roseembolism (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
roseembolism) wrote2013-01-08 10:27 pm
roseembolism) wrote2013-01-08 10:27 pm
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#1 in 2013: the Jennifer Morgue
In this second book of the Laundry series, Bob Howard, our geeky protagonist, has to deal with such mind-shattering horrors as eldritch zombies, insane cultists, and Power Point presentations. This is because Bob is a member of the Laundry, the agency tasked to prevent the end of the world through the improper use of arcane mathematics- or magic for the laymen. It being a British bureaucracy of course, there's far less gunfire, and far more filling out of proper requisition forms and traveling to training conferences. It's at one of these conferences that Bob, a computer expert meets a classic femme fatale, with some decidedly nonclassic nonhuman elements to her. then he meets some zombies, and the entire training presentation goes to hell.
In short order Bob is stuffed onto an airplane, and finds himself in the Carribean, where he apparently is expected to take the role of a famous British secret agent from literature, complete with slinky Bond girl at his side. Needless to say the role doesn't fit Bob very well, and he can't see why he has to play a part that he's totally unprepared for. The answer lies in a really clever use of sympathetic magic designed to further the plans of a mad industrialist, and Bob has an unexpected part to play in a scenario that could wipe out the human race...
I liked this book, though I didn't think it quite had either the humor or the horror of The Atrocity Archives. The central conceit, of making James Bond meet geekdom is amusing though, and Stross continues his mix of Cthuloid horror and snarky commentary about modern bureaucracy. I don't recommend it for anyone who hasn't read the previous book in the series, since it follows on from the previous events. But all in all, it's a solid, fast read.
In short order Bob is stuffed onto an airplane, and finds himself in the Carribean, where he apparently is expected to take the role of a famous British secret agent from literature, complete with slinky Bond girl at his side. Needless to say the role doesn't fit Bob very well, and he can't see why he has to play a part that he's totally unprepared for. The answer lies in a really clever use of sympathetic magic designed to further the plans of a mad industrialist, and Bob has an unexpected part to play in a scenario that could wipe out the human race...
I liked this book, though I didn't think it quite had either the humor or the horror of The Atrocity Archives. The central conceit, of making James Bond meet geekdom is amusing though, and Stross continues his mix of Cthuloid horror and snarky commentary about modern bureaucracy. I don't recommend it for anyone who hasn't read the previous book in the series, since it follows on from the previous events. But all in all, it's a solid, fast read.