Jack L. Chalker (1944–2005)

I’ve had this series on my bookshelves for several years and I’m not entirely sure why. I think Chalker was an awful writer, slapdash, fixated on a handful of not very original ideas, and content to pad out the thinnest of stories to trilogy, and longer, length. I don’t think he wrote a single good book, but he does have legions of fans. Which, I guess, makes him much like every other science fiction author. Anyway, Midnight at the Well of Souls is the first book in Chalker’s The show more Saga of the Well World series, which had reached seven books by the time Chalker died in 2005. A group of archaeological students studying a Markovian ruin on a dead world are murdered by their instructor after he has figured out how to access the Markovian world-computer. He, and the one surviving student, find themselves transported to the Well World. Some time later, spaceship captain Nathan Brazil is transporting a handful of passengers through space when he receives a distress call. It’s from that same world where the instructor murdered his students. And so Brazil and his passengers find themselves also in the Well World. Which is an artificial planet in another dimension or something, and is divided into 1,560 hexagons, each one 355 by 615 kms and containing a completely different ecosphere and associated alien races. Brazil and his passengers are scattered across different hexes, each transformed into a native of that hex. Well, except Brazil isn’t. Because it turns out he’s some sort of immortal, and he knows how to work the Well World’s controlling computer, which is just as well because the aforementioned instructor wants to use the controlling computer for his own ends (and which will in consequence destroy the real universe). So Brazil and allies must trek across half a dozen hexes, having adventures along the way, in order to reach the equatorial wall and the secret entrance to the control room. It’s science fiction by numbers, light on invention, characterisation, rigour and, er, substance. It has all the originality of a basement RPG session by a group of twentysomething nerds. I doubt I’ll be continuing with the rest of the series. show less

Chalker's name has come up on my recommendation lists so when I stumbled across this book at my library's annual book sale, I decided to give it a go. I'm glad that I did.

As you can surmise from the book's description, this is quest fiction: protagonists travel to distant lands (worlds) to obtain magic item(s) (jewels) that will save their home. Since time is of the essence, the protagonists (Mac and Jill) split up to accomplish their tasks quicker. I'll admit that the first stops on their show more respective journeys did little to interest me. Each one followed a formula: arrive at world, learn the rules, recon to figure out location of jewel, make a play for it. While each story contained a little something to reward my investment of time, the book was headed for a three star rating.

Although the last world started off as routine as the others, Mac and Jill joined forces to accomplish their penultimate task. Chalker really puts it in gear in the search for the last jewel and carries through to the story's conclusion. We have one Faustian bargain heaped upon another and I enjoyed reading how they played out. And in the conclusion, Chalker draws upon the lessons learned from the earlier worlds to settle this morality play.

So while the pacing was slow and the initial quests were not all that intriguing, characterization was strong. Chalker's protagonists are likable and reasonably bright and his antagonist is certainly interesting, albeit under used except for the beginning and end. Even the minor characters along the way are well developed considering their limited usage.

All in all, it's a slow burn with a familiar theme but a good read with a nice payoff at the end. show less

Space freighter captain Nathan Brazil, who is older than he looks and more important than he realizes, receives a distress call from an archeological expedition on a dead planet that was once inhabited by a powerful alien race. He arrives to find the expedition murdered, whereupon he and his passengers are sucked through an ancient alien portal. They arrive on a bizarre artificial world made up of a patchwork of environments, each inhabited by a different intelligent species. Those who enter show more this world find themselves awakening in random environments, transformed into whatever species lives there. And somewhere on this planet is the murderer, who seeks the ultimate power that this godlike technology can provide.

I really should not have liked this book as much as I did. The plot is easy to find fault with, if you're inclined, what science it uses is terrible, and it glosses over a lot of practical and psychological issues that really should have been problematic. Worse, practically the whole novel consists of lecturing: characters lecturing each other, the author lecturing the reader, examples of the dreaded "As you know, Bob..." dialog. Stuff that really annoys me. And yet, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot. It was wonderfully imaginative, and as soon as I opened it, it was as if I'd somehow regressed to my teenage years, when I had more capacity for sense of wonder than I did for reading critically. I have absolutely no idea how this book managed to do that for me, but it was fun. show less

It is sometime far in the future; at some point in the far past humanity handed over control to the Master System. This omnipresent computer system loosely rules all human planets, though it is itself being challenged somewhere along the edges of its empire by another machine civilization. Earth has been mostly depopulated and is frozen in time at a stone age technology level. Only a few chosen work for the Master System part of the year helping to study and run things, the rest of the year show more returning to their primitive existence. A man named Hawks stumbles on evidence of a way to overthrow the Master System and spends the rest of the book fleeing from agents who are trying to kill him while trying to find allies.
Its an interesting universe and at the time it was written it was original, but this book is spoiled somewhat by Chalker's poor treatment of women. I would give it more stars for being interesting and easy to read, but I'm concerned about the direction it is going in and I believe some readers would dislike some of his concepts. show less