“In 1975, the CIA used Howard Hughes's Glomar Explorer in a bungled attempt to raise a sunken
Soviet submarine in order to access the "Gravedust" unit, an occult device that allows
communication with the dead. Now a ruthless billionaire intends to try again,
even if by doing so he awakens the Great Old Ones, who thwarted the earlier
expedition. It's up to Bob Howard and a collection of British eccentrics even Monty
Python would consider odd to stop the bad guy and save the world, while getting
receipts for all expenditures or else face the most dreaded menace of all: the
Laundry's own auditors. Howard is sent abroad with Ramona Random, an operative of the Black Chamber and a member of BLUE HADES, to defeat Ellis Billington's plan to steal and use the Gravedust unit
on DEEP SEVEN. BLUE HADES has an interest in preventing this.
Ellis has relocated to the Caribbean island of Saint Martin and put it under an
occult enchantment which ensures only people who fit a particular stereotype
can enter the island safely.”
The Jennifer Morgue is the second
collection of stories by Charles Stross featuring Bob Howard, containing the
title novel, a short story called Pimpf,
and an essay titled The Golden Age of
Spying. And yes, as much as the first book played out like an old school
spy novel, ala Len Dieghton, this one is a full blown homage to James Bond,
with secret island bases, gadgets, monologue prone mad men out to remake the
world and beautiful women.
And for those who want to keep with this series,
the Black Chamber is an American cryptanalysis agency, which was
officially disbanded in 1929, but then secretly re-tasked with occult
intelligence duties sometime later. The Black Chamber is basically the US
equivalent of The Laundry. "Black Chamber" itself is the
designation the Laundry has given to the organization: its internal name
is Operational Phenomenology Agency (OPA). Meanwhile, The Deep Ones
is the code name for an ancient civilization living under the oceans. They are
powerful but pose no immediate threat to the human population so long as
humanity does not intrude on their territory, which is defined by
a treaty. They have a long-standing issue with Deep Seven, are known as
The Chthoians, a race of “polymorphous, occupy areas of the upper crust near
the Polar Regions.”
Rooted in Lovecraftian overtones and Stross’ love
for Ian Fleming’s James Bond, this book fits nicely into the same sort style
that Tim Powers has done for decades. It’s not a diss, more to prove that
writers can have similar themes and ideas and still present it in an
entertaining fashion. And I adore Stross’ continued in-joke about how
PowerPoint is really a tool of the occult.
Like the first book, I did not get every nerd
reference in this book –especially the computer ones. I’m assuming Stross knows
what he’s talking about, when he goes on describing things –if only because
programmers who read his work will call him out on it. But it’s still a fun
book with absurd ideas, snarky humor, and good pacing.
No comments:
Post a Comment