SEASON OF LIFE

An ancient trickster spirit visits a farmer, a spy, and a nurse during the Civil War in this novel.

Under the violent shadows of the Battle of Gettysburg of 1863, Basil Biggs just wants to get home. A free Black man raised by his mystically gifted mother, Rosalie, surrounded by abolitionists, Biggs knows the dangers that Rebel soldiers pose. But for the sake of his family’s livelihood, he must see if anything remains of his Pennsylvania farm. Along the way, he is stopped by a dying Confederate soldier, a man who claims to be the not-yet-infamous Wesley Culp, who was born in Gettysburg. Culp maintains that Biggs’ dead mother told him that he’d “be along presently.” The soldier conscripts Biggs into delivering a letter to Jenny Wade, a Gettysburg resident, and a medallion to Culp’s sister, Julia. This is not the only task Rosalie and Culp have for Biggs, as he will soon meet Union spymaster John Babcock, who has also found himself visited by Rosalie. Babcock seeks to employ Biggs to aid him in gaining valuable information about Gen. Robert E. Lee’s next moves. Babcock and Biggs find an unlikely ally on their mission: Culp, the Pan-like trickster spirit who continues to appear in the guise of a dead man. Meanwhile, a fiery young woman named Cornelia Hancock heads to Gettysburg to volunteer as a nurse at Camp Letterman. But along with the admiration of suffering soldiers, she too will catch the eye of the spirit who fancies taking the shape of corpses. Janoda’s absorbing novel portrays the Civil War in bleak and horrific terms, complete with piles of amputated limbs, the smell of decaying flesh, and the cries of the wounded. The magical aspects of Culp’s actions do not diminish this darkness or lighten the hard truths of the war—this “Changer of Forms” uses methods that are just as chilling and unsettling, respecting the grim history of the times. Historical flourishes abound in the book, from the disgusting racial tensions even among Union soldiers to medical practices that border on the barbaric. The era’s spycraft is heavily referenced, depicting disguises, infiltration, and sabotage in an informative way that never feels inorganic to the plot.

Engrossing blood-and-guts historical fiction with a respectful touch of low fantasy thrown in.