jdcorley's review
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Stross' horror comedy spy outing is a delight whether or not you've read Deighton or any of the other "English spy bureaucracy" thrillers, where the cynicism and make-work is inextricably tangled with the violence and high stakes. Imaginative use of techno-magic, often thrown into other stories very unthinkingly, adds to the top notch world building. Yet unlike Deighton and the other spy bureaucrats the characters lack the melancholy and depression of seeing the world as it is. Nobody in The Laundry is sad, a major misstep in adaptation. Nevertheless you'll have a real good time, and Stross' end note essays are an interesting look into how he considered it all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Violence
Minor: Infidelity
souriete's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Not really my cup of tea at all, but very good story, well-written. Starts kind of slow, but worth the slog.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping and Murder
Moderate: Torture, Racism, Antisemitism, Animal death, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Genocide, and Injury/Injury detail
This is a spy + romance story against a horror background. I can see why it isn't categorized as horror -- none of the main characters die or suffer more than temporary harm BUT the background horror is pretty overwhelming. I have stuck most of the background horror details under "Moderate", but some of it is really disturbing.chalkletters's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
The Atrocity Archives is my second experience of the crossover between fantasy and spy fiction. Charles Stross's prose worked a lot better for me than Hannu Rajaniemi's — though, I'm not sure I can accurately say that I really understood all of the more maths-heavy sections. They didn't sound stilted, but the technical terms also didn't really mean anything to me. My favourite parts of The Atrocity Archive were when Bob was explaining things to Mo, because that was more at a level I could actually understand.
A more engaged reader would have got a lot more out of The Atrocity Archive than I think I did. The horror section when Bob and his team are exploring another dimension was good, but I think it would have hit harder if I'd spotted the signs of what was happening a little earlier.
I'm not a person who creates vivid mental images as I'm reading, and I wonder if that might be why action-heavy books don't work for me as well as they do for other people. I'm just reading the words, hearing them in my head, so while it's still exciting because I want to know what's going to happen to the characters, it doesn't hook me.
My copy of The Atrocity Archives included Concrete Jungle, which I enjoyed more. There was more myth, and less maths, and that suited me far better. I liked seeing Charles Stross's take on Medusa. I still had the same problem with the action sequences: I preferred the build-up to the climax of the story for that reason.
These were definitely well-written stories, with lots of interesting ideas, but just not quite the right fit for me.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Murder, and Violence
More...