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Laundry Files #7
The Nightmare Stacks
Alex Schwartz had a promising future - until he contracted an unfortunate bout of vampirism, and agreed (on pain of death) to join the Laundry, Britain's only counter-occult secret agency.
His first assignment is in Leeds - his old hometown. The thought of telling his parents that he's lost his old job, let alone them finding out about his 'condition', is causing Alex more anxiety than learning how to live as a vampire secret agent preparing to confront multiple apocalypses.
His only saving grace is Cassie Brewer, a student appearing in the local Goth Festival, who flirts with him despite his awkward personality and massive amounts of sunblock.
But Cassie has secrets of her own - secrets that make Alex's night life seem positively normal...
His first assignment is in Leeds - his old hometown. The thought of telling his parents that he's lost his old job, let alone them finding out about his 'condition', is causing Alex more anxiety than learning how to live as a vampire secret agent preparing to confront multiple apocalypses.
His only saving grace is Cassie Brewer, a student appearing in the local Goth Festival, who flirts with him despite his awkward personality and massive amounts of sunblock.
But Cassie has secrets of her own - secrets that make Alex's night life seem positively normal...
400 pages, ebook
Published June 23, 2016
285 people are currently reading
3546 people want to read
About the author
Charles Stross
158 books5,816 followersCharles David George "Charlie" Stross is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His works range from science fiction and Lovecraftian horror to fantasy.
Stross is sometimes regarded as being part of a new generation of British science fiction writers who specialise in hard science fiction and space opera. His contemporaries include Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod, Liz Williams and Richard Morgan.
SF Encyclopedia: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_...
Tor: http://us.macmillan.com/author/charle...
Stross is sometimes regarded as being part of a new generation of British science fiction writers who specialise in hard science fiction and space opera. His contemporaries include Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod, Liz Williams and Richard Morgan.
SF Encyclopedia: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_...
Tor: http://us.macmillan.com/author/charle...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 518 reviews
July 20, 2018
Re-read 7/20/18:
I really can't squeal more than I squealed the first time around, but I will add that it's STILL AS GOOD AS THE FIRST TIME. I love Alex! I love Cassie! And of course, the whole setup and denouement was fantastic!
I mean, just the whole horrific action scenes, the stark immediacy of being a victim of genocide, doing everything possible to save your people, including an ignorant invasion of Earth... I GET IT. The possibilities after that end, though... that's what sticks with me. Spoilers, of course, but it's the whole refugee status that kicks my butt. Never mind the outright funny elements, although they are great. At the core, this novel is extremely serious. And for the action, it's a ramp-up on the epic scale brought home to London.
Original Review:
I'm always looking forward to the Laundry Files novels, now, and with good reason.
These tales always breathe fresh life into old story concepts.
Mix a bunch of nightmare bureaucracy into a mass of Cthulhu Spy Fiction and add a memBrain of multiverses, massive geek humor, Pinky and Brains, and a truly clever take on vampirism/magus, but in this one, let's mix in a younger protagonist, the redoubtable 24 year old vampire math geek, Alex, and pretty spearhead of a nearly decimated alien invasion force who happen to be running for their lives from the Elder Gods, all of whom are willing to go to war with innocents for their ultimate survival (with England an the rest of humanity, please read,) and be a woman who just happens to be up in line for the rulership of the entire alien Host of Air and Darkness, full of eldritch magic and might.
Is Alex out of his league?
CASE NIGHTMARE RED, people. CASE NIGHTMARE RED.
I love this. It is sooooo damn fun. Okay, so I miss Bob and Mo a bit, and they're somewhere in the background, but Alex and Cass are soooooo damn cute together! Younger crowd. A little blood, a little war, a little mess-up with the Basilisk network that turns all security cameras into Medusa's Stare, *shiver*, and we've got an all-out conflict that's actually a real nightmare.
Is this fine to read as a standalone? Yes, it is. Is it scary for the crowd that has been reading all the novels and great novellas up to date? Yes, yes it is. Very much so. Every page is full of deliciously savvy tech, math, magic, myth, and wry, dry humor.
Fanboy is still squeeing. :) :)
I really can't squeal more than I squealed the first time around, but I will add that it's STILL AS GOOD AS THE FIRST TIME. I love Alex! I love Cassie! And of course, the whole setup and denouement was fantastic!
I mean, just the whole horrific action scenes, the stark immediacy of being a victim of genocide, doing everything possible to save your people, including an ignorant invasion of Earth... I GET IT. The possibilities after that end, though... that's what sticks with me. Spoilers, of course, but it's the whole refugee status that kicks my butt. Never mind the outright funny elements, although they are great. At the core, this novel is extremely serious. And for the action, it's a ramp-up on the epic scale brought home to London.
Original Review:
I'm always looking forward to the Laundry Files novels, now, and with good reason.
These tales always breathe fresh life into old story concepts.
Mix a bunch of nightmare bureaucracy into a mass of Cthulhu Spy Fiction and add a memBrain of multiverses, massive geek humor, Pinky and Brains, and a truly clever take on vampirism/magus, but in this one, let's mix in a younger protagonist, the redoubtable 24 year old vampire math geek, Alex, and pretty spearhead of a nearly decimated alien invasion force who happen to be running for their lives from the Elder Gods, all of whom are willing to go to war with innocents for their ultimate survival (with England an the rest of humanity, please read,) and be a woman who just happens to be up in line for the rulership of the entire alien Host of Air and Darkness, full of eldritch magic and might.
Is Alex out of his league?
CASE NIGHTMARE RED, people. CASE NIGHTMARE RED.
I love this. It is sooooo damn fun. Okay, so I miss Bob and Mo a bit, and they're somewhere in the background, but Alex and Cass are soooooo damn cute together! Younger crowd. A little blood, a little war, a little mess-up with the Basilisk network that turns all security cameras into Medusa's Stare, *shiver*, and we've got an all-out conflict that's actually a real nightmare.
Is this fine to read as a standalone? Yes, it is. Is it scary for the crowd that has been reading all the novels and great novellas up to date? Yes, yes it is. Very much so. Every page is full of deliciously savvy tech, math, magic, myth, and wry, dry humor.
Fanboy is still squeeing. :) :)
September 16, 2017
The Laundry Files are that rarity in long-running series: they're getting better as they go along.
This one has another new protagonist in the young PhD and newly infected vampire Alex Schwartz who was introduced in the excellent The Rhesus Chart a couple of books ago. Frankly, that's a brilliant move. While Alex's condition is horrific, his distress at what it takes to keep himself alive makes him an inherently likeable character whose youth and relative inexperience with the Laundry injects a much more hopeful element into this long running series. (Bob and Mo, wonderful as they are, have had so much happen to them and are high enough up in the organization, that any atmosphere beyond despair for them just doesn't feel very realistic).
Alex has been assigned to his hometown of Leeds just in time for the city to be ground zero of a brand new file in the terrifying CASE NIGHTMARE category. We've been approaching and experiencing CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN in the series up until this point, particularly in the last book, but CASE NIGHTMARE RED is a completely different sort of apocalypse.
Stross has a wonderful talent for taking impressive research into modern technical fields are writing a deep sense of awe into the appreciation of them. And then he turns around and treats wholly fantastic elements with exactly the same rigor and sense of how terrifying competent users of those technologies can be. Mild spoiler for what I'm talking about: .
There's also some deft switching between tone, with approaching apocalyptic dread mixing with, of all things, romantic comedy and farce. These books have always had humorous elements, but I think this may be one of the best in that regard since the Bond-spoof The Jennifer Morgue.
Of all the Laundry books this is the one that has the most overt impact on the world it's set in so subsequent novels should cover some interesting fallout, particularly considering how this one is resolved.
This one has another new protagonist in the young PhD and newly infected vampire Alex Schwartz who was introduced in the excellent The Rhesus Chart a couple of books ago. Frankly, that's a brilliant move. While Alex's condition is horrific, his distress at what it takes to keep himself alive makes him an inherently likeable character whose youth and relative inexperience with the Laundry injects a much more hopeful element into this long running series. (Bob and Mo, wonderful as they are, have had so much happen to them and are high enough up in the organization, that any atmosphere beyond despair for them just doesn't feel very realistic).
