The Nightmare Stacks

Another fun entry in the Laundry Files series, this one is narrated by Dr. Schwartz, from the previous novel. Poor Alex is trying to come to grips with his sudden career change and living life as a PHANG (vampire, to the rest of us). He has also fallen into social interactions with an actual female person, which is vastly unusual in his life. In fact, having a social life is rather foreign.

There are a fair number of cringe-worthy scenes, if you (like me) are embarrassed when anyone else is. Of course, this is a comedy/horror/science fiction/fantasy series, so there are the requisite horrid things in the plot. If you've gotten this far in the series, I shouldn't need to warn you about that. I really wouldn't choose this volume as an entry point if I were you.

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This is a thoroughly entertaining, thoroughly “Bobless,” thoroughly necessary addition to the Laundry series.

The main character of this installment is Dr. Alex Schwartz, to whom we were introduced to a few books back as part of the mercenary arbitragers who became part of the Phang community. Alex steps nicely into the Bob role as a highly intelligent but socially maladroit nerd. Author Charles Stross successfully rings all the humor he can from Alex's social awkwardness and the fact that Alex has been reassigned back to his hometown of York, where he may have to finally disappoint his parents with the news that he is no longer a high-flying arbitrager, but has been reduced to the ranks of the civil service, and that he has become also acquired a blood condition that may prevent them from becoming grandparents.

In York, Alex is hooked up with Pinky and the Brain, again characters from an earlier book, and Reverend Peter, the very mellow consultant dragooned by Bob into the Laundry in an earlier book.

The story involves the Case Nightmare Red, Plan Red Rabbit - Invasion from Middle Earth.

Middle Earth is provided by a parallel world where the species of humanity that developed was not Homo Sapiens. This species didn't develop speech as soon as humans, but they developed magic much quicker and much better. The social structure of this species - OK, let's call them “elves” - is entirely based on the geases used by the Laundry to ensure loyalty. Actually, from a science fiction standpoint, I thought that the sociology of the elves was fascinating.

The elven world is a mess. The demons from Beyond have invaded their home universe and ruined it. A small section of the Morningstar Empire that had placed itself in stasis has revived and are looking for a place to start over, and England is looking pretty good to them.

Of course, they send a spy who assumes the role of a giggly coed named Cassie, who becomes the essential player in this book, and important in the next.

Things start slow and then move into high gear and stay there. We see plots and conspiracies, and counterplots and counter-conspiracies, both Elven and human. We see some nifty Human technology v. Elven magical technology battles, with neither side being able to comprehend the tech used by the other, but managing to achieve nearly similar results from a completely different starting point.

I listened to this book as an audiobook and I found it a totally captivating and entertaining experience.

This, I think, is the main problem with this novel: the attempt, intentional or not, to take the feel of the first book and make it work with a different protagonist, setting, and plot, with Alex taking Bob???s place, and Cassie taking Mo???s. I, and perhaps other readers, are quite happy to have seen Bob progress away from who he used to be in the first books, so a return to that place, even with a new set of characters, is not exactly what might be called progress. The Annihilation Score was progress; The Nightmare Stacks, on the other hand, feels rather like a step backwards.

Full review here: http://wp.me/p21txV-ug