Последние издания книг Джека Чалкера

Все три романа цикла «Кинтарский Марафон».

The war of the Well World has begun. Antor Trelig, head of a ruthless interstellar syndicate, has seized a supercomputer with godlike powers that could make him omnipotent. The Council offers master criminal Mavra Chang any reward she desires if she can stop Trelig--and horrible, lingering death if she fails. But neither Trelig nor Mavra has taken the Well World into consideration. Built by the ancient Markovians, the Well World controls the design of the cosmos. When the opponents are drawn across space to the mysterious planet, they find themselves in new, alien bodies and in the middle of a battle where strange races fight desperately--with the control of the entire universe as the prize.

Below average in height and unprepossessing in appearance, Nathan Brazil is an unassuming if cynical starship owner, carrying passengers and cargo for a living - hardly the sort of person to hold the fate of the entire universe in his hands.

But when Nathan detours from his route to answer a distress call, a hidden stargate hurls him and his passengers to the Well World, the master control planet for the cosmos. Billions of years ago, a godlike race unlocked all the secrets of space and time and remade the universe according to their grand design. Then they vanished and left behind the Well World to maintain the pattern of the universe.

Now someone is searching for the planet's hidden control room - the Well of Souls - to seize control of the cosmos. Nathan must stop them, but this planet causes bizarre metamorphoses in visitors, changing them into centaurs, mermaids, and giant insects seemingly at random. As a result, Nathan no longer recognizes his friends, let alone his unknown enemies. His task seems hopeless - until his long-suppressed memories begin to return and he realizes who he really is.

Mavra Chang was once a master criminal, notorious throughout the galaxy. But for eleven long years she has been trapped in a nonhuman body on the Well World--the master control planet for the universe, where untold numbers of strange races exist, separated by barriers erected by the mysterious, vanished race that built the Well World billions of years ago. Orbiting the planet is a planetoid concealing Obie, a supercomputer that could restore Mavra Chang to her original form--if she can reach it. Unfortunately, the only spaceship on the planet is hidden in the northern hemisphere, a place no living creature can survive. She soon learns that her enemies are plotting to eliminate her, steal the ship, and escape from the Well World. But many others have planned her demise before, and Mavra Chang is still alive and well--which is more than can be said of those who once wished her ill.

The rift in the fabric of space was fast approaching the Well World, and time was running out. If the Well World were destroyed, the entire universe would disappear like a blown-out candle. But the squabbling forces on the planet weren't going to let the impending doomsday stop them from having a serious war. 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! So Nathan Brazil decided that the simplest way to reach the Well of Souls was to be killed. The enemy would find that he was much more dangerous dead than he had ever been alive . . .

In a desolate sector of space floats the Well World: the ancient Markovian supercomputer that first created and now maintains the Universe.
While attempting to repel an insidious intergalactic invasion, Mankind resorts to a weapon of such awesome destructive power that it undermines the Well World's control of time and space and threatens the very existence of the Universe.

It was up to Mavra Chang--victim and veteran of the Wars of the Well--and Obie, her colossal computer companion, to find the only being capable of going to the Well World and repairing the damage at its source.

But the infamous and near-mythical Nathan Brazil--sometime freighter captain, often the Wandering Jew, perhaps even God--did not want to be found.

But Mavra and Obie were never two to take no for an answer...

Тессеракт "Лабиринт Кинтары".
Странное строение, уходящее в иное пространство-время.
Одна из величайших находок межпланетной археологии - и одна из величайших угроз разумной жизни в Галактике.
Потому что в Лабиринте Кинтары уже много тысячелетий скрываются прозванные демонами существа из далекого мира, и сейчас они вырвались на волю, чтобы освободить сотни себе подобных - и принести тысячам обитаемых планет хаос, войну и разрушение.
В погоню за "демонами" отправляются представители множества рас Галактики.
Кинтарский марафон начинается!

A small band of travelers seeks to prevent a tyrant from finding the various pieces of a gate that, when fully assembled, will give him enormous power.

Тайная миссия Совета Миров привела космическую преступницу Мавру Чанг далеко на планету Колодца Душ. Там странные древние расы тысячелетиями продолжают бесконечную, безысходную войну. Победитель получит Вселенную... Теперь Мавра - пленница Колодца Душ, ее спутники, некогда люди, обращены в гротескных, безобразных монстров, да и ее собственное тело жестоко изменено. Единственная, последняя надежда - суперкомпьютер Оби, укрытый на ближайшем планетоиде - там, где создания из плоти и крови выжить практически невозможно...

This exciting, action-packed novel marks Jack Chalker's triumphant return to his celebrated multivolume saga: The Well World. The Sea Is Full of Stars explores an unknown interstellar civilization, stars an all-new cast of characters, and reveals fresh secrets. But of course, The Well remains . . .

