Well World

The Well World is a fictional planet and the central setting in Jack L. Chalker's eponymous series of novels.

Setting

The planet's surface comprises 1560 large hexagonal regions — called "hexes" — each with an independent and often dramatically different climate and ecosystem, that David Langford compares to the hexagonally tiled boards used in "hex-and-counter" forms of tabletop wargaming. Each of these hexes is a prototype environment for a planet that exists in the external universe, half of which, comprising the planet's southern hemisphere, contain carbon-based (or similar) oxygen-breathing life as we know it. The Well World itself was constructed by an ancient alien species known as the Markovians, who did so in order to create and populate an expanded universe, into which they then placed themselves, after they had evolved into omnipotence in their own, original, universe and found themselves frustrated by what to do with their god-like powers. The Well World planet is a planet-sized reality-shaping computer that controls and maintains this new external universe, that is layered on top of the original Markovian one. By the time of the stories in the series, the Markovians have vanished, leaving behind the Well World, continually running the new universe, and their own planets from the original universe. The Markovian planets themselves are the locations of forgotten gateways leading to the Well World.

Analysis

Writer Max P. Belin observes that as a plot device, the Well World has its advantages and disadvantages. It enables the protagonists of the stories to travel "across mountains, grasslands, oceans, deserts, and forests" without the use of any magical means for moving from world to world (such as those in C. S. Lewis' The Magician's Nephew, which would be outwith the domain of a science fiction story) or inexplicable "hyptertechnology". Rather, they travel under their own power from hex to hex. (With many hexes, it is possible to travel from one border to another in a matter of days, or sometimes weeks.) Since each hex not only has different environments and species — ranging from conventional classical mythological species such as centaurs, satyrs, and bigfoot to more esoteric science fiction species such as giant carnivorous insects and mobile plants — but also has a different, fixed, level of allowable technology — from non-tech and semi-tech hexes through to highly advanced technology that closely resembles outright magic — and since there are 1,560 of them, the author never need repeat situations and locations through the entire series of books.

The Well World also introduces extra plot elements. Since every person, apart from Nathan Brazil, a major protagonist of several of the stories, is transformed into one of the Well World's own 1,560 species by the act of passing through the gateway on a Markovian world to the Well World, he has to cope with travelling companions who used to be human but who no longer are, and all of the ensuring problems that that causes.

The Well World also forces the introduction of two other extra plot elements into every story. Since the only routes to the Well World from the outside are the gateways on the now-deserted and forgotten Markovian planets, every story has to incorporate their rediscovery in some fashion. Similarly, since there is no normal way off the Well World's surface from the hexes to either the original Markovian or the new artificial universe, every story has to incorporate an "escape from an escape-proof laboratory" of some kind for the characters to interact with the external universe. Further, the nature of the Well World as a set of laboratory environments, whose technology levels and ecosystems are forcibly computer-controlled, limits what can potentially occur therein.

Well World book series

The Well of Souls series

• Midnight at the Well of Souls, Del Rey, 1977 (ISBN 0-7434-3522-2)
• Exiles at the Well of Souls, Del Rey, 1978 (ISBN 0-7434-3603-2)
• Quest for the Well of Souls, Del Rey, 1978 (ISBN 0-7434-7153-9)
• The Return of Nathan Brazil, Del Rey, 1980 (ISBN 0-345-28367-8)
• Twilight at the Well of Souls, Del Rey, 1980 (ISBN 0-345-28368-6)
• The Sea is Full of Stars, December, 1999 (ISBN 0-345-39486-0)
• Ghost of the Well of Souls, 2000 (ISBN 0-345-39485-2)

The Watchers at the Well series

• Echoes of the Well of Souls, Del Rey, trade paperback, May, 1993 (ISBN 0-345-38686-8)
• Shadow of the Well of Souls, Del Rey Feb. 1994 (ISBN 0-345-36202-0)
• Gods of the Well of Souls, Del Rey, 1994 (ISBN 0-345-38850-X)

References

Sources used

• Belin, Max P. (1989). "Infinity in your Back Pocket: Pocket Universes and Adjacent Worlds". In Slusser, George Edgar; Rabkin, Eric S.. Mindscapes: the geographies of imagined worlds. SIU Press. ISBN 9780809314546. 
• Jacob, Merle; Apple, Hope (2000). "Chalker, Jack § 240. Well World". To be continued: an annotated guide to sequels (2nd ed.). Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9781573561556. 
• Langford, David (2005). "Games". In Westfahl, Gary. The Greenwood encyclopedia of science fiction and fantasy: themes, works, and wonders. 1. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313329517. 
• Smith, Curtis C., ed. (1986). "Jack L. Chalker". Twentieth-century science-fiction writers (2nd ed.). St. James Press. ISBN 9780912289274.