The Jennifer Morgue (original 2006; edition 2006)

Bond. James ... or maybe it's Bob. In the grand tradition of science fiction satire (new genre?), here he is ... password '007'. Well, ok, maybe there's no such genre, and if there were, there are limited entries. But however others may want to classify this book (Locus nominated it for best fantasy), it's still a hoot! Just hilarious. Stross sends up every fixture of Bond-dom: drop-dead gorgeous femme fatale, exotic locale, and rich but crazy megalomaniac. You can almost hear the Bond theme playing in the background. It's Dr. No (Ursula Andres, Crab Key/Cape Canaveral, Dr. Julian No/SPECTRE), Octopussy (Maud Adams, India/East Germany, Octupus) and Casino Royale (Eva Green, Montenegro, Le Chiffre) all rolled into one. [b:The Jennifer Morgue|14150|The Jennifer Morgue (The Laundry, #2)|Charles Stross|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328838439s/14150.jpg|930564] (Ramona Random, Caribbean, Ellis Billington), in the attempt to be more than just another spy spoof, weaves in more of the 'scientified' occultism of the Laundry series, where Stross offers the SF artifice of using mathematics as the basis for undead phenomena. This, for me, is where the novel starts to unwind. On a personal note, though the author, perhaps patterning after his own beliefs, defines the main character, Bob Howard, as an atheist, the story does touch on several religious themes such as hell, demons and demonic possession, and the marriage bond (not necessarily in combination). Having dropped all these potential spoilers, I will stop, and move on to the companion short story, pimpf... ... which on further thought I would not like to review. Likewise the essay on Ian Fleming and James Bond. Both of these add-ons left me cold, an enthusiasm damper for sure. ( )

Stross packs on the plot details, maybe a little too much in this one, but it's still a fun and interesting update on the Lovecraft Mythos. Still, the humor isn't as funny as it wants to be and the story kind of devolves into ever-thickening plot and too much cleverness at the expense of suspense and horror-thrills. The previous entry had some of these same problems but made up for it with creepy, ultra-dimensional Nazis, mounting scares and a more pronounced sense of existential threat. I'll still read the next entry, but it needs to top this one. ( )

"The Laundry operations manual is notably short on advice for how to comport oneself when being held prisoner aboard a mad billionaire necromancer's yacht, other than the usual stern admonition to keep receipts for all expenses incurred in the line of duty." (167)

The Jennifer Morgue is one of Stross' hacker-gique occult espionage books about Bob Howard, agent of Capital Laundry Services. (The initials of the organization are never written as such, so it took me until the middle of this second volume to get that BASIC joke!) Like its predecessor The Atrocity Archives, it is a terrific romp. Where Stross drew his literary spy inspiration from Len Deighton in the first book, this time around sees him looking to Ian Fleming and the Bond movies. Given the more "exoteric" -- okay, crassly pop-cultural -- status of the Bond material, Stross elects to make his nods to it more overt, metafictional even. Protagonist Bob is put in a position to exploit his memories of "the ritual Bond move every Christmas afternoon on ITV since the age of two" (187), since he is fighting a supernatural opponent who is using the Bond plot formula as a magical mechanism. Stross manages to pack sardonic hilarity, genuinely stomach-churning horror, and sentimental uplift into this single novel. Oh, and weird sex.

As with the first book, this one contains the titular novel, a bonus short story, and an essay reflecting on the espionage-adventure genre. The story "PIMPF" is a completely office-bound yarn, contrasting with the exotic travel and international entanglements of the novel, and it is funny in the nerdiest possible way. The essay didn't seem as insightful as its counterpart in the first volume. Having chosen to place special attention on Bond villains, it seems to me that Stross erred terribly in neglecting to observe that Le Chiffre (from Casino Royale) was actually based on noted occultist Aleister Crowley, with whom Fleming was acquainted from their mutual employment by British intelligence services.

From the world of The Atrocity Archives, Lovecraft meets spycraft, with a billionaire running a James Bond geas that sucks tech Bob Howard into a very different role than he planned on when he signed on to work at the top-secret Laundry, turning math into magic. I like Stross's gift for turning a cute phrase (when Howard is strapped down for a procedure, tech 1 says "clear," tech 2 says "clear," and Howard, who has no idea what’s going on, says "very unclear!"), and though the plot ultimately involves a twist that's surprising only if you've never heard a particular tired joke I still enjoyed the ride, though I think the spy-v-unspeakable horror from the deep thing works better in the short story/novella range. ( )

A neat lovecraftian and geeky James Bond pastiche. I actually liked this one better that The Atrocity Archives: it was more fast-paced and ran more smoothly, and even if the mythos-esque elements felt toned down this was probably for the best. ( )