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36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Series List, September 23, 1999
By A Customer
A short while ago, someone emailed me asking for a ordered list of the books in this series (they got my email address from an earlier review). Here it is for everyone else. 1-Midnight at the Well of Souls 2-Exiles at the Well of Souls 3-Quest for the Well of Souls 4-The Return of Nathan Brazil 5-Twilight at the Well of Souls Remember, books 2 and 3 originally were one book called The War of the Well World, and are a single story, broken into two novels by the publishing requirements of the time.
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A big, bold, colorful sci-fi adventure, November 12, 2002
Jack Chalker's "Midnight at the Well of Souls" is a science fiction adventure tale that one could describe as an ambitious epic, yet written with an often whimsical sense of fun. The novel is full of colorful characters, weird locales, and imaginatively conceived alien species. The story's hero is freighter captain Nathan Brazil, a human male who is noted to be a maverick and a loner in "an age of extreme conformity." While carrying a motley collection of passengers on his ship, Brazil answers a distress call. Soon he finds himself on the Well World, a bizarre planet divided up into hundreds of biospheres and home to hundreds of different civilizations. Oh, and each newcomer to the planet can expect to find him- or herself transformed into a different species! "Midnight" charts the odyssey of Brazil, his allies, and his enemies across this strange and wondrous world as they seek the answer to an ancient mystery. "Midnight" is a novel of ideas as well as a fun and exciting adventure; Chalker deals with such issues as history, drug addiction, crime, social organization, literacy, and more as the story unfolds. Chalker cleverly delves into the life cycles and sexual behaviors of the various Well World species, which include intelligent plants, a centaur-like race, and many more. The motif of transformation, including gender-changing, is intriguingly handled throughout the story. Chalker makes reference to "Alice in Wonderland" at one point in the book, but the book, curiously, reminds me more of L. Frank Baum's classic Oz tales. And Chalker's vision of science, civilization, and history reminds me a bit of a less horrific, more light-hearted H.P. Lovecraft. Overall, a lot of fun, and written in a very engaging prose style. If you like this book, try "Lord Valentine's Castle," by Robert Silverberg.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Yet another book to answer Big Question, June 26, 2000
I don't know why, but some unfortunate reason Midnight at the Well of Souls seems familiar to Simak's Goblin Reservation. I don't know why. They share very little. There is a planet in space that was created aeons ago by a long-gone race that achieved the ultimate in technology. Its area is precisely delineated into 1460 hexagonal biomes, each home to a separate intelligent species, half of which (the entire northern hemisphere to be exact) are non-carbon-based and non-humanoid in both mental and physical faculties. It's rather like going to the zoo - as the characters make their way through hex after hex of alien terrain your heart is filled with awe of the next big surprise civilization that Chalker has prepaired for you. And although in the beginning the book may seem to be the average blood-and-guts-and-sex romance set on another planet, you are soon enveloped in an enourmous mistery (that easily dwarfs that of Card's Speaker for the Dead) of interspecies proportions. Touched upon is the eternal question of what makes us human (and Chalker's human civilization of genderless drug-controlled clones is most certainly not human), and, finally, for the big finale, the characters are allowed to alter anything in the universe and the reader gets a brief glimpse of God. The plot is original and the characters are quite believable. Even the aliens, although they do seem a bit too human (the White House is filled with the human equivalent of Akkafians). Belive me, it's a worthwhile read.
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