The Changewinds

By Jack L. Chalker

Changewinds This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671877348
• ISBN13: 9780671877347
• Release Date: August 1996
• Publisher: Baen
• Length: 832 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Amazing

Being the first Chalker book I read, I was quite impressed with it. It's quite tough to put into words. It is a literary masterpiece in line with Bridge on the River Kwai or Ben Hur. The epic scale is extraordinary. Highly recommended.

A New Viewpoint For Me

I was only 11 when I first read this book, and I read it in the unitary format, so it was a real challenge for my mind to read. However, once I was about halfway I realized that I just couldn't put it down until I had read the entire thing. This was the first book by Chalker I have ever read, so I think it speaks highly of him as an author and it gave me an entirely new look on my life and the world. The way Chalker presents his worlds is not like anything I have ever read, and it paints such a vivid picture of his world and its problems that it deserves a five-star rating.

Chalker Worlds

Coming from a person who's read every single Jack L. Chalker series I would have to declare this one one of his best. Mr Chalker uses all his aquired writing skills to make the characters realistic, their reactions realistic, and the world trully come alive. When I read the book first it was in 3 parts and that gave it real flair. When you are done with one it is almost compulsory to read the next. The book is increrdibly hard and painful to put down when done with. And the resolution is incredibly pleasing, finally a book that ties all ends up and satisfies the reader. So this is a book both for the Chalker fan and also for those not familiar with his style for this book exemplifies it perfectly...

This book is AMAZING. :)

When this book first came out, I found it at my local library.. The size of it put me off a bit, but I took it out anyway... O_o! This book gave me terrible grades in school for about 3 weeks, because I would stay up until 3:30 in the morning reading it (I was 13, so sue me. :P) and sleep through my classes. About 3 months ago, I got the urge to read it again or buy it, and wouldn't you know it, the library no longer has it. ::grrr:: After searching bookstores for months, I finally found it here. Do NOT pass up the chance to read this book, believe me. Excellent story, great characters, and a nice ending, too. :) I always wanted to get the butterfly tattoos..

A unique and delightful book even fantasy-haters will love!

I am not exactly a fan of Jack L. Chalker, or at least I wasn't before I read The Changewinds. In fact I didn't even know who he was before I read it. But now I realize that I had been missing out on one of the more unique fantasy minds of our time. Chalker created a unique and enchanting world, which challenges the laws of physics and Probability, filled it with more races and lands than no one person should be allowed to concieve, and gave it a political situation that many people in this world have first-hand experience with. He then plopped two ordinary teenage women into it, mumbled something about one of them being important into their ears, and left them to their own devices. Or so it would seem. By the end we learn that even the infinity of Probability can be predicted and tampered with. Through the eyes of Charley and Sam, we, the lucky readers, discover the beauty and variety (and cruelty) that is Chalker's world of Akhlar. There are no illusions here, save those the inhabitants create. Cruelty, kindness, pity, jealousy, compassion, love and hate, good and evil are all present and accounted for. As are the bureaucracy and the underworld. Sure, there are fantastical creatures and magic and sorcerers and kings and queens and those sorts of things, but it is tempered with a reality and a believability that I have never seen anywhere else. As is most often times not the case, I can see myself in this world, because Chalker leaves nothing out of it.And this is not a book about the setting, either. Chalker's plotline is twisting and complex, yet manages to keep the reader's attention even when it seems there's not really all that much going on. The introduction of new characters, the resurfacing of those thought dead or vanished, and the continuous metamorphosis of the two protagonists are enough to rivet even those who think fantasy is bunk to their seats. The main characters themselves go through enormous changes, both of body and mind. They are possessed by demons, taken control of by numerous wizards and evil people of all types, and had their memories wiped clean at least twice that I can remember. Through all of this they are transformed from two ordinary teenagers into strong, self-assured women who are able to do the tasks that they were brought into Ahklar for in the first place.There are two distinct types of fantasy novels nowadays -- those who follow in the footsteps of previous works and those who forge their own paths. I have never read anything so unique as this book, and I have never been so riveted to a certain plotline as I was when I read it. Chalker is creative and witty even in the mundane aspects of his world, and helps us to rekindle a little of our own inner imagination as he takes us on a whirlwind (or is that changewind?) tour of his world.