Well World

The setting for two separate series of science fiction novels by Jack Chalker, beginning with Midnight at the Well of Souls in 1977. The series and the volumes in them are:

The Well of Souls series:
 * Midnight at the Well of Souls (1977)
 * Exiles at the Well of Souls (1978)
 * Quest for the Well of Souls (1978)
 * The Return of Nathan Brazil (1980)
 * Twilight at the Well of Souls (1980)
 * The Sea is Full of Stars (1999)
 * Ghost of the Well of Souls (2000)

The Watchers at the Well trilogy:
 * Echoes of the Well of Souls (1993)
 * Shadow of the Well of Souls (1994)
 * Gods of the Well of Souls (1994)

The Well World is a planet-sized computer created by an ancient race that used it to expand and stabilize the universe; its surface is a series of 1560 hexagonal laboratories used to develop new sentient species with carbon-based lifeforms in the southern hemisphere and truly alien lifeforms in the north. Newly arrived space travelers are incorporated into the experiment by being automatically assigned to a "hex" and transformed into its dominant species. Control the Well World and you can theoretically control the entire universe. Of course, it's never that simple.

The Well World series employs the following tropes:

 * Action Survivor: Nathan Brazil. Despite being the immortal guardian of the universe, he's small, unimposing, and doesn't normally go looking for trouble. His survival is guaranteed but his integrity is not and he's been mutilated quite a bit over the years, and while the stuff he loses always grows back it's a long and painful process.
 * All Myths Are True: Centaurs, fairies, fawns are real alien races. Earth -- hell, the entire universe -- really was created in seven days.
 * And I Must Scream: The final fate of Juan Campos, the South American rapist drug lord from the Watchers at the Well trilogy.
 * Author Appeal - Even a casual survey of Chalker's work will show that he was obsessed with the idea of humans changing their species and sex. The Well World books just gave him a justification for doing it on a massive scale.
 * Not to mention the recurring cases of strong-smart-woman-turned-virtually-helpless-by-vision-or-reading-impairment-and-body-morphing. Seems to happen in the majority of Chalker's books.
 * Bizarre Alien Biology - almost sixteen hundred hexes' worth.
 * Brain In A Jar: Nikki Zinder, eventually.
 * Charles Atlas Superpower - Gypsy has learned to directly manipulate minor local aspects of the universal programming, without technological assistance -- he claims it's all done mentally using mathematics.
 * Complete Immortality - Nathan Brazil, among other names he uses; later,.
 * Cosmic Retcon: Nathan Brazil has had to reboot the entire universe at least half a dozen times -- and notes that although the universal program is rigidly-defined enough that (for instance) a recognizable Earth will always develop, things still turn out slightly differently each time, as the starting conditions vary.
 * Doomsday Device: Zinder Nullifiers, created by blindly hacking Zinder's discoveries centuries later as a last-ditch weapon against an invading alien force.
 * Eldritch Abomination: Basically what a Markovian looks like.
 * Enforced Technology Levels - Each hex on the Well World has a maximum technology level -- Non, Semi, or High -- to simulate the availability of resources in that race's target biosphere. Technology above a hex's maximum level will simply fail to work inside that hex.
 * The Fair Folk: An insectoid race that can abuse physical laws by virtue of their innate ability to make minor changes in reality's programming, essentially making them magical.
 * Fate Worse Than Death: Nikki Zinder
 * Fisher Kingdom - entering the Well World induces transformation into one of that world's indigenous races.
 * The Fog of Ages - In the first book, Nathan Brazil is so old that he's forgotten most of his life, including his own origins; it all comes flooding back when he comes (back) to the Well World.
 * Gender Bender - numerous
 * The Great Politics Mess-Up - Later revised as the universe is rebooted. In earlier Well World stories, communism spread to the stars and there were even people who worshiped Marx and Lenin. After the universe was rebooted, the stories which (partially) took place on modern Earth noted that things are different.
 * Hermaphrodite - several species, mostly aquatic.
 * As well as variant humans.
 * Humans Are White: Averted with Nathan Brazil, who is described as having a dark complexion, black hair, brown eyes, and a Roman (aquiline) nose, mostly evoking an Indian-ish appearance.
 * Also, it's noted that the humanity of Midnight's far future is on the whole vaguely Asian-looking, although the degree to which this is true varies from world to world.
 * Hurricane of Puns - Those hex names which aren't shout outs or nonsense words. Like "Wasdamaddah".
 * Inhumanity Ensues
 * Laser-Guided Karma - If you make it to the Well of Souls with Nathan Brazil, better hope you were a good person.
 * Magic Versus Science - In some hexes the differing laws of physics allow "magic" of various sorts, which is in fact all just the Master Computer doing its thing.
 * Master Computer - for the entire universe
 * The Mind Is a Plaything of The Body
 * Mister Seahorse - literally (via Mix-and-Match Critters)
 * Mix-and-Match Critters- justified as lazy Markovians cribbing each other's work
 * Multiple Choice Past: Brazil has at various times claimed to be God, Moses, the last member of a race of Precursors, or an ordinary human who was tricked into become the caretaker of the universe.
 * No Sex Allowed- Taken to extremes by the Comworlders, most of whom are genetically or biochemically engineered to never hit puberty.
 * One-Gender Race - the Czillians, a species of sentient, parthenogenic plants
 * Our Dragons Are Different
 * Power Perversion Potential - Obie's a supercomputer hooked up to a Matter/Energy/Matter converter and planted inside a planetoid big enough to house a small town. He can give you anything you want, as long as he knows how to make it, and has a big transmitter capable of altering entire planets to a person's specifications. He's also capable of traveling to anywhere he knows the coordinates of within minutes. Upon hearing of Obie's full power, Nathan Brazil himself said, "to hell with porn," and upon seeing Obie in action, Brazil was rather disturbed.
 * Precursors: The Markovians, who were the first (and only) race in the Universe.  They felt that even though they had reached godlike heights, they had missed something crucial in their development.  The Well World and the races developed there were their attempts to try something different that just might find what they had missed.
 * Ragnarok Proofing - The Well World itself. Not only is it a planet-sized computer that has been functioning for trilllions of years since its creators disappeared, but
 * Rewriting Reality: The raison d'etre for the Well World.  The same mathematics that it uses can also grant this power to individuals who understand it.
 * Sense Freak/Showing Off The New Body as each character awakens to discover their new species.
 * Second Law of Gender Bending: also applies to all of the species bending, as well.
 * Starfish Aliens: Well World is divided into two parts. Southern Hemisphere is for carbon-based lifeforms, and a lot of those are quite starfish-looking. Northern Hemisphere is for non-carbon-based ones, and those are just plain weird.
 * Steampunk - in certain hexes, technology is limited to steam.
 * Sufficiently Advanced Aliens - the Markovians
 * Tuckerization - Many hex names are shout outs to people Chalker knew in SF fandom and the publishing industry.
 * What If God Was One of Us? - Maybe, but also practically yes. Nathan Brazil's real origin is never stated, and several of the characters wonder about him: is he really God, the last Markovian, or a construct of the Well itself? At the end of the day, it doesn't matter because once he's in the Well Computer, he is a deity.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?
 * Who Wants to Live Forever? - Brazil, in his darker moments.
 * Writers Cannot Do Math - Look at the partial maps of the Well World and the data given in the text. Try to extrapolate the possible numbers of hexes. 1560 is not a possible result.
 * Who Wants to Live Forever? - Brazil, in his darker moments.
 * Writers Cannot Do Math - Look at the partial maps of the Well World and the data given in the text. Try to extrapolate the possible numbers of hexes. 1560 is not a possible result.