Alex has been assigned to his hometown of Leeds just in time for the city to be ground zero of a brand new file in the terrifying CASE NIGHTMARE category. We've been approaching and experiencing CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN in the series up until this point, particularly in the last book, but CASE NIGHTMARE RED is a completely different sort of apocalypse.
Stross has a wonderful talent for taking impressive research into modern technical fields are writing a deep sense of awe into the appreciation of them. And then he turns around and treats wholly fantastic elements with exactly the same rigor and sense of how terrifying competent users of those technologies can be. Mild spoiler for what I'm talking about: .
There's also some deft switching between tone, with approaching apocalyptic dread mixing with, of all things, romantic comedy and farce. These books have always had humorous elements, but I think this may be one of the best in that regard since the Bond-spoof The Jennifer Morgue.
Of all the Laundry books this is the one that has the most overt impact on the world it's set in so subsequent novels should cover some interesting fallout, particularly considering how this one is resolved.
July 20, 2018
In this 7th installment about the government agency known as "The Laundry", Bob and Mo (the hitherto protagonists) are merely mentioned but never make an appearance. Instead, Alex Schartz, new v-... sorry, PHANG as introduced in the previous book instead takes the lead.
Alex used to be a banker, then got infected with what effectively makes him a vampire and was "asked" to work for the Laundry. He's 24-years-old, a virgin, a nerd ... and has to find a way to tell his parents. But just when he thought nothing in his life could be as bad as a certain family dinner with his sister and her new partner, there is CASE NIGHTMARE RED.
Yup, you read correctly, RED. Apparently, there are a rainbow full of CASES NIGHTMARE and this time we get to see the RED one - which stands for alien invasion.
However, "alien" isn't always the little green martians. Sometimes, it's beings from an alternate Earth, where a sub-species of homo has formed that uses magic instead of technology and cracked their moon in a world war before attracting the unwanted and unhealthy attention of godlike monsters.
The setup for the bad guys here very much reminded me of the short story about Stross' version of unicorns (of which there were some here as well), because the "aliens" are like Tolkien's Elves, only less friendly. And we are the Uruk from Uruk-hai (Earth). *LOL*
So what does happen when magic has caused the downfall of one Earth so the survivors plan on invading this one, resulting in them clashing with a version of homo that uses technology and has a more mathematical approach to "magic"?
Well, let's just say that cosplayers won't get to spend a weekend as relaxed as they thought (thank you, SCORPION STARE), the Elven scout/spy ends up like most Russian ones in the US in the 50s, and it was very interesting to see Lovecraftian dragons going up against Boing 747s as well as Elsa and Raptor drones. ;P
Oh, and Pete (the vicar with his hilarious Vespa) as well as Pinky and Brain (they are to the Laundry what Q was to Bond) are featuring in this so you know it's gonna be a fun romp.
I must admit that I was reluctant to once again NOT get a book from Bob's point of view. I know that we have progressed a number of years since the start of the series and what Bob has lived through has formed him in a way. But especially after what happened to him in the last book from his POV, I wanted to know how he was doing! Besides, I just like the guy so much!
However, the author gave us a worthy replacement in Alex. He's quirky, funny, nerdy, a bit clumsy at times (yes, here, the semi-clumsiness of a PHANG works, unlike in most YA stories), while being realistically kick-ass at others, and has the best family when you try to feel better about your own.
Not to mention that we're nearing the end of all ends and we all knew that Bob and Mo alone wouldn't be enough to fight the horrors soon to come. Cassie, therefore, was a wonderfully bright addition to the colourful cast (excuse the puns), too, and it'll be interesting to see how she will integrate now. Yesyes.
Alex used to be a banker, then got infected with what effectively makes him a vampire and was "asked" to work for the Laundry. He's 24-years-old, a virgin, a nerd ... and has to find a way to tell his parents. But just when he thought nothing in his life could be as bad as a certain family dinner with his sister and her new partner, there is CASE NIGHTMARE RED.
Yup, you read correctly, RED. Apparently, there are a rainbow full of CASES NIGHTMARE and this time we get to see the RED one - which stands for alien invasion.
However, "alien" isn't always the little green martians. Sometimes, it's beings from an alternate Earth, where a sub-species of homo has formed that uses magic instead of technology and cracked their moon in a world war before attracting the unwanted and unhealthy attention of godlike monsters.
The setup for the bad guys here very much reminded me of the short story about Stross' version of unicorns (of which there were some here as well), because the "aliens" are like Tolkien's Elves, only less friendly. And we are the Uruk from Uruk-hai (Earth). *LOL*
So what does happen when magic has caused the downfall of one Earth so the survivors plan on invading this one, resulting in them clashing with a version of homo that uses technology and has a more mathematical approach to "magic"?
Well, let's just say that cosplayers won't get to spend a weekend as relaxed as they thought (thank you, SCORPION STARE), the Elven scout/spy ends up like most Russian ones in the US in the 50s, and it was very interesting to see Lovecraftian dragons going up against Boing 747s as well as Elsa and Raptor drones. ;P
Oh, and Pete (the vicar with his hilarious Vespa) as well as Pinky and Brain (they are to the Laundry what Q was to Bond) are featuring in this so you know it's gonna be a fun romp.
I must admit that I was reluctant to once again NOT get a book from Bob's point of view. I know that we have progressed a number of years since the start of the series and what Bob has lived through has formed him in a way. But especially after what happened to him in the last book from his POV, I wanted to know how he was doing! Besides, I just like the guy so much!
However, the author gave us a worthy replacement in Alex. He's quirky, funny, nerdy, a bit clumsy at times (yes, here, the semi-clumsiness of a PHANG works, unlike in most YA stories), while being realistically kick-ass at others, and has the best family when you try to feel better about your own.
Not to mention that we're nearing the end of all ends and we all knew that Bob and Mo alone wouldn't be enough to fight the horrors soon to come. Cassie, therefore, was a wonderfully bright addition to the colourful cast (excuse the puns), too, and it'll be interesting to see how she will integrate now. Yesyes.
March 29, 2021
Very weak start, very strong middle, reasonably strong end.
The Good
Stross knows how to create an alien species. He is good at it, at making them convincingly alien and weird and yet operate both within the limits of our understanding and the constraints of the setting. The xenofictional aspects are some of the best parts of the book.
Stross also knows how to write a big, multi-faceted action sequence to cap off the book, and he organizes it well. There are a lot of moving parts, but you never feel lost.
Characterization is solid (I adored Agent First), plot is solid, language is very good.
The Bad
Honestly, the first hundred pages nearly had me give up the book. Now, I follow Stross's blog as well, and he has a tendency to come off as a kind of Grumpy Old Man despite being just past fifty. He has opinions and he tends to shove them into his work, and it's always tiresome, though how much varies. The Nightmare Stacks isn't as bad as the Armageddon Score or Apocalypse Codex in that regard, but still eye-rolling.
In any case, earlier books of the Laundry Files, it wasn't too bad, at least in part because the protagonist is a fairly fun and pleasant geek type. The protagonist of the Nightmare Stacks, Alex, is not really that fun to read. He's a bitter young nebbish, and there's just not much enjoyment in reading him be bitter for a hundred pages (mind, Alex has reason to be unhappy, but that doesn't make it more *fun*).
That said, the book improves sharply once the second viewpoint character is introduced -- Agent First, our elven princess.
Conclusion
To my mind, the Laundry Series hit its peak with books 3 and 4, before sliding somewhat bumpily downhill in Books 5 (desperately uneven pacing) and 6 (extreme case of Grumpy Old Man-ism). Book 7, the Nightmare Stacks, is somewhere in the middle. Not quite as awesome as the Fuller Memorandum, not as annoying as the Rhesus Chart. Good enough that I'll be buying the next book when it comes out, anyway.
The Good
Stross knows how to create an alien species. He is good at it, at making them convincingly alien and weird and yet operate both within the limits of our understanding and the constraints of the setting. The xenofictional aspects are some of the best parts of the book.
Stross also knows how to write a big, multi-faceted action sequence to cap off the book, and he organizes it well. There are a lot of moving parts, but you never feel lost.
Characterization is solid (I adored Agent First), plot is solid, language is very good.
The Bad
Honestly, the first hundred pages nearly had me give up the book. Now, I follow Stross's blog as well, and he has a tendency to come off as a kind of Grumpy Old Man despite being just past fifty. He has opinions and he tends to shove them into his work, and it's always tiresome, though how much varies. The Nightmare Stacks isn't as bad as the Armageddon Score or Apocalypse Codex in that regard, but still eye-rolling.
