History Creator / JackChalker

Today Chalker is most famous (indeed notorious) for the sheer amount of AuthorAppeal packed into his works, exceeded perhaps only by Creator/PiersAnthony in this regard. A typical character in a Chalker book can expect to undergo at least one ForcedTransformation and/or GenderBender. (And, seeing as it ''is'' a Chalker book, quite lucky if [[BodyHorror that's]] the [[MisterSeahorse worst]] [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody thing]] that [[AndIMustScream happens]] to them.)

* MadArtist: Boday turns girls into living pieces of art for rich clients. It's somewhat a stretch to call her evil (she travels with the main characters, and becomes more of a good character by the end of the series), but she's still quite insane.

* BlackGalOnWhiteGuyDrama: Referenced in beginning of the series. The protagonists are a white man and black woman married couple, and discusses some of the problems they had finding anyone to socialize with. Quickly becomes a moot point in the stories, although not necessarily for [[InvoluntaryTransformation the reasons you'd expect from a Jack Chalker story]].

Today Chalker is most famous (indeed notorious) for the sheer amount of AuthorAppeal packed into his works, exceeded perhaps only by Creator/PiersAnthony in this regard. A typical character in a Chalker book can expect to undergo at least one InvoluntaryTransformation and/or GenderBender. (And, seeing as it ''is'' a Chalker book, quite lucky if [[BodyHorror that's]] the [[MisterSeahorse worst]] [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody thing]] that [[AndIMustScream happens]] to them.)

Jack Laurence Chalker (December 17, 1944 -- February 11, 2005)

A prolific American science fiction and fantasy author of over 60 works. He's best known for his larger serial works, particularly the ''Well World'' (SF) and ''Dancing Gods'' (Fantasy) sagas, although he also wrote several standalone books and nonfiction works including a definitive biography of H.P. Lovecraft and a huge and comprehensive history of Science Fiction and Fantasy publishing.

[[folder:''God Inc.'']]

[[folder:''Lilith: A Snake in the Grass'']]
* CavalryBetrayal: The story features the sudden arrival of troops supposed to aid the witches in their attack on the protagonist's enemy, only for both defenders and cavalry to turn on the witches, the protagonist realizing he'd been an UnwittingPawn in a plan to get rid of the witches.
[[/folder]]

