dissatisfaction

[whswhs]

I've read nearly everything in Charles Stross's Laundry series (a semi-humorous melange of spy thriller and cosmic horror), and I have several of them on my shelves. But as time has passed, I've first grown less willing to spend physical shelf space on the series, and more recently grown reluctant to spend money on it at all; I've read library

Comments

[history_monk]

The Annihilation Score really damaged my interest in the series. I do not actually like superheroes as a genre, and the way their powers were explained directly contradicted earlier material, with no lamp-shading, never mind an explanation.

[whswhs]

It's ironic, don't you think, that you don't like supers as a genre, and Stross's superhero novel damaged your interest, and supers are one of my favorite genres, and Stross's superhero novel damaged my interest, too?

[sartorias]

I really enjoy his voice and his inventiveness as well as his sense of pacing. I too enjoyed his take on elves. The religious bigotry is pretty much SOP in SF these days and I shrug it off, but yeah, I was bothered by Mo's actions. I thought that was just me.

Power Creep, Magical Supers, and Relationship Drama

[attitude_boy]

I too have found my enjoyment of the series waning. Primarily I think it is do to Bob's radical increase in occult power since becoming the Eater of Souls. I am of the opinion that is why Stross introduced other main characters.

As for The Annihilation Score, I did not like the explanation of powers either. Mostly because i would think that many people doing occult computations in their brain should have significantly increased the approach of the Computational Apocalypse.

I almost always dislike pointless relationship drama in my genre entertainment, but I may be in the minority. I wonder if Stross is/was going through relationship issues? Much like Steven Brust letting his divorce proceedings shape his Taltos novels.

[amedia]

What you describe sounds like a pesky level of dissatisfaction! If the elements you dislike permeated the books so thoroughly that they were ruined, you could just set them aside. Or, if these elements weren't so bothersome--well, by definition they wouldn't bother you as much.

But they are bothersome enough to bother you, and yet the books still have enjoyable elements that make them worth reading, so you have a kind of Tarnished Mean that provides just the wrong balance of dissatisfaction and enjoyment.