Chalker had a real talent for creative and well-thought-out settings and could craft a decent plot, but he had some really creepy social/gender quirks that make it hard to reread his work. Not anywhere near as bad, IMO, as Piers Anthony, but yeah.
I, too, have the SFBC omnibus... and also never read another Chalker. But I have to confess that I did enjoy the giant 4-in-1 novel as simple entertainment. I guess back then I just ignored the ick parts.
As far I recall from my reading Chalker, the deranged lesbian feminist Satanist cult leader who shows up in this book is not a stock Chalker character. Yay?
She shows up in the Flux and Anchor books. In fact, the F&A version is probably worse, given what Flux wizards can do.
A friend gave me the series in high school (in a large box of other books he was getting rid of), and I enjoyed them. And never read anything else by Chalker.
Adding my voice to the chorus of "ditto". I managed to be unimpressed by the Big Reveal (the Diamond system is an egg!), and somewhat impressed but thoroughly squicked by the ending. That was enough to convince me that life was too short to seek out the Well Of Souls books that I'd been hearing good things about.
This is the second book James has reviewed recently- the first was Amazons - where I remember the cover because that was my prime "haunting the bookstores" age, but can't recall so much as picking up the book.
As mentioned in a comment over on the review site, the Warden virus expresses itself differently on each planet. The fourth one is where Chalker's particular tastes really comes to the fore.
This series was the last Chalker I read. It wasn't just the squick factor of the end of the fourth book, it was the final confirmation of the basic Chalker pattern - come up with a neat idea that looked interesting for the first volume, and gradually let the air out of it until the resolution is just disappointing. (The Well of Souls followed the same path, but not quite so badly.)
The powers-that-be in this setting are very much Chalker stock characters, in that they are evil rulers who do evil, for the evulz, the only difference between presidents and mob bosses being that one title comes with a colorful flag. Nobody in these universes seems to have hit upon the idea of using political power to make an entire polity more powerful rather than acquire more money and sex toys.
A brief examination of history shows that people who organize strong functional groups and work together tend to out-compete unscrupulous gangs that are constantly backstabbing each other (as does the American news), but disfunctional government generates more stories.
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I think the Diamond books are exactly why I don't trust the government, and I suspect that is why my father handed them to me when I was about ten.
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(Anonymous) 2020-08-11 03:06 pm (UTC)(link)Are you going to be reviewing more Chalker? Because if so I'd better put in my Popcorn Factory order now.
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(Anonymous) 2020-08-11 03:15 pm (UTC)(link)She shows up in the Flux and Anchor books. In fact, the F&A version is probably worse, given what Flux wizards can do.
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(I also disliked but read all the Xanth books. I'm so glad the Kids These Days don't have to do that.)
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I'm sensing a trend here.
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(Anonymous) 2020-08-11 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
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A brief examination of history shows that people who organize strong functional groups and work together tend to out-compete unscrupulous gangs that are constantly backstabbing each other (as does the American news), but disfunctional government generates more stories.