The Atrocity Archives (A Laundry Files Novel)

I usually dislike the horror genre in any of its forms, and have no liking for Lovecraftian fantasy. Though _The Atrocity Archives_ could be said to belong to this genre, I found it by turns hilarious, creepy, and tense. In short, I enjoyed it immensely. There's a lot to like about this book, and if you don't like some of the things you encounter in its pages...well, there is still a lot to like. There's the Cthulhu mythos, evil Nazi necromancy, office politics, computer in-jokes, spy novel tropes, all leavened by a refreshing dry wit that is subtle enough to leave you wondering why you are laughing at this stuff. I particularly like Stross' penchant for strewing about historical and technical allusions so that his narratives are a minefield for the curious. I would have sworn there was never an "Ahnenerbe" SS, dedicated to strengthening the Third Reich by ferreting out ancient Aryan and Teutonic mysteries. I really didn't know that the Nazi party was descended from an organization created by the mystical Thule Society, but apparently it was so. (At least Wikipedia tells me that both are true.) Of course, Stross cleverly mixes the truth with the not-quite-true and the outright nutty (otherwise this wouldn't be fiction, but a classified government document, and one would have to be shot after reading it). One example of how Stross shades reality is one character's idiosyncratic use of a "Memex" machine (allegedly because it is more secure than a mere electronic computer). The Memex was a proposal made in the 1950s by Vannevar Bush for we would today call an implementation of "hypertext". It was based on the technology of the day--data was to be stored on microfiche, and its operation was entirely mechanical. As I said, this was merely a theoretical proposal--no such machine was ever built. Or so they tell us...

"The Atrocity Archives" (which includes the title story as well as the short story "The Concrete Jungle" both in this edition as well as in the omnibus edition that I have, entitled "In Her Majesties' Occult Services") is a very unusual piece - the world that Stross has created is our world, but just one-half step over ... maybe. Or maybe not - maybe he has just provided us with the real story for the first time? Who knows? Mixing Cthonian mythos, quantum physics and metaphysics, mathematical metatheory and spy thriller, Stross has made reading this book kind of like watching Monty Python in Japanese. There is simply no way to define the genre. That said, it is certainly a fun ride! Populated with computer programmer wizards, electronic gorgons, zombie birds and genetically engineered mer-people, this is a weird and wonderful world. Bob is our hero, a member of the Laundry - a section of the British Secret Services that is so secret that even knowing about it is illegal unless you are a part of it. The Laundry is dedicated to making certain that the veils between the realities don't end up being pierced by accident - some mathematician using an unusual theorem or a computer programmer coming up with something new - that would actually end up calling up the Elder Gods or opening up a portal to allow the gibbering hordes of demons access to our world. Bob was conscripted when a computer program he was working on almost ended up remaking a large part of a section of Britain. He recently made the mistake of asking to work in "active service," and that request has just been approved ... things keep going from bad to worse as he is continually thrown into circumstances that end up snowballing into events beyond his control; and things are never quite what they seem. In "Concrete Jungle" he is awakened at 4 am to go and look at concrete cows in Milton Keynes; it appears that there may be an extra one there (there is a herd of concrete cows - sculptures. There are supposed to be 8. Bob finds 9). Bob discovers what appears to be the work of a basilisk or gorgon. How can this be? Again, things quickly tobaggon out of his control. Bob is the perfect hero for the modern age - armed with a Palm Pilot and cell phone (and occasionally a pigeon's foot) rather than a gun; scrawny and nerdish rather than tall and handsome, he is the epitome of the modern computer geek/hacker. Somehow, despite his tendency to stick his nose where it doesn't belong, and to jump into the middle of things where he has no business being, he manages to always come out ... well ... alive. I can definitely recommend this book to anyone who: likes dry British humour, likes Monty Python, likes Charles Stross, likes Ctholian mythology, likes H. P. Lovecraft generally, likes spy thrillers, likes alternate reality worlds, or just enjoys a really weird and wonderful yarn. Don't miss it!

For those of you who have read the Bastard Operator From Hell series and are sysadmins this book will be a completely fantastic read, for the rest of you it will just be fantastic. Bob Howard is nothing like the American author who wrote the Conan tales, he's a systems geek for a very dreary agency of the British government where paperclips are counted and where you'd get reprimanded for not putting a cover sheet on your TPS reports. One day Bob is asked to help out with a field operation, and that, and some quick thinking during a departmental training course, get him transferred from systems administration to occult field operations. From there things just get worse as he is sucked into a conspiracy to open a portal to an alternate universe to let in one of the elder gods or into an interdepartmental conspiracy to eliminate his department. Incredibly fun, there are lots of ideas in here that are just fun to play with after you put the book down.

What if Alan Turing solved one more problem and completed one last theorem? And suddenly higher mathematics was awash in spells, summonings, and alternate dimensions where forces lived that would like nothing better than to munch on your brain. Thanks to the Turing-Lovecraft theorem magic happens, almost inevitably for the worst. The British Secret Service (MI-6, the anti-spell branch) has a unique way of dealing with theoreticians who trip over the right formulae - they hire them into The Laundry and retire them to meaningless desk jobs. Bob Howard, however, is a little to itchy for the passive life. After a lot of trying he manages to get into field work. Now, as a relief from an irritating boss who counts paperclips and takes regular attendance, Bob gets to deal with dark forces and demonic possession. There are two tales in this book. The first is The Atrocity Archives, which was Charles Stross's initial effort. Told as one long computer geek in-joke, the story introduces us to Bob and follows him through his first set of assignments and nervous breakdowns, while a series of ever more peculiar administrators keep telling him what a good job he's doing. And he is doing a good job. Spotting mathematicians who have crossed the line, saving workshop attendees from being munched, and getting thrown out of the States for poking too far into the badness on what should have been a routine extraction. But even good agents have bad days and our wisecracking hero finds himself going through a portal to rescue a very attractive scientist from a very dead earth. The second story Concrete Jungle mixes interdepartmental politics, electronic basilisks, and fears about the end of the world in a story of one too many cows. Intrigued? If you are comfortable with computers, or at least have a handle on geek speak and enjoy twisted, funny writers whose imaginations have run wild, this is something you will want to read. Despite a large serving of sarcasm and irony, Stross also manages to deliver a genuinely interesting plot with as much action as there is esoteric muttering. By all means check this out. I'm going to order everything else he's written.

It's difficult to review this book without comparing it to other authors, simply because they share certain common moods. The actual story concept is original, a fusion of espionage, horror, and SF that won't necessarily appeal to readers who are purists in any one of these genres, but is hugely enjoyable if you can take it all in.Briefly, the story revolves around agents for a British intelligence organisation tasked with suppressing certain mathematical concepts; the ones that are the keys to other dimensions, most of them containing entities implacably hostile to mankind. The trouble is that they happen to be very interesting mathematical concepts, the ones that are close to the cutting edge of computer research, and there are a lot of people out there that are working on them. In the past it took thousands of man-hours to screw up reality, today a laptop can do it in sceonds. This can result in horrific accidents and is potentially the ultimate terrorist weapon. There is an uneasy peace between the world's intelligence agencies, which pool resources to counter this threat, but things haven't always been that way. The ultimate threat of the book is a remnant of Nazi research from the second world war, and turns out to be much nastier than expected.I enjoyed everything in this book, from the home-life of the hacker/agent hero to its final apocalyptic scenes on a dying alien world. Thoroughly recommended.I wrote this before seeing the publisher's description, and it's interesting to see how similar it is. That possibly means it's unnecessary, but that's life...