The Timeliner Trilogy

Science-fiction series by Richard C Meredith, about The Multiverse, consisting of At The Narrow Passage; No Brother, No Friend and Vestiges of Time.

Eric Mathers is a Timeliner, an employee of an alien species called the Krith, who have developed the ability to "skud" between timelines. Using this ability, the Krith have built a substanstial cross-line empire, and developed technology to duplicate their natural ability. Using skudders and their human contractors, the Krith are trying to stabilize as many Timelines as possible so as to fight off a distant invasion.

Of course, all is not as it seems, and Mathers rebels against his employers about halfway through the first novel. He spends the remaining two either running from the Krith or just trying to survive.


 * After the End: Thousands of lines to the T-East, all destroyed by nuclear war - not even an atmosphere left.
 * Alternate History: A near-infinite number thereof, all existing side-by-side, created by changes in the timeline.
 * For Want of a Nail and In Spite of a Nail: While Timelines next to each other are mostly similar, massive changes occur over greater distances because of relatively minor changes long ago.
 * Guardian of the Multiverse: The Krith... or so they claim...
 * Also the Paratimers... or so they claim...
 * La Résistance: The American Republican Army of At The Narrow Passage
 * Multiversal Conqueror: In a way - the unknown, distant invaders attack at the same time in every Timeline, but they're not actually attacking across the timelines.
 * The distant invaders aren't the only examples, though -
 * Time Travel: Described as impossible, except for one scientific experiment which enabled the future to send messages back to the past - the only message ever received, in multiple timelines, was a warning about imminent destruction by an unnamed alien race.
 * Utopia: The Cross-Line Civilization in the T-West - ten lines, all interconnected, a place of post-scarcity hedonism and industry, notable for see-through clothing and public sex parks.
 * Sadly, it turns out to be