Gateway Essentials: Jack L. Chalker

Today marks twelve years since we lost one of modern SF and Fantasy’s great storytellers: Jack Laurence Chalker.

A fan from an early age, Chalker was also active as an editor, founding a small press in his early 20s, but it is as a writer that he is best known. Although his earliest novels were singletons, he soon turned his attention to the sequences that would dominate his career.

Having so many different series to choose from means there are many entry points to Jack L. Chalker’s work. For his Gateway Essentials, we’ve selected the first volumes of some of the best.

Midnight at the Well of Souls kicks off his signature series: The Well of Souls, which continues with Exiles at the Well of Souls, Quest for the Well of Souls, The Return of Nathan Brazil, Twilight at the Well of Souls: The Legacy of Nathan Brazil, Echoes of the Well of Souls, Shadow of the Well of Souls, Gods of the Well of Souls, The Sea Is Full of Stars and Ghost of the Well of Souls.

Spirits of Flux and Anchor begins the Soul Rider series, while River of the Dancing Gods is the first of The Dancing Gods books. The Rings of the Master sequence starts with Lords of the Middle Dark and When the Changewinds Blow is volume one of the Changewinds trilogy.

You can find these and more of Jack L. Chalker’s work via his author page on the SF Gateway website, and read about him in his entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.