew from the Skyway and strands them on a planet with unfamiliar physical rules. Facing the road's mysterious builders, the travelers must find a way to survive their long-awaited encounter.

A philosophy student enters Castle Perilous, a magical stronghold whose thousands of doors connect to alternate worlds. Strange companions and unpredictable adventures challenge his ordinary assumptions in a place where the boundaries between reality and fantasy rarely stay fixed.

The inhabitants of Castle Perilous are scattered across thousands of alternate universes and must find their way home. Returning to the castle becomes an uncertain journey when the doors that connect its worlds no longer provide dependable passage.

Malfunctioning magic scatters Castle Perilous's guests into increasingly bizarre worlds, from golfing dinosaurs to a formidable society of Amazons. With each expedition producing new trouble, Lord Incarnadine must find a way to restore order before the castle itself fails.

Still recovering from an earlier battle, Castle Perilous faces an even stranger threat: its own evil counterpart. As hostile doubles gather, the residents must confront a rival reality before the unstable balance between their worlds collapses.

A celebration at Castle Perilous ends when a viscount is found murdered. The guests search for a killer and a missing weapon among thousands of magical doorways, hoping to solve the mystery before the party claims another victim.

Lord Incarnadine's apparent death leaves Castle Perilous vulnerable to a usurper's spell and a chaotic struggle for the throne. While residents compete for power, Gene seeks adventure elsewhere and the absent ruler explores the realm of the dead.

Lord Incarnadine hosts an unruly gathering whose guests include thieves, gladiators, and Greeks bearing an ominous gift. With thousands of doors opening to other realities, the festivities at Castle Perilous quickly become a succession of magical disasters.

A mysterious shipment of advanced technology enables Dr. Demopoulos to construct a machine for traveling through space and time. Joining Dr. Vernon and three colleagues, he embarks on a one-way journey that quickly becomes an unpredictable galactic adventure.

A professor is drawn into a magical computer network after a friend's murder. Aided by a witch and the dead man's ghost, he crosses the country to confront its operator while hostile creatures and shifting reality threaten everyone around him.

Assigned a dysfunctional starship, Captain David Wanker loses even that command to a scientist's automation. Encountering a planet run as a law firm then makes him the defendant in an enormous lawsuit, compounding professional humiliation with interstellar legal chaos.

Gene and Linda's wedding brings another disorderly celebration to Castle Perilous. When the groom chooses a confrontation with barbarians over his guests, the resulting battle threatens his bride's patience and transforms their already unusual wedding day.

Dr. Demopoulos and his unlikely companions crash their spacecraft on an enormous rubbish planet. Stranded far from an ordinary scientific expedition, the time-and-space travelers face a new threat whose consequences could reach across the entire universe.

In an alternate nineteenth century, the court of King Ludwig shares its world with dragons, dwarves, elves, and familiar figures from history and fiction. Espionage and swashbuckling adventure unfold amid a Europe where magic changes the political landscape.

Thirteen-year-old Drew enjoys life with alien friends who improve his intellect, help his romantic prospects, and take him to Mars. Their adventures turn dangerous when another extraterrestrial arrives intending to arrest the pair for treason.

The eastern United States has spent decades isolated under a system that keeps its people disturbingly passive. Agent Frank Sutter enters the region to investigate, confronting a police state sustained by technology that threatens human independence.

Transported game designer Tom Olam has become a secret agent in a magical Victorian world. A convention of mad scientists threatens San Francisco, forcing him and Countess Marianne to confront schemes combining steam technology, sorcery, and international intrigue.

These stories explore unfamiliar ways of living through alien beings and transformed humans. Gamblers, planetary remolders, an erstwhile Sphinx, and a murderer facing his victim's likeness reveal unsettling perspectives on identity, estrangement, and the cost of getting what one wants.

Twenty-two stories move between science fiction, fantasy, horror, and the uncanny, exploring distant worlds and troubled human minds. Alien encounters, elvish figures, familiar cultural icons, and strange urban experiences offer varied approaches to belonging and otherness.

Restless swordsman Gene seeks a pirate-world adventure, reluctantly accompanied by Linda, while Castle Perilous's magic fails again. Zombies, vampires, romance, and rival empires complicate their voyage as Incarnadine attempts a repair that challenges the multiverse's rules.