Good idea on reducing threads.
So, my novel is entitled, Tin Can Wizard. It's a sci-fi, adventure, fantasy, vaguely like Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. It begins with Dr. Marle Linden attending his surprise 50th Birthday Party on the Tin Can. That is a solar observatory between Mercury and Venus. Their task is to monitor green waves and warn Earth.
Green waves are a new kind of CME that negatively affects electronic instruments and turns back the hands of clocks. During the party, and Marle is wearing a wizard's robe and hat, a green wave strikes. Marle rushes to his lab to save his experiment before the outer shields close.
He saves the oak sprout, is bombarded with green waves, and is dropped into alternate time lines and alternate realities. Ultimately, Marle finds himself in the world of Turua, where he is captured by the warrior, Vakyr.