The Atrocity Archives

A Laundry Files Novel

By: Charles Stross

Narrated by: Gideon Emery

Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Bob Howard is a computer-hacker desk jockey, who has more than enough trouble keeping up with the endless paperwork he has to do on a daily basis. He should never be called on to do anything remotely heroic. But for some reason, he is.

©2004 Charles Stross (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"In Atrocity, Bob, a low-level computer fix-it guy for the Laundry, a supersecret British agency that defends the world from occult happenings, finds himself promoted to fieldwork after he bravely saves the day during a routine demonstration gone awry. With his Palm, aka his Hand of Glory (a severed hand that, when ignited, renders the holder invisible), and his smarts, he saves the world from a powerful external force seeking to enter our universe to suck it dry....With often hilarious results, the author mixes the occult and the mundane, the truly weird and the petty." ( Publishers Weekly)

Harry Dresden + British humor = Okay

Not, bad, but spends a fair amount of time trying to sound clever, which just doesn't work when someone is forced to read pithy internal monologues out loud.

I didn't realize this volume was essentially two short stories, so don't expect great depth.

lots of fun

enjoyed it. if you like 'hitchikers guide to the galaxy' or similiar, you'll enjoy this.

Excellent

Amazing, funny, absurd sci-fi. Great for anyone who appreciates the humorous semi-horror of the Jason Pargin series.

Be warned…

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. BUT, unless you have dual doctorates in computer science and advanced physics, it’s extremely difficult to understand. There’s a TON of jargon, about a million acronyms, and advanced physics theory’s. I have studied both computer science and physics (only at a bachelors level), and I barely understood half of the book.

leaps of faith but overall entertaining

it was a pretty good story. my understanding of physics helped but hubby was "meh" with it overall.

A great techno-spy-Lovecraftian-horror-comedy

Charlie Stross writes great-to-excellent science fiction/fantasy in many sub-genres, but this novel (and its two sequels) is probably his most original. Its hero is an IT support expert turned secret agent fighting against supernatural horror and organizational bureaucracy. The book is by turns satirical, scary, and action-packed, and generally succeeds admirably, especially for its target audience, for whom it is likely to be a home-run.

And boy does the target audience matter: the book is full of allusions and in-jokes, as well as many quickly listed references. You can (and will) miss a few, but if you aren't a nerd, that is, you aren't into IT and Lovecraft, then you may not be the target audience for this book, and may miss most of its cleverness. For example, expect quick, but important references to: Alan Turing, gorgons, Forward-Looking Infrared Scanners, Windows software licensing terms, Cthulu, John Dee, Mandelbrot Sets, The Great Old Ones, and much more. If the list intrigues you, definitely, definitely get this book. If it baffles you, this might still be a good listen, but will be confusing as well.

As for me, nerd that I am, I loved it, and look forward to seeing the sequel, and the new book coming out in July 2010. The reader, by the way, does a great job.

A sysadmin saves the world

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

The Atrocity Archives contains the first two novellas in Charles Stross’ THE LAUNDRY FILES: The Atrocity Archive and The Concrete Jungle. The series is based on the premise that, before he died, Alan Turing solved a theorem that proved that mathematics could be used to gain access to other space-time dimensions. Unfortunately, what’s out there is exactly what H.P. Lovecraft said there was — sleeping tentacled horrors that might be inclined to enter our universe if gateways were opened. To avoid mass panic, this has been kept secret from most humans. The ones who accidently find out are scooped up and brought into a secret organization where they are paid to help keep the world safe. In England, that organization is a government agency known as The Laundry.

Bob Howard is a computer geek who was brought into The Laundry after he accidentally hacked into another dimension while generating some new fractals. Because he was previously in IT, Bob has been given a sysadmin role at The Laundry. He spends his days dealing with all the usual sysadmin and IT issues such as helping his inept colleagues who don’t know how to solve their own computer problems or who manage to screw up the computers they’ve been given. Occasionally Bob is asked to help with a mission, but so far only when they need him to hack into a computer or steal files or something else geeky.

In The Atrocity Archive, Bob manages to impress his superiors with his quick thinking when he stops an otherworldy being from entering our world during a demonstration he was asked to attend. Now Bob has been given his first field assignment — to protect a beautiful and brilliant young Irish physicist who works in Santa Cruz, California. She’s attracted the attention of governments and terrorists but neither she nor Bob knows why until they get sucked into a dimension inhabited by Nazi necromancers.

In The Concrete Jungle, which is shorter, Bob is asked to discover what caused the strange death of a cow in Bancroft Park. He teams up with a tough cop named Josephine to uncover a dastardly world-threatening plot which involves basilisks, Gorgons, zombies, brain tumors, DRM, and more Nazis.

The Atrocity Archives pushed all the right buttons for me. I loved the mix of computing, math, physics, neuroscience, history, technology, and Lovecraftian horror. It’s a real geek fest. I loved Bob and his cynical sense of humor as he dealt with a nosey supervisor, nasty office politics, a crazy girlfriend, a couple of strange mechanically-inclined homosexual roommates who he affectionately calls “Pinky and the Brain,” and all the bureaucratic nonsense involved in working for a government agency… not to mention Nazis and zombies. I enjoyed every moment of The Atrocity Archives; even the long info dumps didn’t bother me because I found them so interesting. I can’t wait to read more of Bob’s adventures.

Gideon Emery narrates the audio version of The Atrocity Archives which is 11 hours long and produced by Recorded Books. His voice is perfect for Bob Howard and I love the way he interprets the story. I’ll be choosing this format for the rest of the books in the series.

Good, not great; but a promising start

Any additional comments?

Solid first entry into a series that has an interesting blend of humor, fantasy, and SF (with a dash of satire). I've noticed so far that it takes a little effort to get into Stross's books and I can see that his style and black humor will definitely not be to everyone's tastes. There is a certain amount of detachment in this book - you have a protaganist, but I'm never truly worried about him, and the characters are only sketched out at the edges, not at all complex in a way that makes you feel invested in them. But the nature of the story, as kind of a undercover government operative tale with Lovecraftian overtones and the bureaucratic annoyances and absurdities of The Office, means that the plot isn't driven by character so much as horror-tinged ridiculousness. A fun way to spend spare time, but not something likely to have a reader raving enthusiastically.

Lovecraft meets 007

Any additional comments?

This book offers a cool counter explanation to WWII history. It is especially enjoyable if you know anything about Information Tech or government workings. Enjoyable and unique

Great story! Wonderful narrator!

Just a great story all around. If you aren't laying attention, you might get lost.