A review by kimu
The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross
5.0
So great to finally hear from Mo. Loved the audiobook narrator on this one. While there are a couple of tired gender tropes in here, overall Stross does a solid job of finally giving us a story focused on one of the best characters in the Laundry Files. Is she a perfect person? No. Is she interesting? Yes. It might be that I'm a woman of a similar age to Mo in this story (also married for a long time to a computer geek), but the parts about Mo's middle aged woman superpower of invisibility really resonated.
The only bit of the story that was actually jarring was when Mo finishes giving a presentation and checks her make up with a compact in the middle of a busy conference environment. I've been to a lot of work coherences, I've known a lot of professional women, and I can't imagine this ever happening in a million years. Women don't do this. I think there was supposed to be a plot point here, but TBH I momentarily lost my ability to follow the plot because this really pissed me off.
Still giving this book 5 stars because of the stellar audiobook narrator and for Stross overall doing a great job highlighting a favorite character of mine. More Mo-focused books please!
The only bit of the story that was actually jarring was when Mo finishes giving a presentation and checks her make up with a compact in the middle of a busy conference environment. I've been to a lot of work coherences, I've known a lot of professional women, and I can't imagine this ever happening in a million years. Women don't do this. I think there was supposed to be a plot point here, but TBH I momentarily lost my ability to follow the plot because this really pissed me off.
Still giving this book 5 stars because of the stellar audiobook narrator and for Stross overall doing a great job highlighting a favorite character of mine. More Mo-focused books please!