* TheAlcatraz: The Warden Diamond from ''The Four Lords of the Diamond'' is a solar system with four habitable planets infested by a microrganism that kills anyone who tries to leave, making for one huge, seemingly inescapable prison colony.
* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: In ''The Four Lords of the Diamond'', humanity discovers a solar system with ''four'' Earthlike planets -- completely unheard of. It's only at the end of the series that they discover [[spoiler:that the four planets were artificially constructed by an alien race as nurseries for their young]].
* ArcWords: "Everything you think you know is wrong" in ''The Wonderland Gambit'' trilogy.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: ''A Jungle of Stars'' had the galaxy fighting a civil war brought about by the two remaining members of a race that had Ascended. One of them stayed behind to rule, and one was left behind to thwart him. The fact that both claim to be the guardian is only ''part'' of the problem...
* BabyFactory: Song Ching in the ''Rings of the Master'' series was specifically engineered for the seemingly mutually exclusive roles of physical and mental paragon and baby factory through the simple expedient of modifying her endocrine system to make her rationality dependent upon pregnancy hormones, giving her full use of her brilliant, cold and rational mind when she is pregnant but making her extremely distracted, horny and suggestible when she is not, effectively programming her to do anything to get pregnant as soon as possible after giving birth. This challenges her fellow {{Phlebotinum Rebel}}s to plan their operations around the periods when she is functional, "service" her when she is not and care for her ever-growing family as she does not normally have the mindset that makes for a good mother. Hormone treatments are considered but discarded as they don't want to risk damaging her brilliant mind and she feels the need to say "screw you Dad" by bearing all the heirs her father expected her to produce for him in the service of the rebellion. The real kicker? Left to her own devices, she prefers women.
* BlackGalOnWhiteGuyDrama: Referenced in beginning of the ''God Inc.'' series. The protagonists are a white man and black woman married couple, and discusses some of the problems they had finding anyone to socialize with. Quickly becomes a moot point in the stories, although not necessarily for [[InvoluntaryTransformation the reasons you'd expect from a Jack Chalker story]].
* BlackSpeech: Played with in the ''Rings of the Master'' series, where an evil space pirate speaks a language that is described as sounding evil, guttural and disgusting. It turns out to be English (the viewpoint character was Asian and not an English speaker).
* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: Boday the mad artist in ''Changewinds'' is forceably given a love potion to make her fall for the protagonist and switches from being an antagonist to a helper at that point. Nobody has any serious problem with this.
* CavalryBetrayal: ''Lilith: A Snake in the Grass'' features the sudden arrival of troops supposed to aid the witches in their attack on the protagonist's enemy, only for both defenders and cavalry to turn on the witches, the protagonist realizing he'd been an UnwittingPawn in a plan to get rid of the witches.
* TheComputerIsYourFriend: The Master System in the ''Rings of the Master'' series.
* CranialProcessingUnit: Averted in ''Rings of the Master'', where is says that when fighting their robotic enemies, there is no point for the heroes to shoot their head - aiming for where the human has a navel is the proper way.
* DeusEstMachina: The AI "Master System" in the ''Rings Of The Master'' series. [[spoiler:The AI was created at a point in Earth's future history when humanity was on the brink of self-destructive nuclear war, ostensibly to run the military of one side of the conflict. The programmers secretly subverted it, however, deliberately programming it to rebel and take over the world in order to prevent that very war from happening.]] It's thousands of years later when the series begins and Master System has kept humanity under an iron fist since then, forcing most of the population to live in a "safe" low technology state. It doesn't claim to be a god, per se, but it might as well be to most people.
* DigitizedHacker: In ''The Wonderland Gambit'', it's rumored that this is what happened to VR genius Matthew Brand.
* TheDogBitesBack: In the ''Four Lords of the Diamond'' series, the antagonist had captured one of the four mental clones (mind-wiped criminals with the agent's personality and memory imprinted on them) of the agent sent to stop him and had changed him into a female sex-slave. He brings her to a face to face meeting with the agent in order to gloat...only for the agent to utter a trigger phrase that causes her to assassinate the villain.
* DrivingQuestion: For ''The Wonderland Gambit'': What happened to Matthew Brand?
* FlyingSaucer: Small aliens with flying saucers periodically pop up in the worlds of ''The Wonderland Gambit,'' even in worlds where they have no business existing. Some of the characters theorize that they've figured out how to punch through the barriers between virtual realities. [[spoiler: In reality, they're the answer to where Matthew Brand disappeared to.]]
