Reviews
Four books in, I’m starting to get annoyed at every character sharing Stross’ fondness for naff nerd references at moments of high drama. But it took four books. So! Nazi mages, Turing as the founder of scientific magic, and some very rigorous nonsense – e.g. the killer gaze of the Medusa is a quantum observer-effect in which the collapse of a super-position adds protons to carbon nuclei, forming silicon(!) Cosma Shalizi calls it ‘mind candy’, which is perfect.
The book is full of very clever ideas but it often felt like the the plot and characters were just vehicles for delivering us these clever ideas (but I guess that's how hard scifi works) Also, every woman characters is either: 1) a "manic-depressive psycho bitch from hell" ex girlfriend 2) a nagging stickler for process that exists only to annoy the main character 3) a prize for the main character after a successful rescue
This book is actually two related novellas about a British civil servant/operative who works at a secret government agency doing their best to keep Nameless Horrors from overrunning the earth. A good combination of comedy, horror, and spy thriller. I think Stross and Tim Powers are the best new author discoveries of the year - I've read a few books by both so far this year, and they haven't disappointed.
Rereading for the SFF book club 10/19. I have a lot of respect for Charles Stross. He's fiercely intelligent and clever. I'm actually a little intimidated by him and his writing. But I generally like it. In The Atrocity Archives, we meet Bob Howard and The Laundry. In the world of The Laundry, a certain type of advanced mathematics or computational analysis is effectively indistinguishable from the magic that catches the attention of malign non-human intelligences from Worlds Beyond Our Own. And there are always people who want to do this, to usher in the era of The Great Old Ones and end the world as we know it. The Laundry, and Bob Howard as an employee thereof, work to try to stop this. I eye-read this book a few years back. But I've been going back and listening to these books. TBH, I can sometimes get a little lost with Stross. I think audio works a little better for me, especially since this narrator, Gideon Emery, is EXCELLENT. (Note: it's not Stross, it's the way my brain processes his writing.) Anyway, there's a little danger, a little trip to a parallel universe, a little computational demonology, and even a little romance. I approve.
Really a ton of fun. I may get around to reading the rest of the series. That said, it's just a good sci-fi sort of spy type thing. Good times.
