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iainbertram's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
wetdryvac's review against another edition
5.0
So. Much. Fun.
Not as grindingly (in a good way) trivial as the first book's address of some components, but a different variation that's well worth while too.
Not as grindingly (in a good way) trivial as the first book's address of some components, but a different variation that's well worth while too.
lurpasskatt's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
davidsandilands's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
kkehoe's review against another edition
4.0
With this entry into his Laundry File series, Stross seems to finally be finding his footing and style with a much tighter, less clinical approach than the first entry and to a lesser extent, the previous entry. The prose and dialogue lives more, standing and striding on its own more easily now, a more robust marriage of prose and plot.
bearpolar's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
snazel's review against another edition
4.0
The crux of this one is really looking at the idea of what you'd do to make sure humanity survives the horrors that this series is based around, as the Laundry comes up against some nasty-piece-of-work cultists. So on the one hand, it's relieving to see our protagonist reject the "at all costs" mindset of the cultists (and some historical people who were ostensibly on "our side"), but on the other we see some of the costs, and it's rough. I like how weirdly optimistic this series is about its extremely dark premise, but also maybe I should chill on the series for a little bit.
thearbiter89's review against another edition
4.0
The Fuller Memorandum is the first book to truly intimate an overarching timeline for the burgeoning Laundry series.
Where Atrocity Archives featured occult space Nazis and Jennifer Morgue had advanced deep-dwelling alien civilisations, The Fuller Memorandum has blood-crazed, sacrifice-happy cultists and dead gods on distant arid planets. Stross also takes inspiration from the novels of Anthony Price, replete with secret histories and clandestine operations, with a dash of lethal office politics in the mix.
Stross fleshes out elements of the Laundryverse's history, with a strong element of exposition-as-archaeological-venture: He peppers the prose with transcripts of historical records: letters, memoranda and classified reports, and lets the reader connect the dots. It's a narrative technique that feels rewarding and authentic.
Stross takes steps to bootstrap the series from a couple of Lovecraftian spy thrillers written on a lark to a much more extended narrative leading up to an apocalyptic climax: CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, where the stars align, the boundaries between universes get porous, and the dead gods awaken.
As the stakes heighten, so do the power levels of the characters. As the series progresses, so does Bob's place in the bureaucratic pecking order, mediated both by his apparent abilities and by increasingly desperate circumstance. It creates a pleasing narrative gradient that impels continued reading, just to see how far Bob will go.
The Fuller Memorandum takes horror to new levels of existential dread, with its bleak, apocalyptic imagery rivalling the terrifying, lunatic visions of Lovecraft. The most striking image, of a sleeping horror in a pyramid on an arid world illuminated by the cold light of distant stars, watched over by still-sentient corpses impaled upon a ring of stakes surrounding the pyramid - Stross is disquietingly good at conjuring up such visions of inhuman, cosmic terror.
I give this book: 4/5 clandestine bomber flights
Where Atrocity Archives featured occult space Nazis and Jennifer Morgue had advanced deep-dwelling alien civilisations, The Fuller Memorandum has blood-crazed, sacrifice-happy cultists and dead gods on distant arid planets. Stross also takes inspiration from the novels of Anthony Price, replete with secret histories and clandestine operations, with a dash of lethal office politics in the mix.
Stross fleshes out elements of the Laundryverse's history, with a strong element of exposition-as-archaeological-venture: He peppers the prose with transcripts of historical records: letters, memoranda and classified reports, and lets the reader connect the dots. It's a narrative technique that feels rewarding and authentic.
Stross takes steps to bootstrap the series from a couple of Lovecraftian spy thrillers written on a lark to a much more extended narrative leading up to an apocalyptic climax: CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, where the stars align, the boundaries between universes get porous, and the dead gods awaken.
