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Review: Jack Chalker book Midnight at the Well of Souls

Jack Chalker book Midnight at the Well of Souls
Gender

Most of the characters are transformed into different species. A male villain is turned into a female giant cockroach, another male is turned into a mermaid, and a girl is turned into a man.

From: Ian , 661 months, post #1

I had the privelege of reading this one when it first came out. It's one of Chalker's earlier books and it dates back to when his ideas and plot devices were actually new and fresh. It even has less of the ridiculous politically correct sociological preaching that make his later books so juvenile and tiresome. Midnight at the Well of Souls' real value may come from the fact that, unlike subsequent writings, the whole story is contained in just one, relatively fast paced, book, instead of volume after volume dragging forever.

If you're going to read any of Chalker's writings, this is the one to pick up. You might want to stop with this one too.

From: Caitlin B , 661 months, post #2

Chalker's definitive work exploring the limits of biology on free will challenges the western conciet that the Mind can be held above and seperate from the body. The cross-species transformations are handled better than the gender changes.

From: Gavin , 661 months, post #3

One of his better ones (and one of his first)

From: Fish , 661 months, post #4

This isn't a bad book-- or at least it wasn't when I read it. The trouble is, I can barely remember enough about it to tell it apart from his others. This, like most of the Well World books, is about a confusing array of creatively bizarre life forms, the Big Computer That Controls Everything, and a mysterious hero named Nathan Brazil. More about this book I cannot say without re-reading it.

From: guest (Gamemaker1) , 220 months, post #5

Its actually pretty good. Like Exiles the main character has their own transformation, albeit unwilling. Only this time its all the way. Stag, in fact. Later on, all of his companions are turned into does. Definetly a good book.

From: Guyote , 141 months, post #6

From: Chalkerfan , 141 months, post #7

519 months ago? Wow, this site is older than computers.

Just started reading this book. It is an absolute hoot, simply the fact that Chalker comes across as a total hack of a writer. He's clearly shooting for Larry Niven and missing in such spectacular fashion that it is amazing to read.

Also found it fascinating to see primordial TF/TG fiction, and an author who was clearly a TF fan/fetishist long before (I presume) such a thing even existed.

Much more gripping than Downtiming the Night Side.

?
How old are you?
Remember child.
Chalker was around when the whole TG-fiction scene did not exist.
He pre-dates every TG site on the Web and influences every TG-author in the sci-fi/fantasy category.
Chalker a hack?
You know nothing.
Alcohol-fuelled post?
I'd suggest going with that.
It's a very, very, very poor excuse but the only one you've got.

From: guest (Athelstene) , 141 months, post #8

I was an early Chalker fan, but I would say that he diminished as a creative artist as he went along. I give Jack credit for providing at least a little TG back in the days when it was hardly to be found anywhere else. I enthusiastically read most of his books up to "The Rings of the Masters" series, for a while overlooking the bad plotting and development habits that seemed to be growing. His problems were up front in Rings. He had partially hashed good ideas before, but this time he did it so badly that the series was utterly hopeless. I never again looked at him with the esteem I had felt in the past. God, Inc., Change Winds, Wonderland Gambit, etc. came and were no improvement. What was worse, he kept going back to his better, earlier series, like Dancing Gods and Well of Souls, especially, and trashing them up, too. Over all, he had good ideas (though fewer as time went on), but he didn't seem to know what his best ideas were. Too often, he underdeveloped things that were riveting and emphasized the weakest ideas instead. His greatest flaws, though, were his love of grotesqueness (it seemed to be a sexual thing with him) and his heavy-handed PC (he believed that the American system would fail, but the Soviet system would go on. Amusingly, in his own mind he was a "militant centrist."). My favorite series of his was "The Four Lords of the Diamond," and my favorite novel was "The Identity Matrix." Both of these deserved sequels, but he didn't write any. In a way, Chalker was a little like H.G. Wells; his early books were the best.

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