Can you help me identify this book? I read it in the 80s. What I can remember:
- It was about a group of people who get sucked into a parallel universe / another world after a device malfunctions and explodes. This devices transports everything in its surroundings to this other place.
- Under these people there are scientists or science students (unsure what exactly they were) which participated in the building of the device which malfunctions.
- Once this group realizes they are somewhere else they try to get back to the earth, but the device doesn't work / was not transported / was destroyed after the trip.
- They spend most of the story trying to rebuild a new device so they can get back. When the device is done they realize it transport them to an even more unfriendly world than the one they are in. They conclude the devices probably connects to random worlds and they will never be able to return to earth.
Some additional points after seeing the answers:
It is a science fiction book, no fantasy involved
There is no time travel.
They only travel once at the beginning of the book. At the end when the machine is built they just test it and realize that the portal doesn't bring them back to earth.