* GottaCatchThemAll: Each volume of ''The Four Lords Of The Diamond'' features a different one of the four worlds of the Warden Diamond, on which the protagonist must find and either kill or subvert the Lord of that world, as well as investigating his particular piece of the overall puzzle.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: The three empires in the ''Quintara Marathon'' series demonstrate this, at least in terms of the humans who are represented in all three. The Exchange is a free-market free-for-all with the most personal freedom, but minimal social safety nets and an underbelly of corruption and unofficial slavery (in the form of genetically engineered intelligent beings considered as property). The Mizlaplan control a rigid theocracy where they are unquestionably the rulers (and effective gods), inquisitors and priest can use whatever methods they feel are necessary, sexual discrimination against women is part of the system, and where brainwashing into absolute obedience is commonly used, but where most people live peaceful, safe lives without concern about hunger, crime, or actually being personally oppressed. The Mychol Empire is a dog-eat-dog vicious society with oppression, slavery, and a great deal of violence, but where everyone has the opportunity to rise if they are smart enough.
* InsideAComputerSystem: The ''Wonderland Gambit'' trilogy features people who have been inside the machine so long they've created thousands of alternate universes -- all of [[NoEndorHolocaust which keep running]] [[DreamApocalypse after they're gone]].
* KlingonPromotion: In ''The Four Lords Of The Diamond'', this is common on most of the planets of the Warden Diamond, as they're a dumping ground for all the sociopaths, criminals, scum, villainy, and political opponents that the interstellar human empire decided weren't worth killing (or mindwiping). On the one planet where this is frowned on, it still happens if you can frame or con someone higher up the chain of command to make them look bad so they get jailed, demoted or transferred for being stupid enough to fall for it.
* LikeRealityUnlessNoted: Used in-universe in the ''Wonderland Gambit'' trilogy, which is about alternate histories created within some gargantuan virtual reality game. To save computational space, all elements of reality not explicitly changed by the premise are Like Reality Unless Noted--but if magic exists or people are unisex centaurs, an awful lot of Reality may be Noted.
* MadArtist: Boday from the ''Changewinds'' series, who turns girls into living pieces of art for rich clients. It's somewhat a stretch to call her evil (she travels with the main characters, and becomes more of a good character by the end of the series), but she's still quite insane.
* {{Metamorphosis}}: In ''The Web of the Chozen'', a human hero is transformed by an alien virus into an alien creature. One attempt at getting help from his superiors is enough to convince him to abandon humanity in favor of his new species.
* MisterSeahorse: In ''The Web of the Chozen'', female choz lay six eggs and both males and females incubate them in brood pouches. The sex of the offspring is determined by the sex of the incubating parent with the normal ratio being two males to four females. The hero of the story is the only male choz who produces female offspring.
* OntologicalMystery: The characters of ''The Wonderland Gambit'' are trying to discover the nature of the virtual reality environment they're sealed in, so that they can find a way to escape the endless reincarnation and return to the real world.
* OurCentaursAreDifferent: The ''Changewinds'' series has the ba'ahdon, who look more like a cross between a chalicothere and a pygmy elephant from the waist down.
* PastLifeMemories: Characters in ''The Wonderland Gambit'' who cross from one world to another while alive are [[{{Reincarnation}} reincarnated]] with all their previous memories intact. Those who died in the previous world still get a new life, but with no memories and a GenderFlip.
* PenalColony: The ''Four Lords of the Diamond'' series features four planets which serve as penal colonies, each with a unique cutthroat society.
* PinballProtagonist: Cory Maddox spends much of ''The Wonderland Gambit'' in this state, more often acted on than acting, and only occasionally able to bring serious power to bear. [[spoiler:This turns out to have a reason. In the original group that went into the virtual reality, Cory was just a minor admin who was bringing lunch to her spouse when things went haywire. The computer placed her in the hierarchy as a low-ranking player with power to match, normally only able to act when paired up with someone higher up. Cory's realization of this helps her subvert the trope and figure out the key to the situation. ]]
* PlanetOfSteves: In the ''Quintara Marathon'' series, there is an entire alien race named Durquist. Not only is the race referred to as Durquist, but each individual's name is Durquist as well. When one of the main characters asks their Durquist friend how the race can tell each other apart (they all look the same, too) the Durquist responds to the effect of "we just can".
* PsychoPsychologist: Referenced in the ''Four Lords of the Diamond'' series, when one of the protagonists meets a psychiatrist who wears glasses as an affectation, on a world where all health issues are instantly fixed, including imperfect eyesight. He thinks to himself that he has yet to meet a shrink who didn't need to see a shrink.
* {{Reincarnation}}: Standard operating procedure for the main characters of''The Wonderland Gambit'' every time a world is changed. If you're killed off before the world changes, you also get a GenderFlip.
* RobotWar: The premise of the ''Rings of the Master'' series is a rebellion against the master computer that was created to conquer its creator's enemies and ended up conquering the entire human race to save them from themselves.
* ShamefulStrip: In the second ''Wonderland Gambit'' book, Cory's current (female) identity is made to strip naked by a doctor to keep her from escaping.
* SomeoneHasToDoIt: In ''And the Devil Will Drag You Under'', a magic gem is guarded by the ghost of the last person who tried to steal it. The ghost is substantial enough to hold and use a sword, but not substantial enough to be hurt by one. He stands guard until the next thief arrives--then he kills the thief, freeing himself and recruiting his replacement.

