Midnight At The Well Of Souls is, in my opinion, Jack L. Chalker's best book. That may not exactly be a controversial opinion, as most people probably don't remember him and those who do know him mainly from this novel. However, this isn't about stirring up shit on the internet, but about giving you my honest to goodness opinion. And even after all these years I still enjoy this book.
First published in 1977, the book begins at an archaeological
expedition on a distant planet. Not only does this sequence set up the
main drama of the story, it also helps to establish the universe our
characters live in. The book came out while the Cold War was still going
strong, so of course the dystopian future we find ourselves in involves
worlds that have become socialist nightmare. People have number
designations instead of names. They are genetically programmed to do
their jobs, and to be happy with that. There are individualist holdouts
though, as we discover when we move to our hero Nathan Brazil. He is a
space freighter pilot who has been rejuvenated so many times that even
he doesn't remember how old he really is.
Nathan is carrying a
load of grain headed for a planet in the middle of a famine. He also has
three passengers on board. There is the sleazy Datham Hain, who it
turns out is a peddler in a super-addictive drug called sponge. Hain is
part of a syndicate which gets important people or their relatives
hooked on sponge, then threatens to withdraw the supply if they don't do
as they are told, leading to a painful and humiliating death.
Traveling with Hain is his "niece" Wu Julee, who is revealed to be a
victim of sponge and goes along as an example of what happens to
addicts. There is also Vardia Diplo 1261, a courier from one of the
socialist planets.
Nathan and company answer a distress call
from the archaeological site from the introduction and end up getting
caught in the gateway to the Well World. Set up by the ancient
Markovians, the Well World is basically a laboratory and proving ground
for new species of intelligent life. The whole planet is broken up into
hexagrams, with each presided over by whatever species has been assigned
to it. Each new arrival has to go through processing and is transformed
into a new species and delivered to the appropriate region. Any illness
or deformity is erased, which gives Wu Julee a new chance at life.
She is transformed into a centaur creature, while Datham Hain has
become a giant insect. Vardia is a plant creature. a species whose
society its pretty well with her socialist viewpoints. Nathan comes out
as a human, the last on the Well World that hasn't succumbed to a
biological attack which left the species more or less intellectually
incapacitated. As it turns out though, there is more going on than just
shape changing and getting to know their new friends on this planet. Two
scientists from the intro have also come here, and they are figuring
out the secrets of the Markovians and the Well World, which will allow
them to destroy or remake the universe.
It becomes a race against
time as different factions recruit the newcomers to get to te Well of
Souls frst for whatever their ultimate aims are. There is also the
secret of who or what Nathan Brazil really is. Nathan doesn't get
through the entire book unchanged, as there are a couple of
transformations in store for him as well. The travelers encounter
friendly and hostile species on their way to the Well. It being the 70's
there is a weird sex scene involving two members of different species.
There are some good action scenes and a lot of pseudo-religious mumbo
jumbo (again, it was the 70's). Overall, it is just a fun, trippy book,
and a setup for a series of books which are never quite as good as this
first one.
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