As the stakes heighten, so do the power levels of the characters. As the series progresses, so does Bob's place in the bureaucratic pecking order, mediated both by his apparent abilities and by increasingly desperate circumstance. It creates a pleasing narrative gradient that impels continued reading, just to see how far Bob will go.
The Fuller Memorandum takes horror to new levels of existential dread, with its bleak, apocalyptic imagery rivalling the terrifying, lunatic visions of Lovecraft. The most striking image, of a sleeping horror in a pyramid on an arid world illuminated by the cold light of distant stars, watched over by still-sentient corpses impaled upon a ring of stakes surrounding the pyramid - Stross is disquietingly good at conjuring up such visions of inhuman, cosmic terror.
I give this book: 4/5 clandestine bomber flights
gavreads's review against another edition
We’re used to series having a regularity and rhythm to them. But The Laundry series is a little more erratic to say the least. Not that it’s anyones fault as such. We’ve had two almost full novels, 4 novella/shorts, this full novel and two more still to come (hopefully).
After finishing The Fuller Memorandum I hope Stross has chance to write both The Armageddon Agedna and The Nightmare Stacks and surprises us with a stack of more short stories.
You can take it from the above that I’m a fan of the series right? Just in case you’re in any doubt I love what
Stross has done with The Laundry. When I grow up I want to tell stories like this.
I’d better explain why it’s hitting my buttons then.
I do have this thing that’s been slow burning for Lovecraftian-esque horrors and it’s slowly creeping into my reading see:
Kraken
The Domino Men
Hunter’s Moon/Eagle Rising
Never the Bride/Something Borrowed/Conjugul Rites/Hell’s Bells (though these are more wonderful quaint horrors)
as well as the first two book in this series:
The Atrocity Archives
The Jennifer Morgue
In my review of The Jennifer Morgue I said:
In the next one I’d love to see the horrors a bit more horrific just to see how far Bob can cope and I want to know more about the origins of his boss Angleton. And if I’m being picky I’d like to have the pace toned down a little bit to have more time to digest stuff.
I think Stross must have read my review as he’s done all of that and more.
Time has shifted again. Bob is now married to Mo not surprising after the events of The Jennifer Morgue but their connection is forged by what they’ve seen and can’t share with the outside world more than love. They have a strange but understanding relationship. They both agents for The Laundry, a branch of the British secret service, tasked to prevent hideous alien gods from wiping out all life on Earth.
Stross always seems to come back with something different but retaining all the things you like about Bob and The Laundry. This starts with his unofficial boss giving him a little errand. All he needs to do is check out a disturbance in the Royal Airforce Museum and seeing as he’s all ready going it’s suggested that he checks out a white elephant in Hanger 12B. Unfortunately there is an accident and he doesn’t get chance to investigate the elephant, which is only the start of Bob’s problems.
All The Laundry stories are retold by Bob which gives them an emotional and personal edge that might be lost if they were told in third person. We do occasionally get to see some events retold by Bob from other people’s points of view so we’re not limited to Bob as there a few key moments that we need to see and couldn’t see them any other way.
I really can’t fault Stross for his characterisation. He manages to dish out Chuthu-lian horrors at the same time as making paperclips and the need for an autopsy like inspection of a violin mix in as if it’s normal.
And it is normal to them. Especially having an upgraded Jesus phone with magickal apps plus injecting geek humour by accusing it of a having a strong glamour that just pulls you in. You know what I’m almost convinced they do.
It’s this mix of supernatural and the mundane that makes Stross such a convincing writer. He can pull out the horror and when I said I wanted Bob to suffer I wasn’t sure that Stross could actually do what he did to Bob here. It’s not pleasant and it’s disturbing as it’s not carried out by anything alien but fanatics who believe in something enough that they see what they do as means to an end. And he can also pull out plot twists that have you seeing things completely differently.
You get to see the history of one of the more enigmatic characters in the series so far and what you learn is more ‘oh’ than ‘err’ but only just. I wonder what else Stross is hiding from us?
