For countless years, the strange and hauited place called World has been a land divided.  Beyond the stability of Anchor lies the chaos of the Flux, a land of strange passions and near magic, where flesh is mutable, and reality yields madness.

This is the tale of the making of that World, of a brilliant scientist who discovered a universe where mind rules matter, and of the courageous men and women who battled treachery, rebellion and hellish alien forces to found a colony there....

GRAND SCAM

Robots were infiltrating the Federation. Someone was kidnapping people and substituting indetectable, synthetic imitations. Somewhere, aliens were studying the Federation, using techniques beyond human developments. The trail led back to Cerberus and the Lord who ruled that planet.

Cerberus, however, was one of the Warden Worlds - and those Worlds were the untouchables of space. There a strange microscopic life-form invaded all matter, and anyone so infected died on leaving those Worlds. Men could go there, but never return.

But the Federation had its own techniques. They took a criminal named Qwin Zhang and stripped her mind of all memory and personality. Then they poured into that empty receptacle the full mind of the Federation's best operative. They exiled her to the prison world of Cerberus. The mission: Find the Lord who ruled, kill him, and take over. Too bad there were things about Cerberus they couldn't know!

THE SECOND BOOK OF JACK CHALKER'S EPIC
TETRALOGY DEAL WITH QWIN ZHANG
AND THE WATER WORLD OF CERBERUS - WHERE THE
MOST RUTHLESS ALONE COULD SURVIVE!

FIRST TIME IN PRINT

ASSIGNMENT:
HELL WORLD!

They took the body of Park Lacoch and stripped away his mind, transplanting the mind of a top Confederacy operator to his brain.  Then they stuck him aboard a spaceship and exiled him to Charon, on of the Worlds of the Warden Diamond, from which no man could ever return.  A mysterious organism on those world infected everything, making life away from them impossible afterward.

Charon was a well-world in literal fact.  It was too near the sun, making life all but unbearable in its hot, steamy atmosphere.  Strange beasts roamed the jungles - and stranger still, the group known as the Witchcraft plotted with the Lord in exile to take over the planet.

There Witchcraft was real - for on Charon, magic worked!  The Warden organism could be made to perform almost any feat under the control of a skilled witch or sorcerer - as Park Lacoch discovered when he was transformed into a changeling - a half-beast half -man, with the beast rapidly gaining ascendancy.

After that, his assignment really became difficult...

FIRST TIME IN PRINT

The last great battle of the Hellgates has been won and Flux and Anchor are at peace - for now.

But someone has found the key to the magic of Flux.  If they succeed in harnessing this fearsome power, the delicate balance could be destroyed.

Who will stand when the horror of Flux is unleashed?

The Call of the Well

For uncounted eons, the Well World had regulated and given order to the universe, and throughout that eternity, Nathan Brazil had been the guardian of the Well of Souls, where the universe’s master control lay. Forever wandering and alone, returning to the Well in times of danger, Brazil had destroyed and re-created the cosmos several times over. But even he wearied of his endless watch, and had enlisted the aid of space pilot and high-tech thief Mavra Chang the last time the universal order required resetting.

But now the universe faced a threat more grave than mere destruction. An unnamed and utterly alien entity had somehow been released from its ancient prison and was bent on the corruption of the Well World itself. If successful, it would cause chaos beyond mortal understanding.

The Well World needed Brazil and Chang. But when it found them, would they once again answer the call? And though Brazil was immortal, could even he fight the force threatening the Well? For the force was not of this universe - and it had plans for Nathan Brazil…

FIRST TIME IN PRINT

It was a world slowly recovering from a battle between Titanic forces of good and evil.  A grand alliance had been formed to fight humanity's battle.  For good had not won the final victory.  The Nine, rulers of hell, had formed their own empire and planned to invade the world, first subverting humans to their own unholy use.

WAR
ON THE
WELL WORLD

Antor Trellig, archvillain and head of the Eponge Syndicate, had captured Obie, a supercomputer that could control all matter and all worlds.  With Obie's help - willing or unwilling - Trellig would become omnipotent... and he was sure nothing could stop him now.

Against him, the Council had only one weapon - Mavra Chang, the amoral female adventurer who had trained herself to be humanity's master criminal.  They offered her any reward if she succeeded.  For failure, there was certain, horrible death.

Neither Trellig nor Mavra had counted on being drawn across space to the Well World, master planet of the ancient Markovians.  There, in new - alien - bodies, they were faced with countless bizarre ecologies.  And there they were caught up in a battle of intrigue where strange races fought for control of the Universe!

