Operation Chaos (1971)

An interesting story - several, really. The one in the blurb, with the two of them as soldiers fighting a 'demon' - though it turns out to be pretty much small fry. The in-between parts, with the elemental and the other demon - again, although they're in danger several times, it never really hits home as serious. The salamander could have killed them, but failed - and it threatened no worse than simple destruction even if it got entirely loose. Then the exciting part, strongly foreshadowed but without even a hint of the form the matter would take. Real risks, to them and others; long-term and short-term danger; and an unlikely desperation side-trip that turns out to supply, in an odd sideways fashion, exactly what was needed to solve the real problem. Hard to talk about any of this without utterly spoiling it! Lobachevski and Bolyai are fascinating. Their adventures in 'the hell dimension' are truly weird. And the eventual solution is strange and marvelous. Why no one from the East, though? Odd. And a happy ending - though I assume he meant to write the second book then (it took years to get publshed, though), to explain what the whole point was. Now I need to read Operation Luna... A few spots where Poul gets into politics, with rants that are very of-the-time, but mostly the infodumps are either unobtrusive or sufficiently lampshaded as to be acceptable. This was actually originally published as four short stories in F&SF over 13 years - the joins show, but it hangs together pretty well. ( )

Read a book I loved many years ago; still enjoyed it! ( )

Old style Sci-Fi alternate universe where Magic is Science. A werewolf and his PhD Witch wife survive a very different World War II to settle down into middle class life in a magically scientific USA only to have their daughter kidnapped to Hell. A nice well written First person adventure romp that from time to time dives into serious religious/philosophical digression about God, Magic and Christianity. ( )

Witchwolf teamup success requires djinn psychology.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/09/operation-afreet-poul-anderson.html ( )

Witchwolf teamup success requires djinn psychology.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/09/operation-afreet-poul-anderson.html ( )