Would have enjoyed it more had I a deeper familiarity with Lovecraft. ( )

I'm not going to rate this because I am very much not the audience. I picked this up from Goodread's list of Hugo novella winners. I wanted a something short and fun between the doorstops on my TBR.

I read a few synopses of other books in the series, and they sounded fun. How I missed that this was horror, I don't know.

Note to self: You really, really do not enjoy horror. In the future, just avoid the genre, and DNF immediately any that you start by accident.

Actually, this is something of a reread for me, as a big chunk was published online and the rest I read while loitering around bookstores. At the time, I was mostly happy to get more of Bob Howard. On the other hand, there are aspects of this book that make you want to shower with bleach when you're done; those reviewers who find the sexualized violence involving young women blatantly inappropriate have a point. Then again, people are getting butchered left, right and center in this scenario; a precursor of the body count to come. That I picked up this novella again is a comment on contemporary failures of the supply chain in Year Two AC (After Covid); I had really been looking forward to the new novella dealing with the adventures of Bob Howard.

So, 6-plus years on, do I still like it? It has its moments but it's not peak "Laundry." Reading between the lines it's as much of a commentary on the mentality that gave you Brexit as anything else, besides giving you a glimpse of Bob Howard as the combat necromancer to come. ( )

The Lovecraft imitations get tedious quickly, but the horror worked for me.

Another short story between the second and third Laundry Files novels, this one goes into detail on exactly how weird unicorns can be in a fantasy universe.

Turns out: pretty weird.

There is a bit more actual horror, including body horror and children, in this one. It might be a little more problematic for people that are reading this for the light horror the other novels possess thus far.

One interesting aspect of this story is subsections purportedly taken from a letter written by HP Lovecraft himself. The style is very different, and makes an interesting counterpart to Stross' normal style.

Still, I continue to like the world building and character of Bob. It's nice reading short stories in a universe I already know and know there is more in. ( )