The Atrocity Archives (A Laundry Files Novel)

The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross is the first book in The Laundry Series, and introduces our hero, Bob Howard, and his contemporary bureaucratic super-secret anti-James Bondian occult government magic SWAT team of mathematicians, cryptographers, programmers, network administrators, paranormals, zombies, cosmologists, soul-eaters, and guardians of the United Kingdom, and hence all of Einsteinian spacetime, against the Lovecraftian Great Old Ones Who Sleep in the Drowned Cities. So magic is real, but it’s a branch of mathematics. But this is not “pull a bunny out of a hat” magic, it’s the kind where you solve N-th order differential equations and then a nameless horror from another reality in the multiverse comes through a portal and eats London. The Laundry is the UK government agency that prevents that from happening. This is really more fun than anyone should be allowed to have. Stross has created a slice of our contemporary world with a twist that sounds completely plausible, yet is so outside of the world of budget department meetings that their juxtaposition is simply hysterical. Bob Howard is a great protagonist. He has just the right amount of sarcastic wit, disrespect for the bureaucracy, and computer programmer frumpiness, leveled with dedication to get the job done, that you know that nothing is going to stand in his way. He’s a nerd, but he’s not bumbling, he’s totally competent. Being the introduction to the series, Stross does a good job of explaining this world without writing too many data-dumps, and the ones that are there are fun to read anyway. The plot follows Bob’s efforts to find they bad guys, stop them from unleashing a nameless horror into our world, and save the girl. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who is a technical computer geek, Science Fiction or Horror fan, but Stross’ sentences and constructed metaphors (you’re not dead, you’re “metabolically challenged”) are so much fun to read, that anyone who likes puzzles and language will get a real kick out this world.

This, the first book in the Laundry Files series, is an interesting mixture of genres told from the point of view of Bob Howard. He's an IT guy who has been working for the Laundry for a few years - underpaid, shares a house in London with a couple of mad scientists, and looking to break into Field Ops out of sheer boredom. The Laundry is the super-secret government organization tasked with "defending the earth from the scum of the multiverse" and keeping the existence of magic hidden from the general public. He is sent to Santa Cruz, California to help out a professor at UCSC - a British national who isn't being allowed to leave the States, courtesy of the Dark Chamber (the US answer to the Laundry). Then things start happening... This book is a mixture of hard scifi, bureaucratic satire, alternative history, spy genre and a touch of romance. It's very enjoyable, but I found myself blipping over the detailed mathematics of it all (hence the four star review). Don't let this put you off the book, however. Bob is a very likable character and makes an excellent narrator. We are introduced to other characters who will play parts in future Laundry Files stories, most notably Angleton, Bob's scary and mysterious manager. He's my favorite character and he and Bob make a memorable team. "Atrocity Archives" is rather short and is paired with an excellent short story which serves as a follow up, "The Concrete Jungle." The short story form is very well suited to Laundry adventures and I hope Mr. Stross gives us more of them in the future. I'm a fan of this entire series and highly recommend that you start here and move on sequentially in order to get the most out of the series.

These days this book is very nostalgic, as well as being an excellent read. All sorts of tech and phrases I had almost forgotten!

This is the first book in the Laundry Files series, which straddles horror, science fiction, fantasy, and humor. The hero is a combination of computer hacker and government agent, but a government agent who battles both bureaucracy and horrors from parallel universes. This book had been on my shelves for nearly five years. On several occasions, I read the start and set it down again, not quite hooked. This time I read the whole book: the introduction, the main novel, a novella that follows, the afterward. For me, "The Atrocity Archives" was a mixed bag. Towards the end of the main novel, there's a stretch that I found unreservedly excellent. Much of the rest, I found gripping and entertaining. But the expository details were presented at considerably more length than I'd have liked, despite the fact that some of them overlap with my background, and so should have interested me. (I started out as a math/computer person.) Call it three and a half out of five laundered stars, but promising enough that I plan to read book two soon. About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).

his is the first book in an urban fantasy series that focuses on the top-secret British Government security organization that deals with magic and paranormal threats. The name Laundry Files comes from the fact that the code name for the organization is the Laundry. It reads like two novellas that were combined into a novel, but I didn't find that distracting, just curious. The main character is a computer geek, Robert Howard, who gets involved with this group prior to the events in the novel through some misadventures. He is a cog in a bureacratic organzation by now, and a lot of the book involves a satire on all bureaucratic organizations, which I liked. Other than that, the book has magic, Nazis, and modern terrorist groups. What's not to like with that? Not a classic that will live forever, but an enjoyable romp if you are a) a geek; and b) enjoy urban fantasy.

In The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross perfectly blends Lovecraftian horror into a spy thriller. But don't think James Bond, though they have their own special gadgets, think bureaucrats mired in office politics and meetings who must battle bean counters as often as monsters. Stross' protagonist, Bob Howard, is a Gen X hacker who gets drafted into the Laundry, the code name for the UK government agency which protects England from nasty beasties from beyond. It turns out all that complex math that fried my brain in college (like second order, linear, non-homogeneous differential equations) can be used to open portals to other dimensions where cerebellum sucking slugs are just itching for an invitation to our world. Bob starts out in tech support but his skills earn him his first field assignment. While it's clear he's not suited for dealing either with the harpies from accounting or the things that should not be, Stross has fun playing the anti-hero card with Bob, letting his wit and resourcefulness survive the cards he's dealt. The book contains the short novel, "The Atrocity Archives," and the Hugo Award winning novella, "The Concrete Jungle." The former serves as an introduction to this twisted universe Stross has hatched. Bob is forced to deal with rival spies, terrorists and the twisted remnants of the Nazi occult fetish. In the latter, office politics come to a head while someone figures out how to weaponize a gorgon's stare. You remember gorgons, right? Medusa is the most well known of this crowd. "The Concrete Jungle" may have won the Hugo, but I liked "The Atrocity Archives" a lot more. I felt that it flowed better and the drama was more intense. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the others in this series.