In any case, earlier books of the Laundry Files, it wasn't too bad, at least in part because the protagonist is a fairly fun and pleasant geek type. The protagonist of the Nightmare Stacks, Alex, is not really that fun to read. He's a bitter young nebbish, and there's just not much enjoyment in reading him be bitter for a hundred pages (mind, Alex has reason to be unhappy, but that doesn't make it more *fun*).
That said, the book improves sharply once the second viewpoint character is introduced -- Agent First, our elven princess.
Conclusion
To my mind, the Laundry Series hit its peak with books 3 and 4, before sliding somewhat bumpily downhill in Books 5 (desperately uneven pacing) and 6 (extreme case of Grumpy Old Man-ism). Book 7, the Nightmare Stacks, is somewhere in the middle. Not quite as awesome as the Fuller Memorandum, not as annoying as the Rhesus Chart. Good enough that I'll be buying the next book when it comes out, anyway.
Read
June 29, 2016Readers who are curious about Stross's Laundry Files and are daunted by the idea of starting at the beginning could actually begin with this latest book. Though it doesn't feature his terrific narrator Bob, or his more problematical wife Mo, this might be a good thing for a new reader, as Alex--newly succumbed to PHANG disease--makes a delightful POV character.
Through the hapless Alex, who is about as far from the usual vampire as you can possibly get, the reader will get a fast introduction to this alternate paradigm of our Earth. He is trying to learn to deal with his 'illness' (duly obfuscated in bureaucratese) as well as the wild world of paperwork, until he meets a sweet, charming, gorgeous cos-player complete with elf ears named Cassie.
Who is not what she seems . . . in a lot of ways. Cassie is the front woman for . . . no, that's spoiler territory.
Let's just say that Stross provides his typical horrific elements balanced by a terrifically funny, wry narrative voice, and turbocharged action that accelerates until the mad crash of the end.
The characters are complex, the twists unpredictable, and the pacing builds to pulse-pounding speed in this well-written tale that is sure to win new readers to this popular series.
Through the hapless Alex, who is about as far from the usual vampire as you can possibly get, the reader will get a fast introduction to this alternate paradigm of our Earth. He is trying to learn to deal with his 'illness' (duly obfuscated in bureaucratese) as well as the wild world of paperwork, until he meets a sweet, charming, gorgeous cos-player complete with elf ears named Cassie.
Who is not what she seems . . . in a lot of ways. Cassie is the front woman for . . . no, that's spoiler territory.
Let's just say that Stross provides his typical horrific elements balanced by a terrifically funny, wry narrative voice, and turbocharged action that accelerates until the mad crash of the end.
The characters are complex, the twists unpredictable, and the pacing builds to pulse-pounding speed in this well-written tale that is sure to win new readers to this popular series.
July 24, 2016
The first part of The Nightmare Stacks is vintage Laundry series, reminding us who Alex is, and also re-introducing a number of cast members from earlier novels including Pinky and the Brain. The new character of the Dungeon Master is not particularly well introduced so I wondered if I have forgotten him from a previous novel, but it seems not. The middle section dealing with Alex in Leeds and the developing situation builds momentum towards the finale, but the narrative written in various flash-backs and flash-forwards gives the reader an impending sense of doom which I always find impinges on any sense of surprise and reduces the emotional attachment to any characters. This was not a problem in the earlier novels which were written much more tongue-in-cheek and better for it.
In the last third of the book I began to get even further detached as the body count rose. Stross has said that the earlier Laundry series were written as pastiches of cold war spy series, but that this the latest stands on it’s own. But once the finale kicked-off the story seemed (in defiance of Stross’s statement) to feel more like a mid-period Tom Clancy novel, with the specification of various pieces of military hardware, tanks and fighter planes being explained as if his audience had shifted to the teenage male market.
The twist at the end is clever and stays true to the themes of the Laundry series, but I cannot say that this novel has passed the heights achieved by The Fuller memorandum which to me is still the best thing Stross has written. I can understand why the story needs to get more serious as we approach Case Nightmare [insert colour here], but I think there is a danger the books are going to lose their tongue-in-cheek humour and hence their unique selling point on the way.
In the last third of the book I began to get even further detached as the body count rose. Stross has said that the earlier Laundry series were written as pastiches of cold war spy series, but that this the latest stands on it’s own. But once the finale kicked-off the story seemed (in defiance of Stross’s statement) to feel more like a mid-period Tom Clancy novel, with the specification of various pieces of military hardware, tanks and fighter planes being explained as if his audience had shifted to the teenage male market.
The twist at the end is clever and stays true to the themes of the Laundry series, but I cannot say that this novel has passed the heights achieved by The Fuller memorandum which to me is still the best thing Stross has written. I can understand why the story needs to get more serious as we approach Case Nightmare [insert colour here], but I think there is a danger the books are going to lose their tongue-in-cheek humour and hence their unique selling point on the way.
July 12, 2016
Danger is looming, and it threatens to be
Acclimatizing to his new job in the Laundry, the super-secret magical equivalent to MI5, is never easy, but Alex entered the trade at a particularly difficult time: as the number of humans and computers increases, intrusions into the Dungeon Dimensions become increasingly common. As Alex learns,
The Nightmare Stacks is a bit of a departure from the other books in the series because it has barely a mention of Bob Howard, arcane sysadmin and protagonist of most of the rest of the books. Personally, I was thrilled to get a new protagonist. Alex is a bit of a passive nebbish nonentity, but I found him rather more likeable than the Bob of recent books. The protagonist-- and NIGHTMARE-- switch makes this an ideal starting book for anyone interested in the series. (Apparently it depends heavily on The Rhesus Chart, but as I've not read it--it's the only Laundry book I skipped--and I got along fine, I think this would be entirely readable without the context of the rest of the series.) I did find the narrative style a bit odd, however; we're told this is Alex's journal, yet most of the story, including the Alex-POV sections, are told in third person. I admit to being a bit mystified by that.
Alex, our hapless protagonist, has more on his mind than PHANG Syndrome. His new employers are sending him to the last place on earth he wants to be: Leeds, his childhood home, where he's
I find Stross reliably hilarious and The Nightmare Stacks was no exception. I adore urban fantasy and the way it mashes together the banalities of life with a genre-savvy take on traditional fantasy. Along with explaining how a salt circle traps mages and describing the intricacies of governmental PLAN PURPLE PEOPLE EATER, this book involves perhaps the most unique usage of a selfie stick I've come across. If you find Stross's unique combination of magic, maths geekery, Rube-Goldbergian bureaucracy, and bumbling spycraft as entertaining as I do, The Nightmare Stacks is definitely worth checking out.
~~I received this ebook through Netgalley from the publisher, Berkley Publishing Group, in exchange for my honest review. (Thanks!) Quotes were taken from an advanced reader copy and while they may not reflect the final phrasing, I believe they speak to the spirit of the novel as a whole.~~
Cross-posted on BookLikes.
"A fate four point two degrees worse than death."When Alex Schwartz took a lucrative job developing high frequency trading algorithms, he had no idea how literal his transformation into a bloodsucking vampire was going to be. In the world that Stross creates, higher mathematics open a gateway to Other Dimensions haunted by Lovecraftian beasties, including the V-symbiotes that invaded Alex's brain and gave him PHANG Syndrome (Person of Hemophagic Autocombusting Nocturnal Glamour), which, sadly, isn't yet covered by the Equality Act.
Acclimatizing to his new job in the Laundry, the super-secret magical equivalent to MI5, is never easy, but Alex entered the trade at a particularly difficult time: as the number of humans and computers increases, intrusions into the Dungeon Dimensions become increasingly common. As Alex learns,
"Training for the end of the world is an ongoing part of the job."Right now, most of the Laundry is focused on CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, the apocalyptic eventuality where magical saturation causes Cthulhu and Azathoth and all their friends to converge upon Planet Earth. However, The Nightmare Stacks takes a break from the looming threat of GREEN to focus on a NIGHTMARE of quite a different colour. While the previous book took on superheroes, this one combines James-Bond-style shenanigans with yet another geeky fandom. I can't tell you which--spoilers--but I can say that the results are vastly entertaining.
