The Winds of All Worlds

Alternate realities. Interdimensional travel. Strange beings living between the various worlds.
When Philip Neri invented the Transport System to make instantaneous travel to all points of the globe possible, he did not envision any of these things. Neither did he expect that his lifelong friend, Nick Myra, would steal his plans and sell them to the government.
Six years later, at his 40th birthday party, Philip drunkenly decides to unveil his updated version of the TranSys, the TransDev, to his unsuspecting guests. In an instant, eleven people are whisked away to worlds that should not exist without any apparent way home. And the common factor of all of these strange, parallel earths is a giant Tower, dominating the horizon.
What is the Tower? What are the animal headed monsters that rule these other worlds? And will any of Philip's friends survive long enough to find out?