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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/operation_chaos.png]]
''Operation Chaos'' is an AlternateHistory MagiTek novel by Creator/PoulAnderson. It takes place in a world where technology never advanced past a primitive combustion engine, so instead magic takes its place in all things in an otherwise modern (for the time the book was written) setting. [[MundaneUtility Cars and trucks are replaced by flying brooms and carpets, crystal balls act as televisions, radios, and telephones, were-creatures use flashbulbs created by the Polaroid corporation to transform at any time instead of just by the light of the moon, and Ivy League colleges have courses in witchcraft.]]

Steven Matuchek, a [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolf]] and [[FirstPersonPerspective the narrator]], recounts a series of tales (originally four separate short stories, "Operation Afreet", "Operation Salamander", "Operation Incubus", and "Operation Changeling") involving various paranormal adventures, from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (which took place against an Arab Caliphate that invaded the United States) through the Sixties, culminating in one that links them all together. They're also tales of meeting, dating, marrying, and having a child with the red-headed witch Virginia "Ginny" Graylock.

There is a sequel, ''Operation Luna'', concerning the alternate history's first manned expedition to the moon. A character from this series also makes a cameo in Anderson's ''Literature/AMidsummerTempest'', in the chapters set in the InnBetweenTheWorlds.

!!Tropes found in this work:
* AllAnimalsAreDogs: Steve as a wolf is really very dog-like, even moreso than a wolf should be. He enjoys playing fetch and responds to whistles.
%%* AllMythsAreTrue
* AllWitchesHaveCats: Virginia has a cat named Svartalf as a familiar. He's about as smart as a human, capable of planning and foresight, and using tools.
* AwesomeButImpractical: War Basilisks. As our hero Steven points out, they're really more trouble than they're worth.
%%* BadassLongcoat: Steven has one.
* BasiliskAndCockatrice: Basilisks are used as weapons during the War. It's mentioned in passing that, as a double whammy, any creature they turn to stone is dangerously radioactive as a side-effect of the physical process that converts carbon to silicon.
* BeastOfBattle: The Allied forces utilized basilisks as war machines during World War II. Also dragons (the phrasing leaves it uncertain whether they're flying dragons or the equivalent of tanks) and, in the Navy, krakens for an amphibious assault.
* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:The OldGods who come to the heroes' aid in Hell]].
* CatsAreMean: Played with: Svartalf treats Steve like dirt in most social situations, but when it comes to a fight, they're an unstoppable team, especially if they're fighting to protect Virginia.
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Steve and Ginny have many run-ins with evil forces. The final one, which shocks them to the core despite all they have seen, is the kidnapping of their baby daughter to Hell.
* CreepyCathedral: The cathedral and surrounding town of Siloam are extra creepy, including nonstop chanting of Barbarous Names.
* DeadlyGaze: Background details include contact lenses that let people with the "Evil Eye" live normal lives, and a medical technique that combines the Evil Eye with sympathetic magic to zap infections by having someone glare at bacteria through a microscope.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Virginia is cold, brisk, and businesslike when she and Steven first meet. By his own narration, he couldn't stand her. When they get a chance to actually talk about things outside of military operations, she thaws.
%%* DemonLordsAndArchdevils: [[spoiler: One of whom is Hitler!]]
* ElementalEmbodiment: A college student summons a salamander, which goes rampaging across the campus. The fight to bring it down involves discussion of the other types.
* FatBastard: An enemy weretiger Steve encounters early on is monstrously fat in human form, because of the conservation of mass.
%%* FieryRedhead: Ginny, natch.
* FlyingBroomstick: A common mode of transport (approximately equivalent to cars, or maybe motorcycles)
* {{Geas}}: A common form of magic, often used to ensure employees adhere to the guidelines their employers place on them. In the first story arc, it's mentioned that all soldiers, Steve included, have a geas on them preventing them from panicking. Later, when Ginny accepts a job at a university, she has a geas placed on her preventing her from [[HotForStudent fraternizing with students]].