THUS BEGINS THE EPIC WAR
OF THE WELL WORLD WHICH WILL BE CONCLUDED
IN THE SOON-TO-BE PUBLISHED NOVEL
QUEST FOR THE WELL OF SOULS
FIRST TIME IN PRINT

Jack Chalker's Well World epic occupies an honored place among the classics of science fiction.  Now this boldly imagined, intricately plotted new novel takes us deeper into the Well World than ever before...

On the mysterious Well World, the evil tyrant Josich and his dark agents search desperately for the eight scattered pieces of the fabled Straight Gate.  Whoever possesses the Gate will wield enormous power, travelling between universes at the speed of light and wreaking havoc across galaxies.

Opposing Josich is a small band of travelers new to the Well World.  There is Core, once a machine, now flesh and blood; Ming and Ari, two minds sharing a single body; Jaysu, an angel; and Genghis O'Leary, a lizard being.  Unbeknownst to them, they have an unlikely ally: a vengeful entity who is able to clone any person or object with a single touch - and mete out death just as swift...

Feet of Clay

In its hour of need, the Well World's guardians had been neutralized.  Nathan Brazil was shipwrecked on a desert island with a seemingly harmless girl - but his contact with her had allowed his mind to be invaded, his will sapped, and his mission forgotten.  Mavra Chang had been abducted by a vicious gang of inter-hex drug smugglers, and was now held prisoner by a revenge-mad creature who had surgically and genetically altered her into a bizarre form and made her a slave to powerful narcotics.  But the Well could allow nothing to stop the guardians' journey for long.  For the Well of Souls was only a machine; it needed the Watchers to handle events and circumstances beyond its sophisticated programming. And so it set plans in motion to jolt its champions back into the game.

The only other help Brazil and Chang could expect was from the companions who had been swept along to the Well World - by accident or design.  But the newcomers had been caught in a web of intrigue and deceit spun by the ruling council, a group desperate to stop both Brazil and Chang.

What none of them could know was that all of them, even the great Well computer, were being manipulated by the Kraang, an entity more ancient than the universe itself, a being that would use the guardians to give it powers far beyond even those of the Well of Souls - a being that would become a living god...

FIRST TIME IN PRINT

THE MANTRAP WORLDS

Somewhere, from among the four human-settled worlds of the Warden Diamond, hostile aliens were spying on Earth. But no agent could be sent to investigate and report back. All trips to the Warden worlds were one-way. There, a microscopic symbiont invaded all life forms, after which life became impossible outside the Warden system. The same organism destroyed any form of machinery, so no message could be beamed back by normal means.

That called for extraordinary means, of course. One agent was chosen, then four men were stripped of their own minds and personalities, and his was imposed upon them. Hooked up properly, he could then receive their reports, without ever leaving safe territory.

Each man was assigned one world to conquer. His mission was first to find the Overlord of that world and kill him, then to take over his link with the aliens. Of course all this must be done with no help beyond his own naked ability.

THIS FIRST BOOK OF JACK CHALKER'S EPIC
TETRALOGY DEALS WITH CAL TREMON, WHO WAS
SENT TO LILITH, A PLANET THAT WAS A PARADISE -
BUT A PARADISE DESIGNED IN HELL!

FIRST TIME IN PRINT

GRAVE
RESERVATIONS

Long ago, legend had it, the machines revelled, wiping out most of humanity and exiling the survivors in widely scattered reservations where they lived according to their ancient cultures.  Master System ruled unchallenged, since the key to breaking its control - five microships disguised as gold rings - was long forgotten.  And Master System was careful to keep it that way.

The an Amerindian called Hawks stumbled across secret information about the five gold rings and their purpose.  And on the other side of the world, a Chinese girl genius dared to interfere with a computer system to avoid and unhappy future as a humble and obedient Oriental wife.

Suddenly Master System was after them both - and it looked as if their only hope lay in finding the rings themselves...

ENIGMATIC
SOLUTION

Even before the renegade pirates of the giant spaceship Thunder had collected all five of the rings that would eliminate the threat of Master System forever, hawks knew that they still faced even greater problems.

The shapechanger, Vulture, was lost on the watery planet of Chanchuk, his fate unknown.  Master System's space fleet dogged the renegades' every step.  Hawks suspected that the group was harboring a traitor, but he was powerless to act.  And, most important, the rebels has not yet figured out how the rings were used - a riddle that seemed to have no solution!

Somewhere back on Earth lay the original computer interface, and somewhere in the distant past lay the secret to Master System's demise.  As a historian, Hawks had the knowledge to solve the riddle, yet he had to be absolutely sure - for one misstep would destroy them all.

THE TIME OF DANGER IS AT HAND

Mervyn, wizard and Fluxlord, leader of the Nine Who Guard, faces the ultimate threat of the opposing Seven Who Wait:  the opening of the Hellgates of the World.  Closed more than two thousand years ago, they are portals to unknowable danger and, perhaps, great power.

