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 . . .

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 the godlike power to control the universe's destiny. But over the millennia, Brazil and Chang had become estranged. When they were once again summoned to the Well World, they came as bitter rivals, each racing to be the first to reach the Well of Souls. What they found, however, was a Well World changed in ways it should not have been. Evolution on the Well World seemed to have diverged from its preset course- and that was impossible. Brail sensed that some force beyond local animosity was at work, and he was determined to find out just what that force was and how it could have changed the elaborate programming of the Well of Souls. 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 . . .

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 guardian's 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 published in 1978, Chalker's third novel of the Well World universe finds master criminal Mavra Chang trapped on Well World, who along with her companions is transformed into no-longer humans that are being hunted. Reissue.

THE PHENOMENAL, SPELLBINDING WELL-WORLD SAGA 'I was a beggar who became queen of beggars, a whore when I had to buy the stars I craved...' Volume two finds Mavra Chang, who alone is able to protect the Universe from the archvillain Antor Trelig, exiled on the Well World. There she and Trelig face countless bizarre ecologies, locked in a desperate struggle for control of the Universe.

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!

A story of a life well lived—a man who grew to manhood believing he was an Irish Catholic, but in fact was a German Jew. His story is told around his many achievements. It is not a pretty story; there is murder, adultery, rape of an innocent, and his struggle when he went to Sydney to become an SP bookie where he just managed to stay above the violent criminal element that ruled the city will keep you turning pages. But through it all, it was his lifelong search for his Jewish father and his almost frenetic wish for a son of his own that almost broke his spirit, sending him on a downward destructive path into alcoholism and cruelty. Then the Second World War erupted, and he found himself in the most terrifying and brutal encounter he had ever witnessed. But it also gave him a love that was all-consuming—a love story that will break the reader’s heart—as he struggled with the concept of loving two women, a situation that placed him in a no-win situation. But he was a soldier of war, and he covered himself with glory in the hot, arid deserts of North Africa, where he became a hero of sorts. But nothing is easy in life, least of all war; and he soon found himself fighting every day just to stay alive to hopefully return to his love. But again, tragedy strikes at him viciously, almost destroying his sanity. He struggles against the terrifying concept of being placed in a lunatic asylum for the insane, but help arrives for him in the form of a young American doctor; and he is returned to a semblance of sanity. He is repatriated back to Australia to try desperately to resume his life with his family while his heart lies with his lost love, buried beneath a gnarled old apricot tree somewhere on the island of Crete.

One of The New Yorker’s Best Books of the Year Named one of the Most Memorable Music Books of the Year by No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music “Compelling.… [R]eveals [an instrument] intimately rooted in the African diaspora and capable of expressing flights of sorrow and joy.” —David Yezzi, Wall Street Journal An illuminating history of the banjo, revealing its origins at the crossroads of slavery, religion, and music. In an extraordinary story unfolding across two hundred years, Kristina Gaddy uncovers the banjo’s key role in Black spirituality, ritual, and rebellion. Through meticulous research in diaries, letters, archives, and art, she traces the banjo’s beginnings from the seventeenth century, when enslaved people of African descent created it from gourds or calabashes and wood. Gaddy shows how the enslaved carried this unique instrument as they were transported and sold by slaveowners throughout the Americas, to Suriname, the Caribbean, and the colonies that became U.S. states, including Louisiana, South Carolina, Maryland, and New York. African Americans came together at rituals where the banjo played an essential part. White governments, rightfully afraid that the gatherings could instigate revolt, outlawed them without success. In the mid-nineteenth century, Blackface minstrels appropriated the instrument for their bands, spawning a craze. Eventually the banjo became part of jazz, bluegrass, and country, its deepest history forgotten.

Entered by a thousand unsuspected gateways - built by a race lost in the clouds of time - Well World transforms creatures of any sort into different forms. So, spacefarer Nathan Brazil is not surprised to find himself accompanied by a batman, an amorous female centaur and a mermaid as he sets out on his strange mission. Yet Nathan Brazil's own metamorphosis is more terrifying than any of the others - and with the gradual return of his memory comes the secret of the Well World.

For centuries, the legendary demons captured the imaginations of three alien races. Now, these all too real creatures are after their souls-ninety trillion souls in all. Ninety trillion Fausts to corrupt. Ninety trillion lives to be saved... or destroyed.