* StarfishAliens:
** The colorful collection of aliens from his ''Quintara Marathon'' novels, particularly an actual race of Starfish Aliens, the Durquist.
** Chalker also has fun with technically non-alien post-humans in the ''Rings of the Master'' series. A Skynet-like AI has conquered humanity and used genetically modified humans to colonize the galaxy. Even though they are technically human, some of them get very weird, including elk- or cattle-like people that grow horns and become quadrupedal when pregnant to protect their stomachs.
* ThirdPersonPerson: The artist Boday, from the ''Changewinds'' series. In her case it's due to quirkiness bordering on insanity.
* VichyEarth: In the ''Rings of the Master'' series, the Master is a supercomputer that was built with the order to keep humanity safe. It calculates the best to do this is to scatter the human race throughout the stars so that destruction of any one planet won't kill everyone, but keep the humans on each individual planet confined to ethnically partitioned zones with no technology beyond subsistence farming, to prevent them from warring with each other. The result is an enforced Vichy Galaxy.

Jack Laurence Chalker (December 17, 1944 - February 11, 2005)

Prolific American science fiction and fantasy author of over 60 works. Probably best known for his larger serial works, particularly the ''Well World'' (SF) and ''Dancing Gods'' (Fantasy) sagas, though he also wrote several stand-alone books and nonfiction works including a definitive biography of H.P. Lovecraft and a huge and comprehensive history of Science Fiction and Fantasy publishing.

* LikeRealityUnlessNoted: Used in-univers in the ''Wonderland Gambit'' trilogy, which is about alternate histories created within some gargantuan virtual reality game. To save computational space, all elements of reality not explicitly changed by the premise are Like Reality Unless Noted--but if magic exists or people are unisex centaurs, an awful lot of Reality may be Noted.

* {{Reincarnation}}: Standard operating procedure for the main characters of''The Wonderland Gambit'' every time a world is changed.

Chalker also wrote a number of books in which characters do not undergo horrible transformations, as well as books that contain transformation that are anything but horrible. But since one person's BodyHorror is often another person's FetishFuel those aren't the works he tends to be remembered for.

* {{Brainwashed}}: Cassie, in the ''Soul Rider'' series. After having magically compelled herself to become the champion of Mother Church on World, her bond eventually falls apart and she is captured by the male-dominated society of New Eden, who use traditional brainwashing methods to turn her into a compliant female.
* BroughtDownToNormal: Former Knight Templar Cass/Sister Kassdy from the ''Soul Rider'' series agreed to give up all of her flux powers as part of becoming TheAtoner. Ironically, this actually results in her becoming even more badass since the mechanism involved also makes her totally immune to those powers, tuning her into every flux manipulator's worst nightmare: a ferocious MamaBear who cannot be injured--or even detected--by their powers. Given that most of the heroes are members of her extended family she is thus a person much to be feared. Fortunately for the bad guys the heroes tend to keep 'Grandma' in reserve until the absolutely last moment because she can't be healed by magic either.

* CripplingCastration: Geoffrey Haldane, the first BigBad in the ''Soul Rider'' series, was castrated as a teenager for the crime of spying on WomensMysteries, and later forced to accept a permanent GenderBender by a sorceress who found his situation amusing, leading to him going on crusade to punish all women for the loss of his testicles.

