false 14150 7 <p>In 1975, the CIA made an ill-fated attempt to raise a sunken Soviet ballistic missile submarine from the depths of the Pacific Ocean. At least, "ill-fated" was the information leaked to the press. In reality, the team salvaged a device, codenamed "Gravedust," that permitted communication with the dead. Enter Ellis Billington, glamorous software billionaire, who has acquired Gravedust by devious means. Billington plans to raise an eldritch horror, codenamed "Jennifer Morgue," from the vasty deeps, for the purpose of ruling the world. Worse still, he's prepared occult defenses that can only be penetrated by one agent walking a perilous path.</p> <p>But James Bond doesn't work for The Laundry. Instead, they send Bob Howard, geekish demonology hacker extraordinaire. Bob must inveigle his way aboard Billington's yacht, figure out what the villain is up to, and stop him. But there's a fly in Bob's ointment by the name of Ramona Random&mdash;a lethal but beautiful agent for the Black Chamber, the U.S. counterpart to The Laundry. The Black Chamber has sent Ramona to ride shotgun on Bob, but Ramona has her own agenda that conflicts with her employer's&hellip;</p> <p>After becoming "entangled," Bob and Ramona are captured by Billington and used to further his insidious plot. But let's not forget Bob's significant other, Dr. Dominique "Mo" O'Brien, also an agent of The Laundry, who has been trained especially for this mission. Can these intrepid agents stop Billington from raising the dead horror and thus save the world from total domination? <i>The Jennifer Morgue</i> takes the reader on a wild adventure through the worlds of Lovecraft and Ian Fleming, non-Euclidian mathematics and computer hackerdom&mdash;sort of like Austin Powers, only more squamous and rugose.</p> <p>In addition to the novel-length <i>The Jennifer Morgue</i>, this volume also includes an added bonus story, "Pimpf," featuring agent Bob Howard in the world of virtual gaming, along with a thought-provoking Afterword entitled "The Golden Age of Spying."</p> <p>Bob Howard&mdash;a T-shirt-wearing computer geek and field agent for the super-secret British government agency The Laundry&mdash;must save the world from eldritch horrors, codenamed Jennifer Morgue, in this fast-paced spy thriller. Bob's current mission is to stop the evil Ellis Billington from achieving world domination, but he must overcome obstacles including the Gravedust device, which permits communication with the dead; destiny-entanglement protocol; banishment weapons; and Ramona Random, a lethal but beautiful agent for the U.S. counterpart to The Laundry. Billington plans to raise the eldritch horror Jennifer Morgue from the vasty deeps, and communicate with a dead warrior for the purpose of ruling the world. Blending physics and applied mathematics with the practice of summoning and demonology, this spy-meets-horror novel will keep sci-fi fans on the edge of their seats. This volume also includes a bonus story, "Pimpf," featuring agent Bob Howard in the world of virtual gaming, as well as an afterword entitled "The Golden Age of Spying."</p> 930564 1 11 2006 The Jennifer Morgue (The Laundry, Book 2) total:377|5:95|4:177|3:91|2:14|1:0| 377 1484 541 60 4 2 false false Mon Mar 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 13 05:32:17 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 18 14:22:52 -0700 2008
James Bond meets Lovecraftian horrors, in a darkly humorous way.

If you like a comedi...more...]]> 2 1 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 05:41:50 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 06:42:25 -0700 2009 The Atrocity Archives) a bit more, the game there to tease out the underlying similarities of HPL and the other spy form of oc...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jan 26 22:47:23 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 26 22:48:18 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Mar 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 30 19:34:23 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 30 19:42:52 -0700 2009
This book is sort of a parody or deconstruction of the iconic James Bond film/movie. After an EU meeting goes sour, Bob ends...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 01 14:44:05 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 01 17:11:35 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Aug 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 27 06:14:57 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 27 06:28:03 -0700 2009
I di...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 29 09:54:28 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 29 10:07:07 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 20 13:09:53 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 06:58:22 -0800 2009 1 The Atrocity Archives, I was pretty sure this would be a fun read. Both AA, and Stross' short story over at tor.com, "Down on the Farm", were excellent.

Stross does not disappoint. As usual, we follow the adventures of Bob Howard, Capital Laundry Services' favori...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Dec 19 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 20 15:36:52 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 20 15:46:54 -0800 2008 The Atrocity Archives plays up Ian Fleming ins...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Oct 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 09:26:22 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 24 02:41:01 -0700 2009 Ce roman est de ceux dont il est ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed May 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 05:38:51 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 05:45:47 -0700 2009
You probably also know stross is not as proficient a writer as he is an ideas guy. But h...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jan 06 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 01 08:26:58 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 06 22:37:04 -0800 2009 1
This is a return to the Laundry for Stross, and I really, really, want to like it. But I can't really like it. The story is kind of cool (can't say much without spoiling the plot), the main characters (Bob, Romana,...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Feb 26 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 11:18:48 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 12 12:19:18 -0700 2009 2 Charles Stross continues to deeply amuse, in this sequel to Atrocity Archives. In some ways, I like this better, as the riff on James Bond amuses the inner ten-year-old with the crush on (the young!) Sean Connery. Some of the deadpan whacked out humor, including PowerPoint used as a demonic...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon May 11 05:55:43 -0700 2009 Mon May 11 06:04:45 -0700 2009 The Atrocity Archives hooked right into my subconscious and poked around a bit. I had high hopes for the sequel.

Alas, if the gritty, serious nature of the first was a large part of its appeal the lighter, more pl...more...]]> 3 0 true false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 05 09:09:40 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 05 09:53:22 -0800 2008
So this is basically a spy thriller with chthonic beasts. If you like spy thrillers and cthonic beasts, you might like this and it does have some things to recommend it. It's funny in parts, it has some good characters, it doesn'...more...]]> 3 0 false true Sun Mar 23 11:58:42 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 19 04:46:53 -0700 2008
Maybe the joke gets a bit over extended at times and the girl demon who kills through sex is a little too like Mike Carey's succubus (who came first? Care...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 14:59:28 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 15:01:25 -0700 2009
I defin...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 04 00:37:38 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 04 00:48:50 -0700 2009
I was a bit skeptical at first of the way the villain "manipulates fate" to brin...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 07:52:44 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 07:56:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 13 18:28:36 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 13 18:29:11 -0800 2007 more...]]>