Review: The Jennifer Morgue, Charles Stross
Summary: Bob Howard, government IT specialist with a license to exorcise, is sent out once again by the Laundry, Britain's primary defence against Things Man Was Not Meant to Know (But Screws With Anyway) to defend The Realm. This time around he's sent out to stop the plans of a billionaire megalomaniac determined to bring up a Deep Ones artifact from the ocean floor, using Howard Hughes' resurrected Glomar Explorer, before it's Too Late.
Now if he could just figure out why vodka martinis taste like shit.
Review: TJM has a lovely idea at its center, mainly that the antagonist of the story, using this universe's version of Narrative Causality, deliberately sets himself up as a Bond villain, with a super yacht, a deadly female assassin, and with hordes of minions in black berets and mirrorshades [1], knowing that the only person who could possibly stop him is a James Bond archetype, a person who in the Laundry's very mundane (relatively) version of intelligence gathering doesn't actually exist.
So of course the Laundry has to make one. And make damned sure Bob isn't aware of the process, since he'd break the chain of Causality if he did, even as he's equipped with a Walther PPK, tuxedo with flexible keyboard cummerbund, a gadget filled car [2] and a sexy female partner working for the Other Side. [3]
Which brings me to the central problem of the story. I've noticed that Stross, in Halting State, The Concrete Jungle and now The Jennifer Morgue is overly fond of plot twists. Nothing wrong with that, but he doesn't seem to have the skill at pulling them out and making the reader think, "Ah, of course! Now everything makes sense!" Most of the time it comes along as, "See! I've got a plot twist coming! Coming soon! It's almost here! You're going to be amazed when it shows up!" This isn't helped by Bob knowing he's being deliberately pushed around in the dark by his superiors, particularly because they've done it before.
Despite that, TJM is a quick, fun read, buoyed along by Stross' deft hand at dialog and Bob's marvelously cynical yet hopeful voice. Recommended.
[1] It's to hide the eye shadow. Please don't ask...
[2] A Smart Car actually. There's no way the Laundry is going to shell out the bucks for a frigging Aston Martin.
[3] The Other Side being the United States. Um, sorry. We're trying to get better, honest...
Now if he could just figure out why vodka martinis taste like shit.
Review: TJM has a lovely idea at its center, mainly that the antagonist of the story, using this universe's version of Narrative Causality, deliberately sets himself up as a Bond villain, with a super yacht, a deadly female assassin, and with hordes of minions in black berets and mirrorshades [1], knowing that the only person who could possibly stop him is a James Bond archetype, a person who in the Laundry's very mundane (relatively) version of intelligence gathering doesn't actually exist.
So of course the Laundry has to make one. And make damned sure Bob isn't aware of the process, since he'd break the chain of Causality if he did, even as he's equipped with a Walther PPK, tuxedo with flexible keyboard cummerbund, a gadget filled car [2] and a sexy female partner working for the Other Side. [3]
Which brings me to the central problem of the story. I've noticed that Stross, in Halting State, The Concrete Jungle and now The Jennifer Morgue is overly fond of plot twists. Nothing wrong with that, but he doesn't seem to have the skill at pulling them out and making the reader think, "Ah, of course! Now everything makes sense!" Most of the time it comes along as, "See! I've got a plot twist coming! Coming soon! It's almost here! You're going to be amazed when it shows up!" This isn't helped by Bob knowing he's being deliberately pushed around in the dark by his superiors, particularly because they've done it before.
Despite that, TJM is a quick, fun read, buoyed along by Stross' deft hand at dialog and Bob's marvelously cynical yet hopeful voice. Recommended.
[1] It's to hide the eye shadow. Please don't ask...
[2] A Smart Car actually. There's no way the Laundry is going to shell out the bucks for a frigging Aston Martin.
[3] The Other Side being the United States. Um, sorry. We're trying to get better, honest...