The Nightmare Stacks is a bit of a departure from the other books in the series because it has barely a mention of Bob Howard, arcane sysadmin and protagonist of most of the rest of the books. Personally, I was thrilled to get a new protagonist. Alex is a bit of a passive nebbish nonentity, but I found him rather more likeable than the Bob of recent books. The protagonist-- and NIGHTMARE-- switch makes this an ideal starting book for anyone interested in the series. (Apparently it depends heavily on The Rhesus Chart, but as I've not read it--it's the only Laundry book I skipped--and I got along fine, I think this would be entirely readable without the context of the rest of the series.) I did find the narrative style a bit odd, however; we're told this is Alex's journal, yet most of the story, including the Alex-POV sections, are told in third person. I admit to being a bit mystified by that.
Alex, our hapless protagonist, has more on his mind than PHANG Syndrome. His new employers are sending him to the last place on earth he wants to be: Leeds, his childhood home, where he's
Doomed to be dragged back into the infantilizing maw of his family's expectations."Alex's interactions with his family are so utterly cringingly awkward that they induced sympathetic winces from me, as did his amusing attempts to flirt with his love interest, who takes the MPDG thing to a whole new level.
"Alex's experience of dating is similar to his experience of string theory: abstract, intense, and entirely theoretical due to the absence of time and opportunities for probing such high-energy phenomena."I thoroughly enjoyed the parts of the book that focused on the amusing mundanities of Alex's life, but like many of Stross's book, at some point, the content switched over to extremely graphic and disturbing scenes of battle and slaughter. I've never quite figured out if all the gore was intended to be funny. I certainly don't find them so, but the scenes are liberally swathed in dramatic irony and Stross is peculiarly detached from the slaughter. I suspect the familial scenes and war scenes will appeal to vastly different audiences, and that plenty of other reviews will be complaining about the aspects of the book that I adored.
I find Stross reliably hilarious and The Nightmare Stacks was no exception. I adore urban fantasy and the way it mashes together the banalities of life with a genre-savvy take on traditional fantasy. Along with explaining how a salt circle traps mages and describing the intricacies of governmental PLAN PURPLE PEOPLE EATER, this book involves perhaps the most unique usage of a selfie stick I've come across. If you find Stross's unique combination of magic, maths geekery, Rube-Goldbergian bureaucracy, and bumbling spycraft as entertaining as I do, The Nightmare Stacks is definitely worth checking out.
~~I received this ebook through Netgalley from the publisher, Berkley Publishing Group, in exchange for my honest review. (Thanks!) Quotes were taken from an advanced reader copy and while they may not reflect the final phrasing, I believe they speak to the spirit of the novel as a whole.~~
Cross-posted on BookLikes.
July 11, 2016
Not my favorite Laundry Files entry.
I understand *why* Mr. Stross decided to veer away from Bob. Characters are harder to write and less interesting to read when they level up as dramatically as Bob has. But Alex was not the best character to switch to, and this story was not a great showcase for him.
Because, in the end, I'm not reading a Laundry File book for (spoilers, I guess?): "Awkward boy is v smart but falls in love with fairy princess assassin and saves her and the world."
That's the actual literal plot.
I don't care how bad-ass your fairy princess is, when the plot is that she falls in love with a super geeky guy who has hidden depths and power, you're just not going to win me over. Especially not with a character as off-the-shelf as Alex. Here's what we know about Alex: he's very smart, he's a vampire, and he gets all awkward around girls. And he's pretty good to his little sister. (The disastrous dinner was, by far, the best scene in the whole book.)
We know less about Cassie.
This was not helped by the fact that Mr. Stross was unleashed, in the last book, from preserving reality. He decided to just embrace it and change the world instead of maintaining the thin veneer of plausible deniability. That's excellent and I approve... in theory. In reality, the scenes with the uncanny fairy army marching across the 'burbs of England were, frankly, dull. Sweeping scenes like that are HARD and the ability to do them well is rare enough that folks like Tom Clancy used to make big bucks on it. I found myself checking out of the book whenever these scenes showed up.
This is probably, at least in part, because I can only enjoy so many flavors of jargon in one book. The occult/bureaucratic/computer geek jargon had always pushed my limits in his books but to add in military speak simply kicked me out of the flow. Add to *that* the jargon of the Alfar (not to mention their appropriately Lovecraft-esque culture) and for whole swathes of the book, I was annoyed or bored.
A smaller story with a tighter focus may have given Alex room to become a person. (Nothing could have redeemed Cassie, I'm pretty sure.)
That said, it marks an interesting chapter in the larger story, plotwise, and I'm hopeful that the next book will be better. Maybe he could focus on the Vicar, if he doesn't want to go back to Bob and Mo. But frankly, I'd like more Mo.
I understand *why* Mr. Stross decided to veer away from Bob. Characters are harder to write and less interesting to read when they level up as dramatically as Bob has. But Alex was not the best character to switch to, and this story was not a great showcase for him.
Because, in the end, I'm not reading a Laundry File book for (spoilers, I guess?): "Awkward boy is v smart but falls in love with fairy princess assassin and saves her and the world."
That's the actual literal plot.
I don't care how bad-ass your fairy princess is, when the plot is that she falls in love with a super geeky guy who has hidden depths and power, you're just not going to win me over. Especially not with a character as off-the-shelf as Alex. Here's what we know about Alex: he's very smart, he's a vampire, and he gets all awkward around girls. And he's pretty good to his little sister. (The disastrous dinner was, by far, the best scene in the whole book.)
We know less about Cassie.
This was not helped by the fact that Mr. Stross was unleashed, in the last book, from preserving reality. He decided to just embrace it and change the world instead of maintaining the thin veneer of plausible deniability. That's excellent and I approve... in theory. In reality, the scenes with the uncanny fairy army marching across the 'burbs of England were, frankly, dull. Sweeping scenes like that are HARD and the ability to do them well is rare enough that folks like Tom Clancy used to make big bucks on it. I found myself checking out of the book whenever these scenes showed up.
This is probably, at least in part, because I can only enjoy so many flavors of jargon in one book. The occult/bureaucratic/computer geek jargon had always pushed my limits in his books but to add in military speak simply kicked me out of the flow. Add to *that* the jargon of the Alfar (not to mention their appropriately Lovecraft-esque culture) and for whole swathes of the book, I was annoyed or bored.
A smaller story with a tighter focus may have given Alex room to become a person. (Nothing could have redeemed Cassie, I'm pretty sure.)
That said, it marks an interesting chapter in the larger story, plotwise, and I'm hopeful that the next book will be better. Maybe he could focus on the Vicar, if he doesn't want to go back to Bob and Mo. But frankly, I'd like more Mo.
September 26, 2016
My favorite of the Laundry Files thus far—and an ending that knocks it out of the park! Even better—you can actually start reading here. You'll miss some of the visceral terror as events spiral so much further out of control than we've seen so far in the series, but the story will still work, and Alex and Cassie (sort of) are delightful lenses through which to view the tale.
February 18, 2021
Notes:
Can you make a vampire-geek boring? Yes, yes you can. Fun concepts and I liked the tidy ending. The overall story was not as engaging, and I wish the POV was back to Bob.
Can you make a vampire-geek boring? Yes, yes you can. Fun concepts and I liked the tidy ending. The overall story was not as engaging, and I wish the POV was back to Bob.
September 22, 2021
If you ever wondered what happened to Pinky and Brains Kettenkrad, what would an engagement between magically controlled wyvern and an Eurofighter Typhoon look like and how the Maginot blue star basilisk enhanced traffic cameras work against an alien incursion, this book might be the right one to respond to your questions :)
N+1 krat precitane (resp vypocute)
Stale vyborna knizka so spravnou mierou humoru, fantasy, over-the top a never-happens scenarii (dokonca aj pre prepracovanych a otrlych zamestnancov "pradelny").
Co sa stane, ked jedneho pekneho dna vpochoduje particka "elfov" na "jednorozcoch" na britske ostrovy s cielom ovladnut ich? Je moderna technika vhodna proti magii? Je lepsi raketomet, alebo palcat? Stihacka alebo drak? Minigun alebo "bazilisek"?
N+1 krat precitane (resp vypocute)
Stale vyborna knizka so spravnou mierou humoru, fantasy, over-the top a never-happens scenarii (dokonca aj pre prepracovanych a otrlych zamestnancov "pradelny").
