Quantum of Nightmares

Second book in, and I'm a bit unsure about the New Management. I know it's easy to complain that the old stuff was better, but this series hasn't sparked for me so far like the Laundry Files did. There's a couple of reasons. The main cast (Eve, Imp, Game Boy, etc) are very thinly sketched. After two books I don't feel like I know who they are, what makes them tick, or even like them very much. Also, the author has never been shy about showing you just how much he knows and how clever he is, but that was more bearable in the earlier books when filtered through Bob's journey from know-nothing naif to top occult espionage guy. Here it slides dangerously close to annoying.

But really, the fundamental problem is, there's something strangely joyless about it all. We're in a world where the bad guys have won, and all the corporate satire and endless parades of meat products take on a despairing edge, a “this is it, folks, this is what we have to live with” vibe. Look, some of my best friends are grim dystopias, right? I've got nothing against them, but considering it's trading on a series that started as an extremely fun James Bond meets HP Lovecraft romp the tonal shift feels a bit off to me. There's not (so far) a hint of resistance or striving for anything better, just endless wretchedness, which not even Mary Poppins taking down a T. Rex with an antitank gun can dispel.

I still largely enjoyed it, but a fair bit less than I did the previous books. I'll still be reading the next one, in the hope Stross reins in the nihilism and smugness a bit next time.