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Buried in the Laundry
Nov. 29th, 2013 12:10 pmHaven't been posting much. Not much to report, really - life ticking over, surviving without major incident. Autumn has finally come to Athens, with winter not far behind; I finally broke out the bomber jacket last night, when I went out for an ad hoc Thanksgiving dinner after spending some time chatting with the family back home (video chat helps me feel like I'm not half a world away from them, which is another thing to add to the list of what I'm thankful for).
Also got hooked by another book series, which I mainlined in a few days: the "Laundry Files" of Charles Stross.
It shares some charming elements with the Dresden Files, I suppose. Our hero is one Robert Oliver Francis Howard (Bob to his friends), who starts off the series as basically the IT guy for Her Majesty's MIBs, known as "The Laundry" in much the same way the CIA is "The Company". His world is one where mathematics and magic converge, and running a graphics rendering program with the wrong parameters can open up pathways to things people are better off not interacting with (Bob got drafted into the Laundry after coming uncomfortably close to accidentally rezoning part of the West Midlands as an elder-god buffet table). As if that weren't bad enough, the Laundry is Civil Service, which means it operates like ... well, like a bureaucracy.
At its core, the series is part spy novel, part Lovecraftian mythos, part Dilbert; which part is the adventure and which part is the horror is left for the reader. It's a dark, disturbing world Bob Howard lives in, but there's humor throughout, ranging from dry, sardonic wit to near-madcap insanity; for example, book two, The Jennifer Morgue, is a complete send-up of James Bond, complete with travel to exotic locales, tuxedos, ludicrous gadgetry, martinis, and ... well, saying too much would spoil the enjoyment. Four books out (The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, The Fuller Memorandum, The Apocalypse Codex), plus several novellas and short stories, with the fifth due next year, and more to come, apparently.
Back to the personal stuff: weather permitting, I fly back home for Christmas - literally on Christmas, this time, so I can spend it with the family. Staying a couple of weeks, until January 6 or so - traditionally the end of the Christmas holiday in Greece.
It'll be nice to be home.
Also got hooked by another book series, which I mainlined in a few days: the "Laundry Files" of Charles Stross.
It shares some charming elements with the Dresden Files, I suppose. Our hero is one Robert Oliver Francis Howard (Bob to his friends), who starts off the series as basically the IT guy for Her Majesty's MIBs, known as "The Laundry" in much the same way the CIA is "The Company". His world is one where mathematics and magic converge, and running a graphics rendering program with the wrong parameters can open up pathways to things people are better off not interacting with (Bob got drafted into the Laundry after coming uncomfortably close to accidentally rezoning part of the West Midlands as an elder-god buffet table). As if that weren't bad enough, the Laundry is Civil Service, which means it operates like ... well, like a bureaucracy.
At its core, the series is part spy novel, part Lovecraftian mythos, part Dilbert; which part is the adventure and which part is the horror is left for the reader. It's a dark, disturbing world Bob Howard lives in, but there's humor throughout, ranging from dry, sardonic wit to near-madcap insanity; for example, book two, The Jennifer Morgue, is a complete send-up of James Bond, complete with travel to exotic locales, tuxedos, ludicrous gadgetry, martinis, and ... well, saying too much would spoil the enjoyment. Four books out (The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, The Fuller Memorandum, The Apocalypse Codex), plus several novellas and short stories, with the fifth due next year, and more to come, apparently.
Back to the personal stuff: weather permitting, I fly back home for Christmas - literally on Christmas, this time, so I can spend it with the family. Staying a couple of weeks, until January 6 or so - traditionally the end of the Christmas holiday in Greece.
It'll be nice to be home.