Co sa stane, ked jedneho pekneho dna vpochoduje particka "elfov" na "jednorozcoch" na britske ostrovy s cielom ovladnut ich? Je moderna technika vhodna proti magii? Je lepsi raketomet, alebo palcat? Stihacka alebo drak? Minigun alebo "bazilisek"?
August 16, 2016
On par with the rest of the series, though not a favourite. No Bob Howard, no Mo O'Brian - and a good thing, too, since they'd be much too powerful by now. I found it somewhat short and the ending a smidge abrupt, though.
Read
July 14, 2016The latest in Stross' Lovecraftian horror/spy thriller/bureaucracy-com Laundry Files series again gives us a new point-of-view character, this time vampire and former banker Alex Schwartz, to whom I instantly warmed simply because he's another Alex S. But that's only one of the reasons I enjoyed it considerably more than its rather wonky predecessor, The Annihilation Score. And to say any more than that gets us into spoiler territory, but there are degrees of spoilers, aren't there? So, to give away the basic plot, at which the commendably close-lipped blurb only hints but which becomes clear fairly early on: the book centres on elves invading Leeds. Not the nice sort of elves, but ones who very much recall the original, un-prettified folk tales, and more recently the two cruel, inhuman iterations seen in the works of dedicatee Terry Pratchett. In the film Only Lovers Left Alive (referenced in passing here), the vampires refer to humans as zombies; likewise, to these elves, humans are orcs. Brutish, capable of using clumsy machinery but with no real art or grace or order, living in pullulating hives rather than proper cities.
Beyond that, we get to the real Plus, reading about shit hitting the fan on this scale was almost enough to make Theresa May becoming Prime Minister seem less scary - even if she does make a thinly-disguised cameo here, providing an unwelcome reminder of what she was like before her recent attempts at playing the conciliator. One word of warning: it turns out that cackling on the Tube over a book with an ominous purple cover and the title The Nightmare Stacks may alarm other passengers. But seriously, there's one particular bit of applied computational demonology which is *hilarious*.
Beyond that, we get to the real Plus, reading about shit hitting the fan on this scale was almost enough to make Theresa May becoming Prime Minister seem less scary - even if she does make a thinly-disguised cameo here, providing an unwelcome reminder of what she was like before her recent attempts at playing the conciliator. One word of warning: it turns out that cackling on the Tube over a book with an ominous purple cover and the title The Nightmare Stacks may alarm other passengers. But seriously, there's one particular bit of applied computational demonology which is *hilarious*.
July 13, 2016
I like the Laundry books, they're generally fun, the style is enjoyable. But this one had a big flaw. It was hard to have sympathy for a 24 year-old who thought avoiding his parents was kinder than just telling them he doesn't have a girlfriend right now. Avoiding them because he was a vampire I could have understood, but that wasn't his problem. This is a book written for adults, right? It sure had a young adult energy through too much of it, but not in a good way. I read lots of YA, that isn't derogatory in the right setting. But Alex felt way too young for his age, and he was such a sad sack. Maybe Stross is planning for him to be the lead character in the next few books and wants to show an arc of him growing more confident and grown-up and felt like he had to start way back in the immature, inexperienced, can't dress himself, brilliant but clueless stereotype. Fine, but he wasn't much fun to read about in this book.
And what about everyone calling Bob, "Mr. Howard?" It was cute the first few times, ha ha our hapless hero has become a scary Laundry leader. But when even Pete did it, was annoying. Alex and other new guys, secretaries, even Alex's boss could be intimidated by the guy, but Bob used to double date with Pete, their friendship is how Pete got stuck with this job.
And a little political aside: They were being invaded by people from another dimension, so a couple of the guys were sent to an arms museum to borrow from the "special exhibit" set aside for their bureau in case of emergency. Two out of three were a bit shocked and reluctant to get the guns, because no one there has them. They were even shocked to see the guard at the museum carrying. Because it's not the United States. People there don't carry guns. Guards there don't carry guns. Most police there don't carry guns. And the rate of people being killed by guns there? Look for yourself and compare to the U.St. Just saying.
Anyway, the book was fine, but Alex wasn't as fun as he could have been. I was too often irritated by him when I should have been cheering for him.
And what about everyone calling Bob, "Mr. Howard?" It was cute the first few times, ha ha our hapless hero has become a scary Laundry leader. But when even Pete did it, was annoying. Alex and other new guys, secretaries, even Alex's boss could be intimidated by the guy, but Bob used to double date with Pete, their friendship is how Pete got stuck with this job.
And a little political aside: They were being invaded by people from another dimension, so a couple of the guys were sent to an arms museum to borrow from the "special exhibit" set aside for their bureau in case of emergency. Two out of three were a bit shocked and reluctant to get the guns, because no one there has them. They were even shocked to see the guard at the museum carrying. Because it's not the United States. People there don't carry guns. Guards there don't carry guns. Most police there don't carry guns. And the rate of people being killed by guns there? Look for yourself and compare to the U.St. Just saying.
Anyway, the book was fine, but Alex wasn't as fun as he could have been. I was too often irritated by him when I should have been cheering for him.
October 11, 2016
Charles Stross just keeps ringing new changes on his popular Laundry Files. This time around, he's added urban fantasy. Or rather, the Secret History behind it. As newly minted Laundry employee -- and PHANG -- Dr. Alex Schwartz discovers, elves are not only quite real, but remarkably unpleasant. At least, most of them are . . .
The Laundry, Leeds, and possibly the planet are all under attack in this one, as CASE NIGHTMARE RED (alien invasion) picks an otherwise ordinary weekend to manifest. The result is a bizarre but satisfying blend of military thriller, occult adventure, & just a touch of very strange romance.
Regular readers of this series won't be disappointed, though some may find Stross's worldbuilding into the fey realm a bit of a stretch. (I did not.)
The Laundry, Leeds, and possibly the planet are all under attack in this one, as CASE NIGHTMARE RED (alien invasion) picks an otherwise ordinary weekend to manifest. The result is a bizarre but satisfying blend of military thriller, occult adventure, & just a touch of very strange romance.
Regular readers of this series won't be disappointed, though some may find Stross's worldbuilding into the fey realm a bit of a stretch. (I did not.)
September 12, 2016
Charles Stross is always an entertaining author and I've really enjoyed the Laundry series so far. The new characters this volume focuses on, Alex the vampire investment banker turned government operative and a literal manic pixie dream girl named Cassie (Bob and Mo are mentioned in passing, but never show up) didn't quite work for me--nor did the rather Tom Clancy-esque meandering toward the latter third of the book. Some of that could have been quite pared down for a more compact book. In any event, the conclusion did shake things up in this universe quite a bit, and I'm very interested to see the ramifications of that in the next series.
February 9, 2017
Don't start this one anywhere near your bedtime... D'oh! This is about one of the PHANG's we met in a previous book, who is trying to adjust to working for the Laundry instead of for an investment baking firm.
July 26, 2018
This was not what I was expecting from a Laundry book.
World: The world building was not what I expected. I had expect Bob or Mo cause this is a Laundry book and this has been the case in a while. I don’t mind this at all as this world is bigger than these characters and what Stross has built here is so much more interesting than one single character (not that Stross characters are the deepest, cause they not). This new piece of the Laundry world is pretty great, it ties into the events with V-Syndrome and it’s fun. I didn’t expect to see this much more on the lower level characters and their part in the big machine that is the laundry. I certainly didn’t expect a story from Stross that would be be this character driven. This world is pretty great, the new piece and the new dimension plays with our expectations once again and turns it around and it’s fun.
Story: Alex and his journey is fun and is the driving force for this story. We get a lot of world building in terms of V-Syndrome but we also get a story that is character driven. This is pretty much ‘My So Called Vampire Life’ and it’s fun. There are so many quiet moments that drive this story and seeing the world of the Laundry through the new Vampire eyes of Alex is great. The pacing is good, the characters are good and the relationship which is the core of this (yes it is a romantic comedy, who would have guessed) is great. Once again it’s about a Case Nightmare and once again humanity is fucked and this still doesn’t get old. The last act is one huge long action sequence that does overstay it’s welcome and the end is a bit abrupt but if Stross will continue with this group of new characters I am so looking forward to more Laundry. It’s great story and worth the read.
