The Nightmare Stacks
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Average rating4.1
Alex Schwartz had a promising future - until he contracted an unfortunate bout of vampirism, and agreed (on pain of death) to join the Laundry, Britain's only counter-occult secret agency. The thought of telling his parents that he's lost his old job, let alone them finding out about his 'condition', is causing Alex more anxiety than learning how to live as a vampire secret agent preparing to confront multiple apocalypses. His only saving grace is Cassie Brewer, a student appearing in the local Goth Festival, who flirts with him despite his awkward personality and massive amounts of sunblock
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11 primary books17 released books#7 in Laundry Files
Laundry Files is a 17-book series with 12 released primary works first released in 2004 with contributions by Charles Stross. 1 book is still to be released. The next book is scheduled for release on .
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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.
With each new Laundry novel, Stross blends eldritch and modern day horrors in amusing and alarming ways. He also manages to weave present day politics and paranoia into his stories. I think that's what makes them so entertaining. A terrific read!
Creative take on some fantasy tropes mixed with the series' typical computer science lovecraft math (which is my favorite thing).
I miss Bob, almost dropped the book at first but I'm glad I circled back a few months later.