Mervyn must gather the shattered forces of guardianship, dispersed and reeling after the battle with Coydt:

Cassie, once the powerful saint and crusader, now the brainwashed slave of an oppressive male dictatorship.

Spirit, her daughter, controlled by her mysterious Soul Rider.

Jeff, Spirit's son.

Matson: he will lead the entire force of the Stringers Guild to war, if need be.

But all of them are doomed to death unless they can become

MASTERS OF FLUX & ANCHOR

THE BEGINNING OF
THE END GAME!

The Confederacy's grand scheme seemed to be working. They had substituted the mind of their best operator for the minds of four criminals - every one a top assassin - and sent one to each of the four Warden worlds to eliminate the resident Lord there. The agents on Lilith, Cerberus, and Charon had already reported in - success! Now only Taran Bul's mission on Medusa remained.

On this frozen ice world, Bul quickly joined an on-going conspiracy determined to overthrow the hated dictator Lord Talant Ypsir - the rebel's mission suited his perfectly. But a combination of alien menace and Ypsir's secret power proved too much for Bul. At last, the operator over all - the Agent With No Name - had to prove his ability... with everything stacked against him!

IN THIS VOLUME OF HIS MOST GRIPPING SERIES, JACK CHALKER BRINGS TO A GRAND CONCLUSION THE EPIC CONFRONTATION BETWEEN THE MIGHTY CONFEDERACY AND THE SMALL BUT POWERFUL WORLDS OF THE WARDEN DIAMOND.

FIRST TIME IN PRINT

WHO WAS NATHAN BRAZIL...
AND WHAT WAS HE
DOING ON THE WELL WORLD?

Entered by a thousand unsuspected gateways - built by a race lost in the clouds of time - the planet its dwellers called the Well World turned beings of every kind into something else. There spacefarer Nathan Brazil found himself companioned by a batman, an amorous female centaur and a mermaid - all once as human as he.

Yet Nathan Brazil's metamorphosis was more terrifying than any of those... and his memory was coming back, bringing with it the secret of the Well World.

For at the heart of the bizarre planet lay the goal of every being that had ever lived - and Nathan Brazil and his comrades were... lucky?... enough to find it!

"A BIG, BOLD BOOK THAT
TAKES TRADITIONAL SCIENCE FICTION
AND TURNS IT UPSIDE DOWN!"
- LEIGH BRACKETT

FIRST TIME IN PRINT

UNSAFE HAVEN

Hawks had refused to help the ambitious Lazlo Chen in his quest to find the five gold rings that could break Master System's hold over humankind - and that refusal had landed him on the deadly prison planet Melchior.

But when Hawks and some fellow prisoners engineered a bold escape, it seemed almost too easy.  Hawks guessed that Chen was pulling the strings, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was another, greater power involved.  And that scared him.

Now the stakes were rising, and Hawks was more determined than ever to find the gold rings.  But Master System was out to capture him, and Chen was trying to follow him - and the only place his small band of rebels could hide was smack in the middle of pirate territory...

MAROONED
ON THE
WELL WORLD

For eleven bitter years, Mavra Chang had been a prisoner on the Well World - the master-world where hundreds of impossible races existed, each in its own strange environment.  Her once-human companions had been mutated into alien forms, and she was isolated and abandoned.  Worse, her body was cruelly changed to a monstrous and useless travesty of what she had been.

Above her circled the planetoid which contained Obie, the supercomputer that could restore her body and her powers.  But the only means of reaching him was by a spaceship that was stranded in the northern hemisphere - where no flesh-and-blood creature could exist.

To make matters worse - if that were possible! - her enemies were plotting to steal the ship and escape from the Well World without her.  Other, even more wicked enemies were coming to kill her.  Her last shred of hope was gone.

But Mavra Chang had never learned to surrender to fate... and this wasn't the time to start!

FIRST TIME IN PRINT

THE SAGA OF THE WELL WORLD
Volume 1: Midnight at the Well of Souls
Volume 2: Exiles at the Well of Souls
Volume 3: Quest for the Well of Souls

COUNTDOWN
FOR THE
WELL WORLD

In a desolate sector of space floats the Well World - the ancient Markovian supercomputer that first created and now maintains the Universe.

While attempting to repel an insidious intergalactic invasion, Mankind resorts to a weapon of such awesome destructive power that it undermines the Well World's control of time and space and threatens the very existence of the Universe.

It was up to Mavra Chang - victim and veteran of the Wars of the Well - and Obie, her colossal computer companion, to find the only being capable of going to the Well World and repairing the damage at its source.

But the infamous and near-mythical Nathan Brazil - sometime freighter captain, often the Wandering Jew, perhaps even God - did not want to be found.