Characters: Alex and Cassie are great, their two stories and their two lives are wonderful and yes this is very much a Romeo and Juliet other side of tracks story but the anchor of these two characters and their banter and their interaction really drive the character development for this book. I like Stross but his characters and relationships are generally fairly bland but here it’s pretty fun (the parent visit section along made me laugh out loud). The villain this time around is also pretty great and really plays on the lore and the expectations of this group and then puts a Stross twist on it, it’s great.
I really liked this departure, more than anything it has opened my eyes that the Laundry is bigger than Bob and Mo and this world is so rich that I want more stories in it with different characters.
Onward to the next book!
World: The world building was not what I expected. I had expect Bob or Mo cause this is a Laundry book and this has been the case in a while. I don’t mind this at all as this world is bigger than these characters and what Stross has built here is so much more interesting than one single character (not that Stross characters are the deepest, cause they not). This new piece of the Laundry world is pretty great, it ties into the events with V-Syndrome and it’s fun. I didn’t expect to see this much more on the lower level characters and their part in the big machine that is the laundry. I certainly didn’t expect a story from Stross that would be be this character driven. This world is pretty great, the new piece and the new dimension plays with our expectations once again and turns it around and it’s fun.
Story: Alex and his journey is fun and is the driving force for this story. We get a lot of world building in terms of V-Syndrome but we also get a story that is character driven. This is pretty much ‘My So Called Vampire Life’ and it’s fun. There are so many quiet moments that drive this story and seeing the world of the Laundry through the new Vampire eyes of Alex is great. The pacing is good, the characters are good and the relationship which is the core of this (yes it is a romantic comedy, who would have guessed) is great. Once again it’s about a Case Nightmare and once again humanity is fucked and this still doesn’t get old. The last act is one huge long action sequence that does overstay it’s welcome and the end is a bit abrupt but if Stross will continue with this group of new characters I am so looking forward to more Laundry. It’s great story and worth the read.
Characters: Alex and Cassie are great, their two stories and their two lives are wonderful and yes this is very much a Romeo and Juliet other side of tracks story but the anchor of these two characters and their banter and their interaction really drive the character development for this book. I like Stross but his characters and relationships are generally fairly bland but here it’s pretty fun (the parent visit section along made me laugh out loud). The villain this time around is also pretty great and really plays on the lore and the expectations of this group and then puts a Stross twist on it, it’s great.
I really liked this departure, more than anything it has opened my eyes that the Laundry is bigger than Bob and Mo and this world is so rich that I want more stories in it with different characters.
Onward to the next book!
March 14, 2018
An incoherent book -- but it has a cool outline!
OK, I did finish it, with a lot of skimming. The book finally (finally!) came together in the battle scenes, as the Forces of Faerie are vanquished by the Forces of Britain. Not really a spoiler....
And there are flashes of brilliance here, in with the clunks. Stross, as always, has done his homework.
But the book is, well, a mess. Stross's cool Crib Notes for the thing are linked below, but my advice is to Power Skim until you find something fun and/or interesting. Or read something else. 2.5 stars overall, and I struggled to rate it that high. It's pretty bad (except when it's not). It pains me to write this, as Stross is one of my favorite authors.
OK, here's what Stross was trying to do. A must read for Laundry Files fans. It's a bit spoilery for the series up to here, but nothing serious.:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-...
Amanda disliked some different aspects of this one than I did:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
But there's a lot to dislike here. You would be better off reading the Crib Sheet, then stop there.
Progress report: at about a hundred pages in (Cassie has just been possessed by a Pointy Ear F*cker), it's pretty slow going. I'll come back to it, but fast-paced, it's not. Lots more dreary details about Leeds, rundown Cold War relics and bad English weather than I really want to know. And Alex the vamp is a pretty dull fellow.
OK, I did finish it, with a lot of skimming. The book finally (finally!) came together in the battle scenes, as the Forces of Faerie are vanquished by the Forces of Britain. Not really a spoiler....
And there are flashes of brilliance here, in with the clunks. Stross, as always, has done his homework.
But the book is, well, a mess. Stross's cool Crib Notes for the thing are linked below, but my advice is to Power Skim until you find something fun and/or interesting. Or read something else. 2.5 stars overall, and I struggled to rate it that high. It's pretty bad (except when it's not). It pains me to write this, as Stross is one of my favorite authors.
OK, here's what Stross was trying to do. A must read for Laundry Files fans. It's a bit spoilery for the series up to here, but nothing serious.:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-...
Amanda disliked some different aspects of this one than I did:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
But there's a lot to dislike here. You would be better off reading the Crib Sheet, then stop there.
Progress report: at about a hundred pages in (Cassie has just been possessed by a Pointy Ear F*cker), it's pretty slow going. I'll come back to it, but fast-paced, it's not. Lots more dreary details about Leeds, rundown Cold War relics and bad English weather than I really want to know. And Alex the vamp is a pretty dull fellow.
July 8, 2016
http://www.themaineedge.com/buzz/the-...
I’ll say this right off the top – Charles Stross’s “Laundry Files” books might well be my favorite sci-fi/fantasy/speculative series currently going.
It achieved that spot through chronicling the adventures of Bob Howard, IT guy-turned-paranormal espionage operative working for a government organization tasked with preventing magic from bleeding into everyday life and basically ending the world.
He was surprisingly busy.
However, the adventures of Mr. Howard have taken a back seat in the last two books, allowing other members of the Laundry to take center stage and further expand this beautifully constructed and wonderfully weird world Stross has given us.
The latest is “The Nightmare Stacks.” This book follows a relatively new operative named Alex Schwartz, a young man who was brought into the fold after his work in merchant banking led him to discover an algorithm that, well, turned him and his colleagues into vampires.
The Laundry is in desperate need of new headquarters, so Alex is dispatched to Leeds to investigate the viability of converting an old bunker located there into a usable HQ. The only trouble is that his parents live in Leeds and they have some questions about his job (the one he doesn’t have anymore) and his girlfriend (the one he made up to get them to leave him alone about it) and he can’t tell them about conceal his unusual “condition” from them as well.
Well…that’s not the only trouble. There’s also the fact that a race of elfin warrior-mages from another dimension has been decimated by a war with tentacled eldritch horrors and is looking for a new place to call home. They’ve decided that our world is just the ticket.
Further complicating things is Alex’s budding relationship with a young drama student named Cassie, a woman whose surface weirdness is nothing compared to the bizarre secret that she’s concealing – one that might wind up putting our entire universe in peril.
So, Alex must find a way to make both his duty and his romance work – despite being woefully underqualified to do either – or else life as we know it will come to an end. No pressure.
Part of what has made the Laundry Files such an effective series is the narrative flexibility displayed by Stross. The first books were about the bumbling advances of Bob Howard, but one cannot remain a bumbler forever and still retain our interest. So, rather than leave Bob in a state of uninteresting stasis, Stross has shifted his focus onto other characters existing in this world.
In Alex, we have a sort of Bob 2.0, a social misfit thrust into a world beyond his understanding with little warning and even less preparation. Meanwhile, in the background, the nature of the work itself – the interdimensional magical threats – is accelerating, meaning that there’s little time for any sort of methodical and/or gradual training. It’s sink or swim – with the fate of mankind hanging in the balance.
However, what really makes these books stand out is the human element (or in Alex’s case, the “human” element). “The Nightmare Stacks” is yet another finely-crafted example of the unique blend of workplace comedy, bureaucratic red tape and magical mayhem upon which Stross has built this entertaining series.
As the story has expanded – particularly in the last three books – it seems clear that Stross is moving toward his endgame with regards to the Laundry. The size and scope of events is growing with each subsequent installment. It appears – much to the sad resignation of series fans such as myself – that the end is in sight.
“The Nightmare Stacks” is yet another phenomenal offering from Charles Stross, whose blend of humorous and horrifying is essentially unequaled. If you haven’t read the Laundry Files books, then it is definitely time to start. If you have, you’re in for a real treat with this one.
And rest easy – while the end would appear to coming, it isn’t here yet.
I’ll say this right off the top – Charles Stross’s “Laundry Files” books might well be my favorite sci-fi/fantasy/speculative series currently going.
