Maybe I just took a long time reading it because I was house-hunting and proof-reading theses in between, but this book seemed *long*. Still, there are many things about the Laundry universe that I enjoy and mostly this was a fun read. The short story at the end about minions doing monumentally stupid things and the horror that is HR was a very welcome diversion at the end of a day when I could fully sympathise.

Bechdel: So when Ramona and Johanna Todt are talking about which one of them gets to eat Bob's soul for breakfast, does that count as a pass? I'd say definitely Level2 pass, possibly Level3. ( )

Trashy, clever and fun. Pretty much perfect and a great twist on the spy thriller using elements we're all familiar with along with a dose of Cthulhu-esque horror. Shame about the short at the end, this should have been left out as it really isn't up to the same standard as the novel. ( )

Bob Howard is a geek, employed by Britains secret government agency for combating supernatural beings. And when a old entity from the depths of the ocean are about to be woken (and end the world as we know it) Who they gonna call? A lot of references to operating systems gives this novel av short lifespan. But if you read it right now it's an entertaining story with lot of nudges to both Ian Fleming and HP Lovecraft. WARNING! Do not read the last chapter or the essay about the Golden Age of Spying. Did the editor fall asleep? Scissors please! ( )

Nice well-written pulp read, exciting and quickly digestible - if you have a love for Lovecraft and a weakness for Intelligence Agencies and grand dark (yet humorous, a considerable upgrade from Lovecraft himself!) realities involving treatises between humans and the old ones that occupy the other 70% of Earth's surface.. well, then this Stross book is for you! ( )

Hmm not sure what the Decorating and Design part of the book is about. This is a really great book, very hard to put it down at night so I could have plenty of rest for work. It is an occult spy novel that makes you think, what could the government really be hiding from me. The main character Bob is thrown into an adventure he surly was not expecting and only James Bond could get him out of. The reference to Operating Systems and other technical jargon is much beloved by this reader since it is something dealt with on a daily basis. ( )

A good read for all of us who like to think we'd come charging to the rescue. ( )

http://blog.matthewsmith.id.au/2008/1...

Pretty much everything I said about The Atrocity Archives applies. Just a fresh, exciting, funny, clever adventure / spy / fantasy novel set in a world where magic is real and it’s the government’s job to keep it a secret. I really don’t want to spoil this book too much because I think you should all just read it.

For those of you who have read The Atrocity Archives, this book is more of the same but with new villains (obviously) and just generally ramping up the fun a bit. There’s plenty to explore in the “magic is real and it’s the by-product of certain types of maths” universe(s) that Stross has created and he gives us plenty of ideas to think on in this book.

If I have one criticism: If you think too hard about the kinds of things that are being achieved with magic in this book, then it gets absurd very quickly. Yes, that’s part of the comedy but sometimes it can go too far and you might just stop trying to expect any logic at all from the book which then might make you just think “this is rubbish” and put it down. This book goes close to that line but manages not to cross it, for me at least. ( )

What do you get if you cross

a) Lovecraft
b) James Bond
c) A bunch of computer geekery

The answer, in this case, is a really good book. Presuming you have some interest in any of the above.

The supervillain of the piece wants to control the world, of course, but with Deep Ones in the picture, it won't be pretty.

Stross plays with the Bond character types here, but the female assassin is a halfing from Dunwich with a demon problem, for example. There's a geas that makes them follow the movie story patterns with a little help from an occult device that lets you talk to the dead. Ian Fleming, of course, is dead.

Someone who has Robert Howard as an alias playing a part in a Bond movie is a bit croggling, too.

Bob, of course, has nowhere near the budget for punting and wrecking stuff that 007 does, either, making do with his magic capable smartphone and a usb key with a linux distribution.

All lots of fun.

The story 'Pimpf' is included afterwards, as is a fictional non-fiction Wold-Newtonesque type piece on how the whole Bond spy thing fits into Bob Howard's world.

