The Atrocity Archives

by Charles Stross

No cover — Charles Stross: The Atrocity Archives (Paperback, 2009, Ace Books)

Paperback

Published Jan. 1, 2009 by Ace Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-441-01668-6

(117 reviews)

Bob Howard is a computer-hacker desk jockey, who has more than enough trouble keeping up with the endless paperwork he has to do on a daily basis. He should never be called on to do anything remotely heroic. But for some reason, he is.

15 editions

MH Thaung reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Fun series starter

No rating

I’ve been meaning to read this for a while and was pleased to find it delivered what I expected: an entertaining mix of technology, bureaucracy and eldritch horrors (you can decide if the last by definition encompasses the other two…)

The narrative is in Bob’s first person, present tense point of view. I wasn’t especially taken with him as a character, though I wasn’t so put off as to bail out. He always managed to have the skills or items needed to meet the challenges before him, or some associate intervening at the right moment.

The office politics were boldly drawn. I wouldn’t have minded more subtlety, a bit more behind the scenes manipulation and gaslighting rather than the (office equivalent of) straight-up moustache-twirliness that came across. We were never really left in doubt of the outcome.

Overall, a fun series starter.

Kevin reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

IT really is eldritch horror

5 stars

I got a new Kobo eReader and needed something to break it in. What better than test of a new palmpad than to read something from the Laundry Files collection?

This is the first in the series and a lot of fun to read. If you measure fun the same way as stepping into an abyss that's darker than black yet you can feel an otherness in it. Wonderful stuff really!

Unlike me, I have gone at this series very a-linearly. I'm usually a "start at 1, move forward sequentially" kind of person, but my book club read one of the later books about 6 years ago, and every once in a while, I dip my toe back into the seeping ichor, pick one at random and go for it, cluthcing my HoG the entire way. I'm trying to remember, but I think this is heavier on some of the …

I got a new Kobo eReader and needed something to break it in. What better than test of a new palmpad than to read something from the Laundry Files collection?

Dan Ambrogio reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Interesting concepts executed decently

4 stars

The Atrocity Archives shovels jargon down your throat in a race to the finish. It is both serious and sardonic -- horror and humour -- to the point where it brushes past cosmic horror to focus on the mechanism of mathemagics. It is Doctor Who by way of Brandon Sanderson.

These concepts are the star of the book. Characters are a little one-note, and most dialogue is for exposition rather than characterization. But the ideas presented, and especially how those ideas are brought to their logical ends, are excellent.

I look forward to seeing where this series goes.

SI CLARKE reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Review of 'The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Bob is a civil servant, working in IT support. He has a horrible boss who's a stickler for timesheets, rules, protocols. Because this is London, Bob has three housemates: a pair he calls Pinky and the Brain and a horrible woman who sometimes sleeps with him out of spite. But the government agency Bob works for is a secret one. The Laundry deals in – not magic, exactly, but not not magic either. Like super high-tech magic. Then Bob gets sucked into (not literally, but with the Laundry that could happen) field work.

I read this years ago and I didn't really enjoy it the first time through. Which is ridiculous, because this is very, very good. Engaging, funny, interesting.

Blind_Mapmaker reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Review of 'The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

3.25 This is actually a rather shortish novel and a longish novella in the same omnibus. The eponymous novel paints an interesting Cthulhu meets civil service meets computer nerds, but I am getting really bored with every every secret magic setting having Nazi occultists as a major antagonist. It's made worse by the fact that the other antagonists are evil Middle Easterners (no Islamists though). Especially uncomfortable is that the Holocaust (hinted at in the title) was an in-world attempt to summon eldritch forces. Yes, it was still done by evil humans, but that sort of thing does leave a bad taste in my mouth. Also it would have been nice for the damsel-in-distress to be a little less helpless (although she's at least damn smart). The end is rather abrupt too and could have used one more twist. 2.75 for that one.

The novella called 'The Concrete Jungle' is …

Psy-Q reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Review of 'The Atrocity Archives' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I tried enjoying this but it reads too much like Edgy Slashdot Comments: The Book. I wouldn't be surprised to find a genuine vintage "Natalie Portman, naked and petrified" somewhere in there.