It achieved that spot through chronicling the adventures of Bob Howard, IT guy-turned-paranormal espionage operative working for a government organization tasked with preventing magic from bleeding into everyday life and basically ending the world.
He was surprisingly busy.
However, the adventures of Mr. Howard have taken a back seat in the last two books, allowing other members of the Laundry to take center stage and further expand this beautifully constructed and wonderfully weird world Stross has given us.
The latest is “The Nightmare Stacks.” This book follows a relatively new operative named Alex Schwartz, a young man who was brought into the fold after his work in merchant banking led him to discover an algorithm that, well, turned him and his colleagues into vampires.
The Laundry is in desperate need of new headquarters, so Alex is dispatched to Leeds to investigate the viability of converting an old bunker located there into a usable HQ. The only trouble is that his parents live in Leeds and they have some questions about his job (the one he doesn’t have anymore) and his girlfriend (the one he made up to get them to leave him alone about it) and he can’t tell them about conceal his unusual “condition” from them as well.
Well…that’s not the only trouble. There’s also the fact that a race of elfin warrior-mages from another dimension has been decimated by a war with tentacled eldritch horrors and is looking for a new place to call home. They’ve decided that our world is just the ticket.
Further complicating things is Alex’s budding relationship with a young drama student named Cassie, a woman whose surface weirdness is nothing compared to the bizarre secret that she’s concealing – one that might wind up putting our entire universe in peril.
So, Alex must find a way to make both his duty and his romance work – despite being woefully underqualified to do either – or else life as we know it will come to an end. No pressure.
Part of what has made the Laundry Files such an effective series is the narrative flexibility displayed by Stross. The first books were about the bumbling advances of Bob Howard, but one cannot remain a bumbler forever and still retain our interest. So, rather than leave Bob in a state of uninteresting stasis, Stross has shifted his focus onto other characters existing in this world.
In Alex, we have a sort of Bob 2.0, a social misfit thrust into a world beyond his understanding with little warning and even less preparation. Meanwhile, in the background, the nature of the work itself – the interdimensional magical threats – is accelerating, meaning that there’s little time for any sort of methodical and/or gradual training. It’s sink or swim – with the fate of mankind hanging in the balance.
However, what really makes these books stand out is the human element (or in Alex’s case, the “human” element). “The Nightmare Stacks” is yet another finely-crafted example of the unique blend of workplace comedy, bureaucratic red tape and magical mayhem upon which Stross has built this entertaining series.
As the story has expanded – particularly in the last three books – it seems clear that Stross is moving toward his endgame with regards to the Laundry. The size and scope of events is growing with each subsequent installment. It appears – much to the sad resignation of series fans such as myself – that the end is in sight.
“The Nightmare Stacks” is yet another phenomenal offering from Charles Stross, whose blend of humorous and horrifying is essentially unequaled. If you haven’t read the Laundry Files books, then it is definitely time to start. If you have, you’re in for a real treat with this one.
And rest easy – while the end would appear to coming, it isn’t here yet.
September 8, 2019
The most sweet and sentimental book about eldritch horrors I've ever read. It may be that Stross is getting over his trauma about middle management.
Sometimes when you're a government mathematician defending the realm against Lovecraftian monsters you meet a cute girl. Sometimes, when you're an advance scout of a Lovecaftian invasion force, you meet a cute mathematician. Sometimes your housemates ply you with tea wine and loan you a tank to take her out a date.
I suspect there's something sly in there about doing your homework BEFORE invading a country. Or drinking what your housemates hand you.
And something really wistful about the right to legal recourse. About the right to be treated as a person worth dignity.
May the UK treat its aliens better than the Black Chamber treats ours.
Utterly enjoyable.
N.B. – thinking about this book in light of Empire Games, it hits me that both play with the rising social anxieties around refugees I'd largely missed until the last presidential election. This book deals with anxieties about contagion and the destruction of boundaries against the moral demand civilization makes of us to treat everyone as more than a means to an end. Stross might have predicted more than I realized.
Supplemental N.B. (7/1/2017) - I wrote the above before the travel ban. Holy shit, Charlie Stross is good at near future prediction. Horrible, horrible, near future prediction.
9/8/2019 - reread this book over the last few days. It is even more wonderful and horrible. Even knowing what the Queen of Air and Darkness was going to do in the end I still teared but. Well done Charlie Stross. Well done.
Sometimes when you're a government mathematician defending the realm against Lovecraftian monsters you meet a cute girl. Sometimes, when you're an advance scout of a Lovecaftian invasion force, you meet a cute mathematician. Sometimes your housemates ply you with tea wine and loan you a tank to take her out a date.
I suspect there's something sly in there about doing your homework BEFORE invading a country. Or drinking what your housemates hand you.
And something really wistful about the right to legal recourse. About the right to be treated as a person worth dignity.
May the UK treat its aliens better than the Black Chamber treats ours.
Utterly enjoyable.
N.B. – thinking about this book in light of Empire Games, it hits me that both play with the rising social anxieties around refugees I'd largely missed until the last presidential election. This book deals with anxieties about contagion and the destruction of boundaries against the moral demand civilization makes of us to treat everyone as more than a means to an end. Stross might have predicted more than I realized.
Supplemental N.B. (7/1/2017) - I wrote the above before the travel ban. Holy shit, Charlie Stross is good at near future prediction. Horrible, horrible, near future prediction.
9/8/2019 - reread this book over the last few days. It is even more wonderful and horrible. Even knowing what the Queen of Air and Darkness was going to do in the end I still teared but. Well done Charlie Stross. Well done.
December 23, 2016
This book is a lot like a Wikipedia Article. It is a very interesting info dump written in a compelling fashion. So while it can be interesting to read a wiki, this is a novel, and it should have a story to go along with the world building.
I read that before the sixth Laundry Files book Stross had to decide whether the series was about a character (Bob) or the world. As we have seen, he opted for the world. That's cool, he has developed an absolutely fascinating world that he continues to nurture and grow in this edition. The problem is that he doubled down on the world facet at the cost of everything else. The little nuances that make the best world builders successful are here in spades, the story, however, is not.
This book stars Alex who is pretty cool, kind of like a young Bob. So why does his screen time take up less than half of the overall screen time? When he is being shown, it can be fairly interesting, but usually it is just about developing one thing or another and nothing ever really happens. Otherwise, more often than not we are seeing some other scene somewhere or another that has little impact on the rest of the story, but does herald "Oo oo! I made this whole alternate society as if evolution had been slightly different!" Again, this is interesting and compelling, but in the end it is just a wiki article and therefore boring.
This book is boring. It took me to the halfway point to finally admit this to myself and give up. Maybe I'll try to finish it later on, but in the meantime, I'm going to pretend I never picked this one up.
I recommend books 1-3 and 5, I don't recommend this book, pretend the series ended after book 5.
I read that before the sixth Laundry Files book Stross had to decide whether the series was about a character (Bob) or the world. As we have seen, he opted for the world. That's cool, he has developed an absolutely fascinating world that he continues to nurture and grow in this edition. The problem is that he doubled down on the world facet at the cost of everything else. The little nuances that make the best world builders successful are here in spades, the story, however, is not.
This book stars Alex who is pretty cool, kind of like a young Bob. So why does his screen time take up less than half of the overall screen time? When he is being shown, it can be fairly interesting, but usually it is just about developing one thing or another and nothing ever really happens. Otherwise, more often than not we are seeing some other scene somewhere or another that has little impact on the rest of the story, but does herald "Oo oo! I made this whole alternate society as if evolution had been slightly different!" Again, this is interesting and compelling, but in the end it is just a wiki article and therefore boring.
This book is boring. It took me to the halfway point to finally admit this to myself and give up. Maybe I'll try to finish it later on, but in the meantime, I'm going to pretend I never picked this one up.
I recommend books 1-3 and 5, I don't recommend this book, pretend the series ended after book 5.
July 15, 2016
This book really gets going around page 85 or so, and from there is a terrific adventure ride, with trademark Stross humor and logic-of-the impossible. It's a shame that the beginning is a slow mess of POV- and time-hopping, and a protagonist who just isn't up to the job. With series hero Bob Howard promoted upstairs and out of the field, we've now got his much more boring clone, a virginal ex-banker turned vampire. Alex is (intentionally) as dull a metahuman as possible, and it was difficult to connect with him before the plot got moving. His foil, manic pixie dreamgirl/elven imperial agent Cassie, however, is a gem, a subversion of tropes played to good comic effect, and both a source of good culture-clash humor and real pathos.