But Mavra and Obie were never two to take no for an answer...

FIRST TIME IN PRINT
THE SAGA OF THE WELL WORLD
Volume 1: Midnight at the Well of Souls
Volume 2: Exiles at the Well of Souls
Volume 3: Quest for the Well of Souls
Volume 4: The Return of Nathan Brazil
Volume 5: The Legacy of Nathan
     Brazil (Coming in late 1980)

This exciting, action-packed novel marks Jack Chalker's triumphant return to his celebrated multivolume saga: The Well World.  THE SEA IS FULL OF STARS explores an unknown interstellar civilization, features an all-new cast of characters, and reveals fresh secrets.  But of course, the Well remains...

After three passengers - Ming, Ari, and Angel - embark on an elite starship journey into the Realm, they unwittingly become ensnared in one man's bloodthirsty vendetta that will alter their very beings.  That man is Jeremiah Wong Kincaid.  He vows to destroy Josich Conqueror Hadun, the evil genius who has wreaked unspeakable havoc throughout the universe.  It is an obsession that will take him to the lands of demons and strange races - and into a deadly new cyberworld where humans are mere pawns of the godlike computers they have created.

But it is only after Kincaid and his unwitting fellow travelers enter Well World and discover the water hexes that he confronts the mad tyrant - and learns their universe is threatened b something far, far worse...

Changing of the Guard

Immortal, unchanging, the external survivor, Nathan Brazil had tired of his long duty as the guardian of the Well World and had enlisted Mavra Chang, space pilot and adventurer, as his companion and equal, sharing with her some of his power to control the universe's destiny.

But over the millennia, Brazil and Chang had become estranged, and when they were once again called to the Well, each went alone.  What they found was a Well World changed in ways it should not have been. It was not just that the local inhabitants had put a price on their heads or that Brazil and Chang were constantly symied in their separate journeys to the Well of Souls.  Evolution itself had diverged from its preset course - and that was impossible.

Brail sensed that some force beyond local animosity was at work, thwarting him from reaching his goal, and he was determined to find out just what that force was and how it could have changed the elaborate programming of the Well.  But the changes that had so affected the Well World were beginning to change the unchangeable Nathan Brazil - and if the watchman himself could altered, the universe might be left without any guardian at all...

FIRST TIME IN PRINT

Cassie did not feel the soul rider enter her body...but suddenly she knew that Anchor was corrupt, and that, far from being a formless void from which could issue only mutant changelings and evil wizards, Flux was the source of Anchor's very existence.

The price of her knew knowledge is exile, yet Cassie and the Rider of her soul are the only hope for the redemption of both Flux and Anchor.

The rift in the fabric of space was fast approaching the Well World, and time was running out. Troops all over the planet were gathering for the final battle.

Nathan Brazil and Mavra Chang somehow had to reach the Well of Souls in time to save the universe and before any of the hostile natives managed to kill them.

At best, a difficult mission. At worst, impossible - especially since there was a price on Brazil's head and many would-be claimants! For Brazil, the difficult was but the work of a moment - the impossible would take a little longer!

GARDIAN DEVIL

For centuries, Master System ruled mankind unchallenged.  Then a small band of renegades commandeered the spaceship Thunder and fled into pirate territory.  Now they were prepared to seize the fove coded rings that together could shut down Master System - and return human destiny to human control.

With them went the one variable that didn't figure in Master System's equations: Vulture, a shapechanger capable of absorbing the body and memories of any other organic being.  Without the information Vulture could collect, the rebels could never infiltrate the worlds where the rings were hidden.

Each ring was better protected than the last.  And each ring drew the band further into Master System's web, Vulture became aware of a possibly more insidious danger.  An unknown entity with the power to elude Master System seemed to be giving the rebelsan unseen hand.  But the question was - whose side was it on?...

NOBODY
BEATS BAR HOLLIDAY

He was paid to find Terraformable worlds, new planets for his corporation to plunder. Up until the day he came upon the Peace Victory, an abandoned generation ship hovering ominously above a definitely habitable planet, he believed nobody ever could.

NOBODY
BEATS BAR HOLLIDAY

...because he was never satisfied with anything lower than first place, because he was always the oddball, in charge of his own welfare, his own destiny... a man determined to make his mark in the world and win all games at any cost.

NOBODY EVER
BEATS BAR HOLLIDAY

...because he only took the wrong chances at the right times. But on the planet Patmos, where everything looked safe, but nothing was, Bar Holliday had at last met his match!

FIRST TIME IN PRINT
A BIG, NEW NOVEL BY THE AUTHOR OF
A JUNGLE OF STARS
MIDNIGHT AT THE WELL OF SOULS