If none of that means anything to you, you're probably not old enough to be in the book's target demographic anyway.

The protagonist is an aloof nerd, the pre-dotcom bubble kind when "nerd" was still used only in a derogatory way. Every page has at least one or two bits of technobabble sprinkled on it for no good reason. At least no immediately plot-relevant reason, maybe it's fan service, maybe it's just fluff. The spy thriller parts seem altogether too cliché, but the book is self-aware enough to point that out so you don't have to do the thinking.

On that topic, it does it's darndest to make sure you understand THE MEANING OF WHAT YOU ARE READING. I swear Stross mentioned three times in the space of six pages that Harriet is Bob's line manager. Or Bob complains three times that he got very wet just two pages ago. I don't need the reminder, I just read that a minute earlier.

This is disenchanting because I'm definitely the intended audience. I know what Lisp Machines were and I remember Beowulf (not the poem). What he's trying to do isn't lost on me, it just doesn't connect. This is nerd-flexing devoid of charm.

Wetdryvac reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Review of 'The Atrocity Archives' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Very well executed.

cargide reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Review of 'The Atrocity Archives' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Necroinformáticos en misiones de campo contra hackers que lo mismo te roban la contraseña del correo que el alma.
Funcionarios británicos para los que es más duro justificar el uso de clips que desvelar conspiraciones.

Me he encontrado un personaje interesante, en un entorno de fantasía urbana muy distinto a lo esperado, en el que la magia depende de programación y circuitería electrónica

writh reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Review of 'The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A fun series that takes the world of H.P. Lovecraft, and adds some British government bureaucracy. It is seriously funny.

Unruly Stacks reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Review of 'The Atrocity Archives' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

It would be disingenuous to give this 5 stars, because although I thought it was excellent, I'm fairly sure I should've done some preparatory reading before tackling this. Charles Stross has officially made me feel dumb. The complexity of the data in this book (and, if this is any indicator, in all the following books) is daunting to someone of my layman-level comprehension. Magic-as-math, math-as-magic, and I'm over here feeling underqualified to read this. :)

arensb reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Review of 'The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files, #1)' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

I'm not sure what I expected when a couple of friends recommended this to me, but what I got was two stories that combine Lovecraftian horror, Cold War spy thriller, Dilbert, and Unix hackery. Granted, it may not be to everyone's liking, and in particular people who aren't Unix sysadmins may be put off by the geeky aspect.

n-gons reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Review of 'The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Physics, math, computing, secret gents, bureaucracy, occultism, horrors, Cthulhu, other worlds, freeze dried nazis. It is good mixture, well written and hard to put down. I'm buying the rest of e series...

Yashima reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Review of 'The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This book about a nerd-Cthulu-spook cross-over called "the Laundry" started out really great und witty (and somewhat scary because it was written so many years before Snowden) only to slow down quite a bit in the second half. There's an abrupt change of pace and story there as if it was written as two separate short stories. Towards the end the pace picked up again and the final scenes were quite enjoyable. I guess I just did not like reading all those reports on Scorpion Stare. Those were boring and cost the story one star of my opinion.

What I enjoy a lot about Stross' writing is that he knows his computer stuff. Of course palmtops are no longer state of the art and I think I would be hard put to summon a tentacled entity from another dimension with my smartphone ... but still it's nice to read. Already …

Chungledown Bim reviewed The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (Laundry Files, #1)

Review of 'The Atrocity Archives' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

The series was recommended by a friend. At very first I was groaning, ugh, what IS this? A hypercaffeinated public servant dealing with the beurocracy of summoning Lovecraftian horrors, whatever. Oh, look, some hilariously laboured popculture references for the 30-somethings. I never really understood the appeal of the Dunwich mythos and I despise being pandered to. Anyway. I slogged through - my friend would ask me about this and I should have a better grasp of what it was that I didn't like... And bugger me if it didn't get a lot better really quickly. I think it's the proper, deep and beautiful nerdery of the protagonist. The author knows nerds, he knows beurocracy and be damned (ahaha) if I'm not his exact target audience. Lovely stuff, after a fashion. If you're a 30 plus polymath who's ever had the delight of the public sector, get amongst it.