I realized recently that when I was rereading Poul Anderson fantasies such as A Midsummer’s Tempest, I never got around to his Operation Chaos. Which turns out to be because I don’t have a copy, but the library did, so ..
The premise is that around the dawn of the 20th century, humanity figured out the scientific principles underlying the practice of magic. Demons and djinn are other-dimensional visitors, the werewolf narrator, Steve, can trigger a transformation with a moonlight-duplicating flashlight, binding symbols such as Solomon’s seal work by a psychosomatic effect. It doesn’t completely makes sense but it sounds plausible enough to work, and the magic-as-science fits better here than in Three Hearts and Three Lions.
Developing magic into science has changed history: WW II was fought against a radical Islamic movement, for instance. Steve meets a witch, Ginny, during the war when they’re assigned to the same mission. They fall in love and post-war have to cope with rogue salamanders, seductive incubi and their daughter being kidnapped by the powers of Hell. For it seems Steve and Ginny have the potential to do more good than they know, and Hell is not happy …
It’s a good book and Ginny is one of Anderson’s more competent women. There’s also a joke about taking Ginny’s black-cat familiar on honeymoon that flew over my head as a tween (Steve complains about not wanting pussy, then stops himself). Regrettably the sequel, Operation Luna, was overlong and dull and IIRC didn’t deal with any of the hints about the couple’s future raised in the first book.
MILES ERRANT by Lois McMaster Bujold is an omnibus tying two novels and a novella in her Miles Vorkosigan series together. My previous encounter with Miles, the later-in-the-series A Civil Campaign, suffered from me not knowing enough about Miles’ world to be invested in the backstory. This book did not have that problem.
The three stories take place while Miles is operating in a secret identity as Naismith, commander of a rag-tag mercenary fleet whose missions, by total coincidence, often benefit his native planet of Barrayar. In the novella, “Borderland of Infinity,” Miles and his team penetrate a force-fielded POW camp by the malevolent Cetagandans—they honor their obligation to provide POWs with medical personnel but only in the sense some prisoners are doctors, and with no drugs or equipment. Miles’ mission: rescue a respected military leader. When that proves impossible, Miles concocts a plan B: bust everyone out.
Following that mission, BROTHERS IN ARMS has Miles stationed on Earth and starting up a romance with one of his officers. Unfortunately, a revolutionary movement on Komarr, which Barrayar brutally occupied, is determined to get revenge on Miles’ homeworld by swapping him out for a clone assassin. Can Miles’ people find him? Can Miles convince his counterpart Mark that his mentors do not have Mark’s best interest at heart?
In MIRROR DANCE Mark, posing as Miles, takes some of his strike force to attack the cloning specialists who created him; their primary use of clones is to provide fresh bodies for old, rich people and Mark intends to steal some of the clones away to give them freedom. Unfortunately things go wrong, Miles shows up to help and then they end up with Miles mysteriously disappeared and Mark having to pose as Miles to hide this fact.
While there’s plenty of action in the stories, Bujold’s focus is more characters and their conflicts. That doesn’t always work for me, but it does here. While I may not get back to the series any time soon — with so much stuff out there, I don’t follow series the way i used to — it’s not for lack of enjoyment.
Cover by Darrell Sweet. All rights to image remain with current holder.