* GenieInABottle: Literally in the World War II chapter, figuratively in the college chapter.
* GoodCopBadCop: Steven is captured and questioned harshly, then offered a drink and saluted for his courage. He recognizes it and takes advantage of the breather to plan.
* GotVolunteered: In World War II, all US soldiers were enchanted to be fearless and obey orders.
* GreaterScopeVillain: Each arc has its own villain or set of villains (the Caliphate and the Afreet, the Salamander, and the Incubus), but a scene in each reveals there's an evil being, implied to be the Adversary himself, orchestrating these events to prevent Steven and Ginny from ruining the plan in the final story. The Adversary doesn't know what they'll do or even what his own plan will be at that point, he just knows that killing and/or corrupting them will prevent it from failing.
* GuileHero: Steve and Virginia tend to defeat their foes via applied psychology. Against the Efreet, for example, she casts a truth spell on herself, asks whether he knows about the principle of "the name is the thing" (he does, though Steven knows it's been disproven), and then truthfully asserts "My name is Ginny". He thereafter begrudgingly treats her as an equal (since he thinks she's a genie). Then she gives him advice, which she couldn't lie about; but she never said it'd be ''good'' advice. She eventually defeats him by [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath psychoanalyzing him and playing on his fears.]]
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Those members of the Johannine Church who were there for sincere reasons take control of their faith after the leadership's demonic corruption is rooted out and turn it into a rather more noble faith.]]
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: [[spoiler:While invading hell to get their daughter back, the Matucheks run afoul of a high-ranking demon lord who takes the form of [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler an unremarkable brown-haired human with a toothbrush mustache, a brown uniform, and "a red armband with the ancient and honorable sign of the fylfot", and who speaks only in German]]. Since their World War II was against the Saracen Caliphate, they don't recognize him at all.]]
%%* HotWitch: Ginny
%%* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Professor Abercrombie.
* LanguageOfMagic: Magic works much more effectively if the caster uses an esoteric language -- esoteric to his/her culture, that is (Steven at one point creates a minor but effective spell in PigLatin). So student mages come to the U.S. from Africa or Asia to learn spells in American street slang. Simple Law of Similarity, obviously; you can not expect to get extraordinary results from ordinary language.
* TheLegionsOfHell: At the novel's climax, Steven and Virginia end up storming Hell and facing down the legions to recover their daughter.
* MagicalForeignWords: Parodied.
--> "exotic tongues are necessary for the more powerful spells—which is why so many African and Asian students come here to learn American slang...."
* MagicalIncantation: Magic is more potent if an incantation is spoken in a language foreign to the caster. Although a real language is preferable, PigLatin will work in a pinch.
* MagicCarpet: Used as vans and trucks, when a broomstick is just too small.
* MagicPants: Steven has a near-literal example in a [[MySuitIsAlsoSuper specially-designed combat suit]] that stretches with him when he transforms. Subverted in a scene in which he transforms while wearing normal civilian clothes and is completely naked when he changes back. Luckily, Ginny is there to [[YouMustBeCold lend him]] [[NakedInMink her coat]], which is barely big enough to cover his... ahem... attributes.
%%* {{Magitek}}
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Steve Matachuk is a werewolf, a Hollywood actor, and an engineer. Virginia is a psychologist, an ad executive, and a witch.
%%* NonHumanSidekick: Svartalf the cat.
* OminousLatinChanting: Not Latin, but the CreepyCathedral of the sinister {{Cult}} (which is really a ReligionOfEvil in disguise) is pervaded by ominous chanting of Barbarous Names (from an obscure pseudepigraphical book.)
* OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous: [[spoiler:The incubus and the succubus are actually a single being which takes male or female form depending on who it's attempting to seduce]].
* OurGeniesAreDifferent: The genie is sealed in a bottle (with Solomon's Seal no less) but does not have to grant wishes. Virginia must use psychological tricks on it.
* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent:
** It's a recessive gene, not a curse, and can't be transmitted by biting. They transform fully into an animal, with no intermediate forms.
** Were-creatures keep the personality and memories of their human selves, but have the instincts and approximate intelligence level of the animal. (Or, as Steven himself puts it: "...as a wolf I'm a rather stupid man.") They're trained from birth to hold on to their human selves while in animal form, but that can start to fail if they're very weary (at one point, Ginny tries to call an exhausted Steve by his name, but he doesn't recognize the word; she whistles instead, and that does it).
** Physically, they're difficult to injure because of near-instantaneous regeneration, though lost limbs [[spoiler:or tails]] can't be regrown and they have the traditional silver weakness ("biochemical poison", which can't be easily regenerated if at all).
** The transformation conserves mass, so our hero is either a 180-pound man or a 180-pound [[CanisMajor wolf]].
*** Played with, when the swift, deadly 500-pound tiger becomes an obese, sluggish 500-pound man.
* PhantasySpelling: The Caliphate uses real-world words that have fallen out of use (eg. afreet for ifrit). This is either playing the trope straight, or a [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece holdover of being written in 1971]].
* PublicDomainArtifact: The seal of Solomon.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Steven and Virginia gather one together to storm Hell at the climax. Looking them over, Steven concludes that it's the devil who has no sense of humor; God must love to laugh.
* ShapeshifterBaggage: Partially averted. It's explicitly stated that were-creatures have the same mass in both forms, but [[ForcedTransformation transformation spells]] play it straight.
* SignificantGreenEyedRedhead: Virginia, Steven's LoveInterest and co-protagonist.
* SilverBullet: Automatic weapons can be used against were-creatures, by making "every tenth round argent".
* SmokingIsCool: Steve notes that he prefers to smoke Philip Morris cigarettes, because they come with a little red smoke imp that [[MundaneUtility can also mix you a drink]].
* SuccubiAndIncubi: An Incubus and a Succubus, who turn out to be [[spoiler:the same being]].
* SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic: It's a civilization entirely based around this, to the extent that much of it seems perfectly normal and modern (for 1970). Furthermore, all the magic is described in very scientific terms, and many scientific principles still hold. For example, as noted, Conservation of Mass is in full effect for were-creatures, silver hurts them because it's a "biochemical poison" to their "semifluid state", and turning someone to stone leaves the victim radioactive due to the molecular alteration. Discussed several times throughout:
--> ''Steve'': "How on Midgard would — oh, say alchemy, be practical without a thorough grounding in nuclear physics? You'd either get a radioactive isotope that could kill you, or blow up half a county."
* TakenForGranite: Basilisks are used as weapons during the War. It's mentioned in passing that, as a double whammy, any creature they turn to stone is dangerously radioactive as a side-effect of the physical process that converts carbon to silicon.
* ToHellAndBack: At the climax of the novel, one of the devil's henchmen kidnaps their baby daughter and they use experimental magicks to invade Hell and snatch her back.
* VillainousBSOD: Ginny inflicts one on the afreet, by exploiting his pathological fear of water.
* VirginPower: During the War, Virginia had developed the magics that went with being a virgin. After her marriage, she has to retool her skills. Also since there are no horses, but unicorns, you have to be a virgin to serve in the Cavalry Corps.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: In many different flavours of [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent were]], activated via a special flashbulb.
* WeatherDissonance: The section set during the War opens in the rain because the enemy had taken out the (magician) Weather Corps with a lucky shot. The sole survivor was keeping off the dangerous weather, but other than that, they had to take what the enemy threw, and this time, it was rain.
* YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb: During the section set at a college, a student prankster conjures up a fire elemental, and it escapes his control and starts wreaking havoc. [[spoiler:To be somewhat fair, it's stated that the devil literally made him do it, or at least suggested it.]]
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