The Night of the Salamander by Michael Swanwick
My rating: 3/5 cats
“We attack in the morning,” Sir Toby said. “I have, among my men, a shape-changer who can assume the field marshal’s appearance. The military plans are good, and so long as nobody knows their leader is an imposter—and I am sure we can successfully keep everyone not in on the secret at arm’s length—our forces will behave with the expected loyalty, and the enemies will know they have little chance. . . . Oh, and that reminds me. You did solve the murder, I hope?”
i have a real love for locked-room mysteries. it’s a mostly theoretical love, since i really haven’t read that many, but back in the days when i was making the nook channels, the “locked room mysteries” one was my favorite to update and fiddle with and think, “someday i shall read all of these books!”
so between wolf-eyes on “cover,” and “locked room” in the descriptor, i figured this story would be a slam-dunk into my heart, even though 1) there are apparently four stories before this one that i haven’t read, and 2) i’m not all that interested in wizards.
and it’s a fine story, but a little flat, and between the war going on offscreen and the specific powers/abilities of the characters, i’m thinking some things would have been clearer to me if i’d read the previous stories, and if i would’ve known that “werewolf corps” was neither a figure of speech nor a traditional werewolf affair.
but apart from some confusion on my part, it’s a surprisingly fun and viable mix of a classic-feeling interrogation and deductive reasoning detective story and a supernatural military fantasy. dinner party chivalry and mind control.
i was a little apprehensive about how the mystery part would play out, considering that magical powers tend to negate fair play. how’d he kill that person in that locked room? magical powers. where did he hide the weapon? magical powers. how did no one see him leave? magical powers. it deflates all tension to have that kind of wildcard up your sleevies, but this one managed an ending that while basically a cheat, was at least a cheat with flair. honestly, this story kind of sidelines the mystery aspect in favor of a quirky character-piece, but it’s a high-medium amount of fun for zero money down.
everyone’s a winner!
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/2015/08/05/the-nig…
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