The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross

Posted by: Redhead on: December 19, 2011

• In: Charles Stross
• 23 Comments

The Fuller Memorandum (a Laundry Novel), by Charles Stross

where I got it: purchased new

why I read it: enjoyed the previous Laundry novel, The Jennifer Morgue

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Bob Howard has a problem. it’s that he’s too good at his job. The office manager leaves him alone; his boss, Angleton, is sending him on special errands; and his wife, Mo, has started bringing work home with her. When you’re a computational demonologist, none of those can be good things.  You see, Bob works for the ultra secret British government agency called The Laundry.  Think James Bond meets Torchwood, but instead of fighting the Russians and aliens, they’re fighting the Russians and unthinkable Cthonic soul sucking horrors from another dimension. When the end comes, make sure you’re armed with a shotgun (same goes for when playing Arkham Horror, btw).

Although The Fuller Memorandum is mostly action, usually involving Bob getting the crap kicked out of him, it was the slower parts that were some of my favorites. Things like getting to know more (perhaps too much) about the mysterious Angleton.  What Mo actually does with that bone white violin (she needs her own book. period). How to jailbreak an iphone in three easy steps (step one, allow a professional hacker into your house). How to handle Russian zombies and drunken cultists, and what the British secret service really thinks about Americans.  And Bob Howard, accidental computational demonologist, armed with a jailbroken unauthorized iphone running illegal apps, better solve all these problems before his soul gets sucked out by cultists who’ve awoken something far more evil than they were expecting. The slower bits might have been all interesting, but the crazy action bits? Totally over the top frakin’ awesome.

If you’re grinning, you can skip the next paragraph, however if you’re a bit confused, quit skipping around and stop feeling bad.

Charles Stross’s Laundry series (The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, The Fuller Memorandum) follow Bob Howard, who works for a secret government agency known colloquially as The Laundry. These folks use math and geometry to fight Lovecraftian elder gods in an attempt to hold off the end of the universe just a few weeks longer. By the simple act of existing, humanity is wearing thin the borders between dimensions. If it wasn’t for the agents of The Laundry, the soul destroying horrors would have come through generations ago, and you wouldn’t be reading this blog. Filed under urban fantasy, Charlie Stross will spoil you rotten with his dry dialog, wicked funny infodumps (not an oxymoron, I swear!), and weapons of mass possession. Now that you’re all caught up. . .

Capping off one of the worst weeks of his life, Bob finds himself on administrative leave, a.k.a. enforced vacation. When he returns to the office, he’s been left a reading list by Angleton, but his boss is nowhere to be found.  Human Resources (not Residual Human Resources, that’s a whole ‘nother department) doesn’t even have a phone number on file for the guy. Angleton may be a BAMF, but it’s Bob’s job to find him before the cultists wake up their favorite god-like-thing.  If you pay attention, you may occasionally find yourself a step ahead of Bob in the “figuring out what the hell is going on” department. Stross does over the top technobabble meets demented creatures like nobodies business, but subtlety has never been his thing.

A quick word on the infodumps, because there are a lot of them.  The first hundred pages the infodumps pissed me off a little. they made me feel stupid. Then I had an a-ha moment: Stross is way more subtle than I give him credit for. The multi-paragraph long infodumps and all caps codewords? Just another over the top “for show” bit.  They’re totally for shits and giggles, totally for show. A casual reader isn’t going to understand them because they really don’t make any sense whatsoever. It’s part of the silliness of the whole thing.

Oh, and I probably should have mentioned it before, the Laundry books are absolutely hilarious. Wry and satirical, you’ll be laughing out loud as you bite your stay up way too late to find out what happens. Although it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, there had better be another Laundry book in the works, otherwise Mo and Stross fans the world over will be very disappointed.   The Laundry books  can probably be read as stand alones, but I do suggest starting with either Atrocity Archives, or Jennifer Morgue, as Fuller Memorandum starts in the deep end and slowly works it’s way up.

Speaking of Mo, Bob’s wife, I just adore her.  She has a violin that quite literally, destroys monsters. Part of me wants to know the story behind the violin that gives whole new meaning to “made from the soul of an orphan”, but the other part of me knows I’d have nightmares for a week if I found out the truth. Like I said, she needs her own book.

If you’re already a fan of Stross’s Laundry series, The Fuller Memorandum ought to keep you happy.  If you’re new to this wonderful world of horrific things that go bump in the night and suck out your soul through your eyeballs, hopefully I’ve caught your interest.

Note to self: next time I play Arkham Horror, start with the shotgun, and create a card called “Mo’s violin: destroys all monsters but you must take one hit of physical damage”.

Tags: creatures, demons, funny, Lovecraftian, magic, mythology, satire, science fiction, urban fantasy