Bob Howard—a T-shirt–wearing computer geek and field agent for the super-secret British government agency The Laundry—must save the world from eldritch horrors, codenamed Jennifer Morgue, in this fast-paced spy thriller. Bob's current mission is to stop the evil Ellis Billington from achieving world domination, but he must overcome obstacles including the Gravedust device, which permits communication with the dead; destiny-entanglement protocol; banishment weapons; and Ramona Random, a lethal but beautiful agent for the U.S. counterpart to The Laundry. Billington plans to raise the eldritch horror Jennifer Morgue from the vasty deeps, and communicate with a dead warrior for the purpose of ruling the world. Blending physics and applied mathematics with the practice of summoning and demonology, this spy-meets-horror novel will keep sci-fi fans on the edge of their seats. This volume also includes a bonus story, "Pimpf," featuring agent Bob Howard in the world of virtual gaming, as well as an afterword entitled "The Golden Age of Spying."
Great SF but not the best by Stross I've become a great fan of Charles Stross. I think his earlier books accelerando and even glasshouse are master pieces. I also love "the mearchants war" series of fantasy.
This book, the Jennifer Morgue, are a follow on to the Atrocity Archives. It is not as good as the Atrocity archives but close. This probably because I like Lovecraft more then Flemming. The Archives where a "parody" of Lovecraft's style and this one more on Ian Flemming. The books are not parody per se but borrows a style. I wonder what style he will do next, the rumors says spy thriller.
The story is fast paced and hilarious and Stross has a great ability to make the absurd seem reasonable and logic. The fact that the hero struggles with department bureaucracy adds to the flavor.
I still miss Stross' harder SciFi but this is still a great (summer) read.
early novel An early novel very different from his current work. A James Bond send-up. Science fiction, James Bond and magic--what could be better? His current novels are much better.
James Bond meets Chtulhu Spys, tentacled horrors from the abysses of space and ocean, last minute rescues, sly humor, and, above all, clever writing makes this second installment of the escapades of the Bob Howard & other Laundry employees makes you hope there will be more tales in this series.
From Stross, With Love ... The sequel to "The Atrocity Archives" and part of the omnibus "On Her Majesty's Occult Service," "The Jennifer Morgue" consists of the title story, the short story "Pimpf" (first published on-line Jim Baen's Universe in June, 2006) and "The Golden Age of Spying," which is basically an afterword to "Jennifer Morgue." Well written, witty and gripping, this book has a bit of everything - Lovecraftian-esque horror, Monty Python-esque humor and Bond-esque spy thriller suspense.
Bob has been sent on a standard trip to a convention - he expects it to be pretty boring, as the conventions are generally just a chance for the various occult groups from different countries to meet and mingle. However, things begin to get weird quickly as he first is met by a Black Chamber operative, and then is told he is supposed to be on a deep cover operation where he is to work with her. In fact, they are to be "destiny entangled" for the duration of the mission. As time goes by, we discover that the person who Bob is supposed to stop from destroying the world, somehow, has created a terribly involved geas field, involving all actors in this situation and placing them into a James Bond-type situation, wherein only a specific person, under a specific set of circumstances, has a chance to even approach him. He then hopes to short-circuit the geas so that he can complete his mission, which is to raise a cthonian device from JENNIFER MORGUE, which is on the abyssal plain, where humans, by treaty from the Deep Ones, are banned from going.
Obviously, things just get worse from there.
In "Pimpf" Bob is saddled with an intern, who ends up getting himself stuck inside a MMORPG which Bob had been designing in order to capture dungeon designers who have accidentally designed programs that would lead to problems - thereby bringing them into the Laundry. Bob therefore has to go into the game himself and save his intern, Pete, before it is too late.
In "The Golden Age of Spying," Charles Stross interviews Ernst Blofeld, Bond's arch-nemesis to get his side of the story, as well as generally musing about the cultural phenomenon that is James Bond.
I can definitely recommend this book to just about anyone who enjoys a)Lovecraftian works, b)Monty Python, c)spy thrillers, d)British humor in general or e)basic, undefinable books that create a fun and interesting world. Don't miss this one!
SciFi would be on top, if all novels were like this... This novel actually creeped me out a few times and had me rolling on the floor with laughter most of the time. SciFi would be the topseller in genre fiction, if more novels were like this one. Stross skewers James Bond, flips the Lovecraft style horror novels on their ear, infuses some of the best IT and hacker details that I've read in a novel, incorporates a pretty good love story paired with a perfectly frightening stalking, all while careening hilariously through a landscape littered with zombies, creatures from the deep, creatures from the universe's deep past, and more. This novel provides one blisteringly hot answer to those readers who complain that there's not much new or fresh in SciFi. I say you're looking for authors on the wrong side of the pond. Some of the best SF to be found, these days, is coming from Britain (Scotland, in Stross' case).
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