HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

The Annihilation Score: A Laundry Files…
Loading...

The Annihilation Score: A Laundry Files Novel (edition 2015)

by Charles Stross (Author)

Series: The Laundry (6)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
7243231,050 (3.79)20
Dominique O'Brien--her friends call her Mo--lives a curious double life with her husband, Bob Howard. To the average civilian, they're boring middle-aged civil servants. But within the labyrinthian secret circles of Her Majesty's government, they're operatives working for the nation's occult security service known as the Laundry, charged with defending Britain against dark supernatural forces threatening humanity. Mo's latest assignment is assisting the police in containing an unusual outbreak: ordinary citizens suddenly imbued with extraordinary abilities of the super-powered kind. Unfortunately these people prefer playing super-pranks instead of super-heroics. The Mayor of London being levitated by a dumpy man in Trafalgar Square would normally be a source of shared amusement for Mo and Bob, but they're currently separated because something's come between them--something evil. An antique violin, an Erich Zann original, made of human white bone, was designed to produce music capable of slaughtering demons. Mo is the custodian of this unholy instrument. It invades her dreams and yearns for the blood of her colleagues--and her husband. And despite Mo's proficiency as a world class violinist, it cannot be controlled.… (more)
Member:hermit_9
Title:The Annihilation Score: A Laundry Files Novel
Authors:Charles Stross (Author)
Info:Ace (2015), Edition: 1, 416 pages
Collections:Kindle
Rating:****
Tags:horror, Cthulu mythos, Laundry Files

Work Information

The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross

Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 20 mentions

English (31)  French (1)  All languages (32)
Showing 1-5 of 31 (next | show all)
In defense of Mo. I'm putting this under a spoiler cut because it might contain spoilers. I'm not sure if it does.

I love Mo. She's going through a normal process, that generally sometimes happens to women of a certain age. We become invisible. It's not pleasant. It makes you struggle in places where you've earned a place of respect. While similarly aged men seem to effortlessly command the attention and esteem they need to do their jobs, any attempt by an average-looking middle-aged woman to be a boss earns her the nickname Harpy. Battle-Axe. Harridan. Dragon Lady.

Our partners can't see the changes because you are changing so slowly that the crisis doesn't look like a crisis to them. It looks quasi-normal. Our femininity is struggling, and our hormones are flagging at forty. It's enough to make a woman seem completely unreasonable. When we express our anger at anything, it earns us some choice insults on the sly. Mental. Contemptible. Nasty. Mean.
Despicable.

I miss Bob in this book. For Mo. He is her support and her love. But that damn violin. That damn violin, who manipulates and tempts her with the restoration of lust. Who can manipulate her into feeling between sexy and powerful at inappropriate times. I don't blame her for being angry and lashing out at all the wrong people. Well, in the case of Bob, she's angry at The Eater of Souls, not Bob. She's angry at The Laundry.

Stross wrote a great middle-aged character, even if the plot of this one isn't as exciting as all the rest. Mo is a woman dealing with the youth of middle-age. Eventually she'll get used to her invisibility and make it work for her. I hope she and The Eater of Souls can work things out as well. It's the time that makes or breaks a marriage, without god-hood and that damn violin.

I hope that Stross didn't accidentally write a good character going through middle-age. Women at middle age are usually poorly written. In popular culture, middle-aged women are typically toned down to meet the expectations of society. If they are among the good-guys, they are moms and grandmothers that guide and shape. If bad, they are the Karens (I HATE this – It's sexist and awful.) and Cruella De Vils of the world. Anything but the confused women who are attempting to navigate a world that treats them differently from their younger self.


Okay, that's enough of my Mo rant. ( )
  rabbit-stew | Dec 31, 2023 |
Not awful but

Not up to the standards of the previous five volumes in the series. Though that could be just my aversion to the camp end of humor.
There were a couple of instances where I thought the author had joined the "hell with the plot for the sake of ACTION" crew so common nowadays. Then I realized that he'd gone SO over the top that it was a Python-esque gambit rather than error. ( )
  acb13adm | Sep 13, 2023 |
I probably shouldn't have jumped directly from the first book to the sixth, but it was on the shelf in the library and I was helpless. ( )
  JudyGibson | Jan 26, 2023 |
The Annihilation Score takes a bit of a different take from the previous five books, shifting the viewpoint from the previous hero* Bob to his wife Mo.

Previously, Mo had been one of my favorite characters in the series. She's just mysterious enough that she's interesting, coming in to save the day with a truly terrifying violin. Unfortunately, the more I know about her, the less I care.

The basic idea is interesting enough. Basically, as the world careens towards madness, magic is becoming more prevalent. But people don't believe in magic anymore, they believe in superheroes. One thing leads to another and Mo ends up leading a mostly publicly known super-hero task force. Much as The Rhesus Chart, despite the incoming danger, this feels like a de-escalation from the first four books.

One problem that annoyed me throughout the book was the relationship between Bob and Mo. I get it, they've been through Hell (literally) and they're each dealing with their own demons (again, literally), but I don't really understand their reactions to it. It feels more like Stross needed to get Bob out of the picture. So it goes.

Overall, I miss Bob. I miss Mo as a secondary character. I still enjoyed this more than enough to continue the series when the next comes out.

* For some definitions of hero. ( )
  jpv0 | Jul 21, 2021 |
I am 75% through this book and the only reason I am aiming to finish it is not to miss anything when starting the next book.

Dominic is the lead character in this book and I believe it is not written as well as the previous books neither Dominic has enough character development to be suddenly put into a chain of event as this book presents.

The second major difference between this book and the prior ones is the way that narrative is weaving. Through multiple layers rather than having the simple organization and structure of the previous books.

This plot has definitely had potential to be one of the best books of the series if it was following the similar organization of the previous books and had enough character development for Dominic. ( )
  FirstSpeaker | Apr 16, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 31 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors (1 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Charles Strossprimary authorall editionscalculated
Elle NewlandsNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rostant, LarryCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Worrell, LesleyCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

Belongs to Series

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
For Martin and Kirsty
First words
Please allow me to introduce myself...
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (3)

Dominique O'Brien--her friends call her Mo--lives a curious double life with her husband, Bob Howard. To the average civilian, they're boring middle-aged civil servants. But within the labyrinthian secret circles of Her Majesty's government, they're operatives working for the nation's occult security service known as the Laundry, charged with defending Britain against dark supernatural forces threatening humanity. Mo's latest assignment is assisting the police in containing an unusual outbreak: ordinary citizens suddenly imbued with extraordinary abilities of the super-powered kind. Unfortunately these people prefer playing super-pranks instead of super-heroics. The Mayor of London being levitated by a dumpy man in Trafalgar Square would normally be a source of shared amusement for Mo and Bob, but they're currently separated because something's come between them--something evil. An antique violin, an Erich Zann original, made of human white bone, was designed to produce music capable of slaughtering demons. Mo is the custodian of this unholy instrument. It invades her dreams and yearns for the blood of her colleagues--and her husband. And despite Mo's proficiency as a world class violinist, it cannot be controlled.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.79)
0.5
1 1
1.5 1
2 7
2.5 6
3 58
3.5 15
4 120
4.5 3
5 39

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,205,169 books! | Top bar: Always visible