After three passengers--Ming, Ari, and Angel--embark on an elite starship journey into the Realm, they unwittingly become ensnared in one man's bloodthirsty vendetta that will alter their very beings. That man is Jeremiah Wong Kincaid. He vows to destroy Josich Conqueror Hadun, the evil genius who has wreaked unspeakable havoc throughout the universe. It is an obsession that will take him to lands of demons and strange races--and into a deadly new cyberworld where humans are mere pawns of the godlike computers they have created.

But it is only after Kincaid and his unwitting fellow travelers enter Well World and discover the water hexes that he confronts the mad tyrant--and learns their universe is threatened by something far, far worse . . .

Антор Трелиг, могущественный член Совета Миров, возмечтав об абсолютной власти, похитил Оби - суперкомпьютер, способный контролировать абсолютно все. Все, имеющее какое - нибудь значение на заселенных человечеством планетах. Против предателя Совет выслалнеобычного противника - Мавру Чанг, опытную космическую преступницу, готовую, не колеблясь, рискнуть жизнью за награду. Но противостояние Трелига и Мавры неожиданно завело их слишком далеко - на планету Колодец Душ, где странные древние расы ведут бесконечную войну за право обладания Вселенной…

Бортовой компьютер корабля "Стеекин", ведомого среди звезд железной рукой капитана Натана Бразила, засек таинственный сигнал бедствия. Кто - то - или что - то? - хотел, чтобы люди высадились на Далгонии, мертвой планете, нашли тела семерых погибших ужасной смертью, продолжили поиски - и оказались в самом сердце Колодца Душ, обращающего каждого, кто имеет несчастье оказаться в нем, во что - то невероятное. Ибо есть в Колодце Душ нечто, ради чего стоит жить - или погибнуть...

Что - то неладно в параллельном мире - что-то, что ослабляет контроль над магической силой, вторгается в сны, прокрадывается в самые тайные уголки души - и может оказаться опасным. Много раз Клиттихорн, Рогатый Демон Снегов, убивал в далеких измерениях двойников Владычицы - но упустил одного из них. Теперь же фальшивая Королева входит в силу, и угроза нависла над надеждами. Магия бросила вызов магии, и вновь вырвались на волю беспощадные Ветры Перемен. Нити судьбы вот - вот оборвутся в войне Вихря.

Гигантский компьютер безжалостно подчинил себе человечество, и борьба с ним невозможна без пяти великих Колец - мощных микросхем, способных уничтожить нового правителя мира. На поиски Колец отправляется группа отчаянных повстанцев - звездных пиратов `Грома`. Но вновь вернуть людям право распоряжаться собственной судьбой - нелегкая задача, ибо Кольца рассеяны по закоулкам Вселенной, и каждое из них - под неусыпной охраной. Один неверный шаг может стать смертельным для воинов бури...

Гигантский компьютер безжалостно подчинил себе человечество, и борьба с ним невозможна без пяти великих Колец - мощных микросхем, способных уничтожить нового правителя мира. Но одно из Колец спрятано на Земле, три других - на далеких космических колониях.А последнее исчезло - казалось бы, бесследно. На охоту за Кольцами отправляется бесстрашная команда тех, кого одни называют героями и спасителями, а другие - пиратами `Грома`.

В главное командование Вооруженных Сил - самое сердце Конфедерации проник инопланетный робот - шпион. Аналитики Службы Безопасности не сомневаются, что чужаки вербуют агентов на четырех планетах Ромба Вардена. Расследование поручено лучшему агенту Конфедерации. Ни на Лилит, ни на Цербере никаких следов инопланетян обнаружить не удалось. Но впереди еще две планеты - Харон и Медуза.

В главное Командование Вооруженных Сил - самое сердце Конфедерации проник инопланетный робот - шпион. Аналитики Службы Безопасности не сомневаются, что чужаки вербуют агентов на четырех планетах Ромба Вардена, превращенных Правительством в идеальную тюрьму. Расследование поручено лучшему агенту Конфедерации...

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 farm and made her a slave to powerful narcotics. But the Well could allow nothing to stop the guardians’ 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…

Immortal, unchanging, the eternal 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 the godlike power to control the universe's destiny. Now the Well World is changing, and Brazil and Chang have drifted apart . . . but they must work together one more time to stop a new threat to the Well World -- the greatest threat of all . . . .

Nathan Brazil had been the guardian of the Well of Souls, where the Well World's master control lay. But now the universe faced a threat more grave than mere An unnamed and utterly alien entity had somehow been released from its ancient prison and was bent on the corruption of the Well World itself. If successful, it would cause chaos beyond mortal understanding....