All the end of the world horror is mixed with Stross personal brand of geek humour and the character could be average-if-he-wasn’t-dealing-with-the-supernatural-Bob, not forgetting the rest of eclectic crew of The Laundry, shows what rich world Stross has created. I’m sad that we’ve only got to see glimpses of it so far. I hope this isn’t the last we see of them.
I’m not sure where we go from here. The Laundry is a hotel corridor of horrors just waiting to be walked down and any door could lead to a nightmare.
After finishing The Fuller Memorandum I hope Stross has chance to write both The Armageddon Agedna and The Nightmare Stacks and surprises us with a stack of more short stories.
You can take it from the above that I’m a fan of the series right? Just in case you’re in any doubt I love what
Stross has done with The Laundry. When I grow up I want to tell stories like this.
I’d better explain why it’s hitting my buttons then.
I do have this thing that’s been slow burning for Lovecraftian-esque horrors and it’s slowly creeping into my reading see:
Kraken
The Domino Men
Hunter’s Moon/Eagle Rising
Never the Bride/Something Borrowed/Conjugul Rites/Hell’s Bells (though these are more wonderful quaint horrors)
as well as the first two book in this series:
The Atrocity Archives
The Jennifer Morgue
In my review of The Jennifer Morgue I said:
In the next one I’d love to see the horrors a bit more horrific just to see how far Bob can cope and I want to know more about the origins of his boss Angleton. And if I’m being picky I’d like to have the pace toned down a little bit to have more time to digest stuff.
I think Stross must have read my review as he’s done all of that and more.
Time has shifted again. Bob is now married to Mo not surprising after the events of The Jennifer Morgue but their connection is forged by what they’ve seen and can’t share with the outside world more than love. They have a strange but understanding relationship. They both agents for The Laundry, a branch of the British secret service, tasked to prevent hideous alien gods from wiping out all life on Earth.
Stross always seems to come back with something different but retaining all the things you like about Bob and The Laundry. This starts with his unofficial boss giving him a little errand. All he needs to do is check out a disturbance in the Royal Airforce Museum and seeing as he’s all ready going it’s suggested that he checks out a white elephant in Hanger 12B. Unfortunately there is an accident and he doesn’t get chance to investigate the elephant, which is only the start of Bob’s problems.
All The Laundry stories are retold by Bob which gives them an emotional and personal edge that might be lost if they were told in third person. We do occasionally get to see some events retold by Bob from other people’s points of view so we’re not limited to Bob as there a few key moments that we need to see and couldn’t see them any other way.
I really can’t fault Stross for his characterisation. He manages to dish out Chuthu-lian horrors at the same time as making paperclips and the need for an autopsy like inspection of a violin mix in as if it’s normal.
And it is normal to them. Especially having an upgraded Jesus phone with magickal apps plus injecting geek humour by accusing it of a having a strong glamour that just pulls you in. You know what I’m almost convinced they do.
It’s this mix of supernatural and the mundane that makes Stross such a convincing writer. He can pull out the horror and when I said I wanted Bob to suffer I wasn’t sure that Stross could actually do what he did to Bob here. It’s not pleasant and it’s disturbing as it’s not carried out by anything alien but fanatics who believe in something enough that they see what they do as means to an end. And he can also pull out plot twists that have you seeing things completely differently.
You get to see the history of one of the more enigmatic characters in the series so far and what you learn is more ‘oh’ than ‘err’ but only just. I wonder what else Stross is hiding from us?
All the end of the world horror is mixed with Stross personal brand of geek humour and the character could be average-if-he-wasn’t-dealing-with-the-supernatural-Bob, not forgetting the rest of eclectic crew of The Laundry, shows what rich world Stross has created. I’m sad that we’ve only got to see glimpses of it so far. I hope this isn’t the last we see of them.
I’m not sure where we go from here. The Laundry is a hotel corridor of horrors just waiting to be walked down and any door could lead to a nightmare.