This is a most curious book. The miraculous Stone of Suleiman becomes the focus of desire for the varied cast of characters, most of whom seek to exploit it for wealth or power, some more selflessly than others.

I was struck by the echoes of the novels of G. K. Chesterton: the ancient Persian and his Muslim piety (expressed, though, in Williams's own spiritual language) is more than faintly reminiscent of the old-fashioned Muslims-through-Western-eyes of GKC's Flying Inn, and the small-town mayor who finds himself speaking to the government on behalf of the Common Man also seems a Chestertonian figure. Less surprising were the resonances with C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength, on which Williams's influence has long been acknowledged: the Arglay/Tumulty struggle is not a million miles from Ransom/Devine. Arglay's bizarrely intimate asexual relationship with his secretary recalls Williams's own romantic but chaste dealings with a succession of young female assistants. His hieratic aloofness (like Lewis's Ransom, trespassing across the line between paternal and patronizing) is perhaps also the author's, though his thoughts on law and language may rather reflect those of his friend Owen Barfield.

There are some aspects which would interest the thoughtful science fiction fan: some paradoxes of time travel are carefully dissected, and there is a fascinating description of what it might be like for one person to direct the thoughts of another (as distinct from simply taking control of their actions). The nature of faith is also touched upon (at one point Arglay decides to believe in God, as a sort of working hypothesis). The resolution should, perhaps, not be as unexpected as I found it; the spiritual thrust of the book leads inexorably away from the imposition of corrupt will upon the source of power, and towards sacrificial submission to the divine nature. MB 23-x-2007 (review transferred from discarded edition 2022) ( )

It was interesting how a stone with mythical powers could be at the center of a fight between good and evil. The author draws on religious differences and the struggle for each sect to gain an advantage and promote their own way as the one true way. Mixed in with some philosophical debate between predestination and free will, is a bit of time traveling. Interactions between governments add another layer to the discussion.

I received this book through a Publisher's promotional giveaway. Although encouraged as a courtesy to provide feedback, I was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. ( )

This came with one of the blurbiest blurbs I’ve ever read:

'[Williams writes] … Serious, mystical books containing visionary, descriptive passages of great beauty and great power; yet their form is the form of a thriller, and their characters are flesh and blood figures in an ordinary world.'

Chapter one describes three men discussing what to do with the crown of King Solomon, stolen from an ancient Persian family, which apparently allows the user to teleport in space and, possibly, time. So much for ‘flesh and blood figures in an ordinary world’.

There are a few flashes of wit (‘Can you move other people with it, or is it like season tickets?’), but they are buried beneath piles of (I think) turgid prose.

‘"He has foreknown that which he is now experiencing?" Lord Arglay asked.
‘"I think so," Ibrahim answered. "But though he knew it i do not think it is now within his memory, nor will be until he reaches the end. For to remember the future he must have foreknown the memory of the future, and yet that he could not do without first foreknowing it without memory. So I think he is spared that evil."

You could randomly rearrange all of those words and make as much sense. And there is page after page of this stuff.

Read my full review at http://pastoffences.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/charles-williams-many-dimensions/ ( )

This came with one of the blurbiest blurbs I’ve ever read:

'[Williams writes] … Serious, mystical books containing visionary, descriptive passages of great beauty and great power; yet their form is the form of a thriller, and their characters are flesh and blood figures in an ordinary world.'

Chapter one describes three men discussing what to do with the crown of King Solomon, stolen from an ancient Persian family, which apparently allows the user to teleport in space and, possibly, time. So much for ‘flesh and blood figures in an ordinary world’.

There are a few flashes of wit (‘Can you move other people with it, or is it like season tickets?’), but they are buried beneath piles of (I think) turgid prose.

‘"He has foreknown that which he is now experiencing?" Lord Arglay asked.
‘"I think so," Ibrahim answered. "But though he knew it i do not think it is now within his memory, nor will be until he reaches the end. For to remember the future he must have foreknown the memory of the future, and yet that he could not do without first foreknowing it without memory. So I think he is spared that evil."

You could randomly rearrange all of those words and make as much sense. And there is page after page of this stuff.

Read my full review at http://pastoffences.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/charles-williams-many-dimensions/ ( )

Like Williams' first novel War in Heaven, the main business of Many Dimensions is an extended scrimmage over a holy relic: in this case, the Stone of the Wise that was set in the crown of King Solomon. Continuity with the earlier book is provided in the person of a single character, the sadistically inquisitive Sir Giles Tumulty. Other key characters include English Chief Justice Lord Christopher Arglay, who seems to be a sort of secular adeptus major undergoing an initiation to adeptus exemptus in the course of the novel, and his personal secretary Chloe Burnett who meanwhile climbs the entire mystical ladder from neophyte to magister templi.

Many of the chapter titles have a clever ambivalence. "The Refusal of Lord Arglay" could mean that Arglay is refused or refusing. Similarly, "The Discovery of Giles Tumulty" could mean that Tumulty is discovered or discovering.

Many Dimensions functions with some effectiveness as a parable regarding the magical will. The overt reflection on this topic is quasi-incidentally remarked in a quotation from 13th-century English jurist Henry of Bracton: Attribuat igitur rex legi, quod lex attribuit ei, videlicet dominationem et potestatem. Non est enim rex ubi dominatur voluntas et non lex (214). Williams doubtless contemplated this maxim in a theological, rather than a magical sense, but the action of his novel is open to both.

There is a surprisingly sympathetic treatment of Islam in this book, creating a contrast with the sort of moronic Islamophobia in which Williams' friend C.S. Lewis trafficked in the form of his villainous Calormenes. Although Williams was the author of works of Christian theology, his fiction shows him to have a generous religious imagination, including a warmth toward conscientious skepticism. This latter is on full display in the character of Lord Arglay, who at one point describes the Christian Passion as "one of the myths of our race."