Like another reviewer here on GoodReads, I initially read this series out of order. The title "The Return of Nathan Brazil" grabbed my attention one day in my first year of college. Luckily, all but the last two books in the series can be read independently of the rest. Once I had gobbled up "...
A number of other reviewers have made the obvious comparison to Xanth, and they're right - this first book in a prolonged series reads very much like a slightly more mature Piers Anthony novel. But only slightly. The River of Dancing Gods is part traditional portal-epic fantasy, part satire of th...
This mid-70s science fiction work is a rather ambitious effort, which succeeds in places and fails in others, resulting in a somewhat mixed, but generally enjoyable, reading experience. In some ways it never rises much above the level of a standard boys’ adventure story, but within those rules it...
I stumbled across this series in the 50-cent paperback section at The Last Bookstore in Los Angeles on a recent vacation. I had read the original Well World series in high school in the 1970s and remembered it somewhat fondly. It made me wonder what had happened to Jack L. Chalker. He was a longt...
Jack L. Chalker's "Quest for the Well of Souls" is the third book in his seven volume "Well World Saga." It's also the second book of a two book sub-series introducing Mavra Chang. And, even though the rating shows up here as 4 stars out of 5, I'm really rating it at 3-1/2 stars out of 5. Regardi...
Exiles at the Well of Souls by Jack ChalkerIn this second book of the Well of Souls series, Chalker introduces the main character for the remainder of the series. ***SYNOPSIS***Mavra Chang is a resourceful, driven smuggler, with a complicated past who is hired by a political leader to rescue a s...
Jack L. Chalker's "Charon: A Dragon at the Gate" is the third in his "Four Lords of the Diamond" series. For the most part, if you've read the previous two books in the series, there will be no surprises here. About the only two differences I noticed are that the book has more of a "Chalkerish" f...
The late Jack L. Chalker wrote some very creative books in his time, the pentalogy (plus) about Nathan Brazil and the mystery of the Well of Souls, the insightful satirical concept of a “fallen” (or should that be “risen”) demon working in an advertising agency (well before Don Draper haunted the...
Thank you, gentle reader, for your kind words. It gives me great solace to know, as I force myself through this dreary chore, that in some small way I am serving my fellow man. Or woman. Or artificial intelligence. Or exceptionally literate chimpanzee.
Jack L. Chalker's "Cerberus: A Wolf in the Fold" holds no surprises (assuming you've read the first book, "Lilith: A Snake in the Grass"). For all intents and purposes, the writing is the same. The interesting thing here is the comparison of how the protagonist's character changes against his bas...
An enjoyable piece of ‘80s pulp science fiction. Actually I think it would be more accurately described as science fantasy, not only because most of the book takes place on a planet where technology can’t exist, but also because the science that is actually discussed is far closer to magic than s...
This was a fun sci-fi/fantasy book. A rouge asteroid is days away destroying Earth when Asmodeus Mogart, an alcoholic demon banished to Earth, offers two humans the chance to save the planet. Mogart sends the humans to alternate universes on a quest to steal 5 magical jewels from his fellow demon...
After a slightly slow start this picked up to be a decent read. It was similar in quality to the first book. Fast paced pulp sci-fi with some cool technology. The slow start can be blammed on the fact that the first 15% of the book was spent with the characters recapping what they had done in the...