Charles Stross' " The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files Book 1) " is the first book in his "Laundry Files" series and is a compendium of two stories: "The Atrocity Archive" (first serialized in 2001 (and note the singular)) and "The Concrete Jungle" (I'm not sure when it was first published, but I believe it was with this book, so say 2004). Some of the material on the Amazon product page says these are "two related long novellas." I disagree. The first is an actual novel (237 pages, according to my Kindle) and the second is a novella (88 pages). But, yes. They are related. One flows to the next, separated by only a month or two of story time. Both works are very good and are a blend of spy thriller, Lovecraftian horror, and science fiction. The basic premise of Stross' universe is that magic works, but it's mathematically-based and so there are consequences to mathematical theorems and computer software. Of the two stories, "The Atrocity Archive" is probably the better (I had trouble putting it down). I had some issues with "The Concrete Jungle" (the mathematical basis of zombies, shrunken heads, and geases isn't explained), but that can be excused because of its shortness. The one possible mainstream problem with the books is the jargon. Stross pulls no punches with the mathematical and computer terminology. And there's quite a bit of British idiom tossed around (thank goodness for the Wikipedia lookup in the Kindle). So, I'd recommend reading through the "Look Inside" stuff on Amazon's product page before pulling the trigger on this. But, I'm very happy with the result and am rating it at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5. The current seven books in Stross' "Laundry Files" series can be found here: Laundry Files (7 Book Series)

There really isn't anything I've read (not to say such things do not exist, I just haven't found them yet) that directly compares to THE ATROCITY ARCHIVES. It resists easy genre-based identification because it possesses elements of what Lovecraft would call "supernatural fiction," science fiction, some pretty horrific bits, occult-based references, work-place humor (some of the most hilarious parts are related to Bob's "job"), direct references to what has become known as the "Cthulhu Mythos," and myriad other literary and cultural references, even certain cartoon shows. I would recommend it highly if you enjoy techno-babble, computers, "weird fiction," paper-clip inventories, poking fun at the idiocies of the workplace office environment/politics, and/or "thrillers." You would probably find it especially enjoyable if you have a craving for "Lovecraftian" stories with a contemporary setting since these types of stories are somewhat difficult to find in my experience. I think Stross does an admirable job of providing comic relief to the particularly nasty bits. You might find yourself about to put the book down because some of the things Bob discovers in the depths of the Atrocity Archives are... well, let's just say the Archives are well named. But then you'll find yourself with a finger jammed between pages while you laugh so hard tears roll down your cheeks. Well, this is assuming you have a suitably dark, twisted sense of humor like I do. I enjoyed it very much and am about to start THE JENNIFER MORGUE. I first found out about this series of novels on Chaosium's website. They publish the paper and dice Role Playing Game CALL OF CTHULHU and, as I discovered, a game called THE LAUNDRY which is based on this series. Well, that's about it. Just give it a try!

An acquaintance recommended the author, Charles Stross, to me and I certainly am glad I took up the recommendation. Although there were certain in-jokes for mathematicians and computer programmers that I did not 'get', I appreciate the irreverent humour in the rest of the book:- the bureaucratic speak; inter-departmental rivalries; the necessity to complete reports in triplicate (using carbon copies - computers exist - and old fashioned ribbon typewriters where the carbon sheets and ribbon are later destroyed); to account for every paperclip; all these while at the same time saving the world from monstrous, inter-dimensional creatures that may have been subverted by remnants of a specialist Nazi SS group who escaped into another dimension at WW2's end. Very highly recommended.

No esperaba disfrutar tanto con este libro, la verdad. Comienza siendo un poco árido aunque la mezcla de la mitología lovecraftiana con una organización de espías moderna y burocrática, que bebe mucho de la experiencia en TI del autor, me mantuvo enganchado en los primeros compases del libro, que termina de una manera totalmente alucinante que me ha hecho un converso. Ya me he comprado el segundo, con eso digo todo.

Ce livre est la réponse à tous ceux qui trouvent que l'informatique c'est de la magie... et la réponse est oui, d'ailleurs si vous lancez le mauvais programme vous risquez de voir débarquer une horreur lovecraftienne sur votre clavier ! Le mélange entre occultisme et espionnage high tech est excellent, c'est bien écrit, l'intrigue principale vous tient en haleine du début à la fin, au final une de mes meilleures lecture de l'année. J'avais découvert cet auteur avec sa série des princes-marchands, qui était déjà très sympa, mais je trouve ces Laundry Files encore plus passionnantes !

I really enjoyed this book for its unique way to portrait magic and occult. It's like the IT Crowd meets Cthulhu

Teils urkomisch, meist jedoch einfach nur mega spannend mit einer ordentlichen Prise Grusel. Für alle Fans von Cosmic Horror, Krimis und theOffice