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The protagonist is a slave in a technologically-advanced society. The masters all go nude but the slaves are forced to wear clothing. Through some mechanism our hero gets transported to a realm where magic rules.

The word "demesnes" is used to describe territories in the magical universe. The hero moves back and forth between these two realms involuntarily at first but then with the help of a female robot, who later becomes his lover, learns to control and capitalize on the two variations.

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The sounds very like the Apprentice Adept series by Piers Anthony except that in those books the serfs (serfs not slaves) have to go naked not the masters.

Apart from this it all checks out. The summary given by Wikipedia is:

Apprentice Adept is a heptalogy of fantasy and science fiction novels written by English American author Piers Anthony. The series takes place on Phaze and Proton, two worlds occupying the same space in two different dimensional planes. Phaze is a lush planet of magic, where Proton is a barren mining planet of science. As the series opens, each person born on Phaze and Proton has an alternate self living on the other world. But if a person on either world lacks a duplicate (for instance if a Proton citizen immigrated there from another planet, or a counterpart from the opposite frame died), he can cross to the other through an energy "curtain" that circumscribes each frame.

The protagonist is called Stile and the robot he meets is Sheen. In the magical world Phaze the regions are called demesnes e.g. Blue Demesnes, Platinum Demesnes, and so on.

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  • Thank you so very much Mr. Rennie. You have it precisely. A "heptalogy" huh? That means seven doesn't it? When I read them they were combined in a single volume of collected works. I wasn't a serious fan of Anthony's never having read many of his vast catalog but this series hooked me and I think I finished in record time. Say, are you related to the actor Michael Rennie? Once again thank you so much for your assistance. Mar 29, 2020 at 9:39

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