Is there a genre of hilariously, painfully, awkward dinner parties in SF? Because closeted vampire Alex bringing his alien-warlord-princess joining his sister and her trans girlfriend at his perfectly middle class parents' in Leeds is up there with Miles Vorkosigan's butterbug fiasco.
Stross used to utterly fail at finishing: here the end is thoroughly satisfying, if sequel-promising, but good gods, the beginning was a slog. Stay with it, though, it's worth it.
Is there a genre of hilariously, painfully, awkward dinner parties in SF? Because closeted vampire Alex bringing his alien-warlord-princess joining his sister and her trans girlfriend at his perfectly middle class parents' in Leeds is up there with Miles Vorkosigan's butterbug fiasco.
Stross used to utterly fail at finishing: here the end is thoroughly satisfying, if sequel-promising, but good gods, the beginning was a slog. Stay with it, though, it's worth it.
September 8, 2016
The previous Laundry Files novel switched protagonist from Bob Howard to his now-estranged wife Mo. It was a nice move that made a lot of sense, but it felt like Charlie was trying too hard to write from a middle-aged female point of view. It's not that there was anything particularly offensive, but Mo as narrator couldn't help but still sound like Charlie, the laconic, nerdy know-it-all Scottish-resident pom.
So with another switch here - to Alex Schwartz, recent vampire and consequently recent employee of the Laundry, it's a relief that Charlie has no trouble inhabiting his personality. Alex is *not* a know-it-all, and isn't as laconic or sardonic as Charlie or his kind-of-cypher (and always entertaining to read) Bob. Also well done were the sequences set in a parallel universe where certain pointy-eared cousins of ours branched from the homo tree millennia ago and founded a rather amoral society based on powerful (if less mathematically sophisticated than ours) magic.
It's all fun, and also rather dark (Charlie appears to have set it in his old hometown of Leeds basically so he could rain death & destruction upon it), and a little bit slyly political.
So with another switch here - to Alex Schwartz, recent vampire and consequently recent employee of the Laundry, it's a relief that Charlie has no trouble inhabiting his personality. Alex is *not* a know-it-all, and isn't as laconic or sardonic as Charlie or his kind-of-cypher (and always entertaining to read) Bob. Also well done were the sequences set in a parallel universe where certain pointy-eared cousins of ours branched from the homo tree millennia ago and founded a rather amoral society based on powerful (if less mathematically sophisticated than ours) magic.
It's all fun, and also rather dark (Charlie appears to have set it in his old hometown of Leeds basically so he could rain death & destruction upon it), and a little bit slyly political.
May 13, 2021
Kniha, která vás přinutí klást si mazané otázky jako:
a) má Vodafone signál v prostoru mezi vesmíry? Neměl bych změnit operátora?
b) má naše vláda plán jak postupovat v případě invaze ze Středozemě? Pokud ne, neměl bych volit někoho jiného?
c) proč se elfové ve filmovém Pánu prstenů občas chovají jako roboti nebo vzorně vycvičené jednotky SS? Jak to asi vypadá u nich doma?
d) jak se postavím k otázce lidských práv u elfů a upírů?
e) jaké partnery u svých dětí dokáže středostavovská anglická rodina strávit?
Velmi pěkná a zábavná věc, vůbec tu nevadí absence Boba Howarda. Ústřední duo hrdinů, agent "Phang" Alex Schwartz a elfí princezna Cassie ho bez problémů zvládli nahradit. Zdatně jim sekundují Pinky s Brainsem ve svém německém polopásáku Kettenkrad s volitelným příslušenstvím ve formě kulometu a pozadu nezůstane ani vikář Peter. Je to jízda, držte se!
A závěrečné povinné postesknutí: proč tak dobrou sérii někdo nepřeloží a nevydá?
a) má Vodafone signál v prostoru mezi vesmíry? Neměl bych změnit operátora?
b) má naše vláda plán jak postupovat v případě invaze ze Středozemě? Pokud ne, neměl bych volit někoho jiného?
c) proč se elfové ve filmovém Pánu prstenů občas chovají jako roboti nebo vzorně vycvičené jednotky SS? Jak to asi vypadá u nich doma?
d) jak se postavím k otázce lidských práv u elfů a upírů?
e) jaké partnery u svých dětí dokáže středostavovská anglická rodina strávit?
Velmi pěkná a zábavná věc, vůbec tu nevadí absence Boba Howarda. Ústřední duo hrdinů, agent "Phang" Alex Schwartz a elfí princezna Cassie ho bez problémů zvládli nahradit. Zdatně jim sekundují Pinky s Brainsem ve svém německém polopásáku Kettenkrad s volitelným příslušenstvím ve formě kulometu a pozadu nezůstane ani vikář Peter. Je to jízda, držte se!
A závěrečné povinné postesknutí: proč tak dobrou sérii někdo nepřeloží a nevydá?
July 20, 2016
Probably the best book of the series. Stross makes a daring move by changing the protagonist, Bob Howard, but pulls it off with grace. Pinky and Brain step up as well as the new hero, Alex Schwartz, who gets up to his vampiric eyeballs in danger, and love! But what's even better is that the general fear of gibbering horrors from Dimension X are fleshed out in the persons of ... drumroll... the Unseelie Fey. OMG. Are you kidding me? Stross crosses the streams!
Of course this is what we've all been waiting for, the actual call of Case Nightmare Red and the deployment of Scorpion Stare / Maginot Blue Stars. It's human war tech vs elfin magic. heat seeking missiles vs actual basilisks. All led up to by the engagement of star crossed lovers in a double double cross.
Ladies and Gentlemen, witness the spectacle when cosplay gets real. You can't get your hands on this soon enough.
Of course this is what we've all been waiting for, the actual call of Case Nightmare Red and the deployment of Scorpion Stare / Maginot Blue Stars. It's human war tech vs elfin magic. heat seeking missiles vs actual basilisks. All led up to by the engagement of star crossed lovers in a double double cross.
Ladies and Gentlemen, witness the spectacle when cosplay gets real. You can't get your hands on this soon enough.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 15, 2016
Well that was a step up from the previous episode, both in terms of quality and in terms of threat level. When it was announced that Alex, the PHANG former city banker, would be the narrator this time around, I was definitely concerned, having not particularly liked him in his previous appearance. I shouldn't have worried, Stross manages to give him a distinct voice, much more unlike Bob (can I just say, I miss Bob, looking forward to his return in later books) than Mo managed to be in the last story. And by only having him as direct narrator for short bursts of the story, the story could whiz along, and the full scale and horror of the inevitable outcome could be shown
May 1, 2018
The gazillionth Laundry File confirms that the success of its predecessors depended heavily on the voice of Bob Howard by again not using it. Instead we get Howard-lite in the form of newbie vampire and Laundry recruit, Alex. Alex is the kind of nervous, out of his depth nerd Bob was way back in the mists of time, without the wit or distinctive turns of phrase. This makes the first half of the book a little dull. Circa p200 however, things start to go crazy, the viewpoint widens and war breaks out. After that it's a gallop all the way to the end.
July 6, 2016
I am very much a fan of Stross' Laundy Files and his mix of The Office, Yes, Prime Minister, Lovecraftian horror and pure math and computer-geekery.
In this installment we follow Alex the vampir...sorry...PHANG as he manouvers the fine line between dating as a virgin, coming to terms with his vampirism and getting involved in a invasion by an eldritch variant of the cast of A Midsummer Night's dream.
Hi jinks and divers alarums do indeed ensue.
September 2, 2016
I'm giving this 4 stars for the first two-thirds of the book and 2 stars for the last third - averaging out to a 3.
I really love Alex as a character. Dorky unfortunates who become vampires when all their characteristics are the antithesis of dark graceful vampiric sexiness should be more of a thing.
The last third of the book is pretty much a single (and in my opinion really not all that interesting) battle. Like military sci-fi level detail, which just isn't my thing.
I really love Alex as a character. Dorky unfortunates who become vampires when all their characteristics are the antithesis of dark graceful vampiric sexiness should be more of a thing.
The last third of the book is pretty much a single (and in my opinion really not all that interesting) battle. Like military sci-fi level detail, which just isn't my thing.
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