Pimpf

Bob Howard manages to get told off for not playing MMORPG's enough at work, given that is his current assignment, to stop real monsters gaining a foothold there.

He even gets an intern, asthe Laundry finds a kid who gets in deeper than he should while playing and hacking, and hands him to Bob. They go on a bit of a dungeon bash to save the day.

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2008/09/bob-howard-jennifer-morgue.html ( )

http://www.fascinationplace.org/2007/... ( )

Bob Howard is James Bond for the Generation H4X0RZ. Set in the same universe as The Atrocity Archive , the exploits of the secret agent of the occult are continued with a much longer, and more robust adventure. It isn’t technically a sequel, but without reading the former, the history and depth of the relationship between Bob and Mo, his fiancé, are lost. Still, the nature of their relationship is clear, and the book stands on its own very well.

~~ Continued on my Website (www.robbflynn.com) ~~ ( )

Almost makes you want to live in this world, or at least install the screensaver. ( )

The Jennifer Morgue is the sequel to The Atrocity Archives. We are again following Bob Howard, an agent for the Laundry (a super-secret UK Government agency responsible for dealing with paranormal threats. Bob (who is really more a computer geek than deadly spy) is sent on a truly Ian Fleming type mission; he is to prevent a maniacal billionaire from obtaining an alien artifact that would allow him to rule the world. Add in a beautiful partner whose motives are less than clear (and with whom sexual entanglement would lead to certain death), bosses who withhold information but expect results (and properly filled out expense reports) and a geas that has Howard acting like "Bond, James Bond" whether he wants to are not, and things are bound to get interesting.

I liked the book, although not as much as the first. What made the Atrocity Archives so entertaining to me was the juxtaposition of secret agent action and office politics. Because Howard is in the Caribbean for most of the novel, the bureaucratic nonsense is less prevalent, which made it less interesting than the first book. That aside, this was still a good read. ( )

What a scream! Bloody hilarious. And I loved the way the Bond motifs were all completely justifed by the plot. Top class, ingenious entertainment. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/615616.htm...

It's a sequel to The Atrocity Archives, and thus to the Hugo-winning novella "The Concrete Jungle"; Bob Howard works for the little-known British government agency combining cutting-edge information technology with combat against the forces of darkness of the type first described by H.P. Lovecraft. As usual, Charlie writes breath-takingly fast and smart prose, in a story that takes the standard James Bond plot and warps it through disturbing dimensions. The settings, memorably evoked, include the Caribbean island of St Martin, shared between France and the Netherlands, in and around which most of the action takes place; I hadn't previously heard of it but it turns out to be quite real.

There are a few mind-numbing in-jokes - the villain's head of security is named after a well-known figure in British sf fandom, and Bob's middle initials are a neat subtle touch. The reader who doesn't get these will I think be entertained anyway, and there may well be others I didn't spot.

Added to the end of the book is a brief meditation by Charlie on "The Golden Age of Spying", mostly entirely factual but including an amusing little interview with Blofeld set in Transdniestria. ( )

Two stories, just like in "The Atrocity Articles" to which this is the follow up. This time, with reasons that make sense even though they scream plot device, there's a Bond layer added to the mix of old ones, rude comments about normal PC users and civil service jokes. The second story looks at online gaming as a means for conjuring demons too.

If, like me, you loved the first one, you'll like this. If you weren't sure, I'd guess it's not for you. ( )

What if there were a secret agency dedicated to combating supernatural threats? Well, Charlie Stross has done the legwork... ( )

This series where Stross mixes unspeakable horror, espionage thriller, and bureaucratic absurdity, is one of the best genre concepts going right now, and this remix with the Bond mythos is even better than "The Atrocity Archives." Succinct, clever, and to the point. I'll also say that when Stross hangs his story on a modified version of an actual society I like the results better. ( )

Just as the first book, The Atrocity Archives, is an homage to Len Deighton and H P Lovecraft via Neal Stephenson, this takes the tale of occult espionage into the world of Ian Fleming. This one is even more of a page-turner than the first. ( )