* FantasticReligiousWeirdness: In the prequel book to the ''Soul Rider'' series, as the colonists are settling in on their new planet, the narrator remarks that the Muslim communities had long debates over which way Mecca was, given that, due to the method of travel they used to get there, they didn't even know which way ''Earth'' was. They decided that upward was the best bet. The narrator commented that this put them in agreement with the Christians in the group, and wondered if someday all their children would wind up praying to the gas giant planet that the planet was orbiting. [[spoiler:Which is exactly what happened when the computers running the world ran a conversion program on the entire society to prevent a civil war and decimation of the populace and merged all religions into a single one as part of that change.]]
* FreudianExcuse: Coydt Van Haaz, the BigBad of ''Empires of Flux and Anchor'', wants to turn a LadyLand into a NoWomansLand to get back at the priestesses who [[DisproportionateRetribution castrated him]] for a relatively minor offense.
* FutureImperfect: The World of the ''Soul Rider'' series has several examples of this. In one case, the secret holy name of Firbasforten passed on by the Holy Mother Church is actually [[spoiler:the colony's original designation, "Forward Fire Base Fourteen"]]. This also tends to happen a ''lot'' in World's religious practices; the original tradition of looking up at the sky to pray (in part because Muslims among the original colonists couldn't agree on which direction Mecca would be) eventually evolved into the Mother Church's believers praying to the brightest non-solar object in that sky as their Goddess. [[spoiler:The object is actually a nearby gas giant.]]
* GoGoEnslavement: After a revolution turns Anchor Logh into New Eden in the ''Soul Rider'' series, the female half of New Eden's population is forced to wear the skimpiest clothing possible, as a reminder of their status and duties.

* LadyLand: The ''Soul Rider'' series takes place on a future half-failed colony world divided between the chaotic "flux" and LadyLand "anchors", which preserved technology and civilization by turning them into WomensMysteries. The plot of one of the books revolves around a conspiracy by a group of disgruntled men to subvert several anchors and turn them (and the fluxlands between them) into a NoWomansLand instead.

* ShamefulStrip: In the ''Soul Rider'' series, this happens to Cassie twice. The first time, she's been caught spying around a temple and is placed naked in a cell, told that if she resists, there'll be chains and a gag, too. The second time, she's been abducted by the male-dominated society of New Eden, waking up from unconsciousness to find herself naked, gagged and handcuffed. The abduction is a prelude to an extended period of "re-education".
* SlaveBrand: In the ''Soul Rider'' series, the male-dominated society of New Eden tattoos the rump of all new Fluxgirls, women bound into slavery (and perpetual ignorance) by magic.

* WomensMysteries: In the ''Soul Rider'' series:
** A teenage boy is punished for spying on Women's Mysteries with "honorary woman" status through CripplingCastration followed by an involuntary GenderBender. [[FreudianExcuse Hilarity definitely does ''not'' ensue.]]
** On the other hand when something similar happens to another character in the same series (castrated then given a woman's vulva as a replacement) he decides to use his [[{{Transsexual}} officially female status]] to [[LadyLand gain access to the corridors of power.]] Unfortunately he dies in battle before he can put this plan into action.

* ShamefulStrip: In the ''Soul Riders'' series, this happens to Cassie twice. The first time, she's been caught spying around a temple and is placed naked in a cell, told that if she resists, there'll be chains and a gag, too. The second time, she's been abducted by the male-dominated society of New Eden, waking up from unconsciousness to find herself naked, gagged and handcuffed. The abduction is a prelude to an extended period of "re-education".
* SlaveBrand: In the ''Soul Riders'' series, the male-dominated society of New Eden tattoos the rump of all new Fluxgirls, women bound into slavery (and perpetual ignorance) by magic.

* PsychoPsychiatrist: Referenced in the ''Four Lords of the Diamond'' series, when one of the protagonists meets a psychiatrist who wears glasses as an affectation, on a world where all health issues are instantly fixed, including imperfect eyesight. He thinks to himself that he has yet to meet a shrink who didn't need to see a shrink.

* The Four Lords of the Diamond series

Today Chalker is most famous (indeed notorious) for the sheer amount of AuthorAppeal packed into his works, exceeded perhaps only by PiersAnthony in this regard. A typical character in a Chalker book can expect to undergo at least one InvoluntaryTransformation and/or GenderBender. (And, seeing as it ''is'' a Chalker book, quite lucky if [[BodyHorror that's]] the [[MisterSeahorse worst]] [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody thing]] that [[AndIMustScream happens]] to them.)