Books by author: Charles Stross

This really hit the spot. Stross's juxtaposition of bureaucracy, spy-craft, and Lovecraftian horror is awesome, and the little geek/computer-science/hacker details are both perfectly tongue-in-cheek and spot on. I can't wait to read the sequel.

This was better than I expected, given the drop-off in ratings between books 2 and 3 on Amazon. The pace is a little slower here, and the protagonist (Miriam) is held powerless for most of the duration. There is very little evolution of the rules of Stross's universe in this volume, but the political machinations have ramped up, and the ending is another cliffhanger. I'm enjoying this series, but I am reluctant to recommend it.

A journalist discovers that she has a hidden ability — she can step between worlds — and it turns out that, in the other world, she is part of a royal family. The premise is similar to Zelazny's Amber series, but I like Stross's version of the trope a lot better so far.

The biggest difference lies in the plausibility of the fictional universes. Zelazny's is an infinite multiverse with almost no rules, whereas Stross's universe is so far very limited in scope. Stross takes hopping between two worlds as a starting point and maps out a series of plausible consequences, turning it into a novel more of human political intrigue and adventure than one of shaggy-dog fantasy. Sure, the Amber books have plenty of politics, but Zelazny's characters are detached and superhuman, where Stross's feel more believable.

That said, I found the pacing to be uneven, and some of the political knots were a bit too hairy for me to untangle. I didn't love this book, and I haven't yet dived into the next entry, but I'm pretty sure I'll continue with this series, given my increasing admiration of Stross.

The Laundry Files is quickly becoming my favorite sci/fi universe. The combination of computer geekery, theorem-based magic, James Bond-esque spy gadgets, Lovecraftian aliens, and hopeless bureaucracy is intoxicatingly fun, and Stross is very good at keeping things moving without ever getting predictable.

I enjoyed the heck out of The Fuller Memorandum. I liked it a lot better than The Jennifer Morgue, and it even edges out The Atrocity Archives to become my favorite entry in the series. It probably wouldn't work well as a standalone book, because it is jammed full of references to the first two books and the two excellent short-stories "Down on the Farm" and "Overtime" (both stories can be found for free online).

Great stuff!

I liked this better than Singularity Sky.

I liked this better than Singularity Sky but not as well as Glasshouse. I think I'm just not that into Charles Stross's writing. It's decent scifi, but he will never be a favorite.

The pace picks up a bit in the second entry of Stross's world-hopping series, and it ends on another cliffhanger. I enjoyed this a bit more than the first entry, and I guess I'm now committing myself to reading the whole cycle.

I continue to enjoy Stross's mash-up of Lovecraftian horror, espionage, and bureaucracy, but somehow this novel didn't quite live up to its predecessor, The Atrocity Archives. Still, I'll probably chase down the next volume when it's published.

This series is getting richer and more complex as it progresses, and I'm quite enjoying it.

Somewhat uneven pacing and another cliffhanger. Still, it's keeping me turning the pages.

An interesting premise with promising elements, but I was very put off by having multiple viewpoints all told in the second person.

I've greatly enjoyed Stross's Laundry Files novels, and though I was skeptical of a space opera featuring a femmebot protagonist, I decided to give it a try. Saturn's Children is fast-paced and complex, sometimes to the point of confusion. Most of my confusion came from the transitions in and out of flashbacks (or rather, memory dreams), but the sheer number of characters (and where the line is drawn between some of them) also contributed.

Overall, I had a good time reading this novel, but then I didn't worry much about keeping track of all the double-crosses, and I definitely missed out on some of the more complicated plotting. Still, it kept me turning pages, and I'd read another Stross novel in this universe if he chose to write one.

I enjoyed this, but I wasn't blown away. The threads involving the two main characters were interesting, but I could have lived without a lot of the mayhem surrounding the supporting cast.

Okay, now that I'm done with the whole series, I can take a step back. The Merchant Princes series is multiverse science fiction initially disguised as fantasy. There are about a dozen significant characters, and by the end of the cycle, each one has his own thread and viewpoint. This creates a certain richness, but also leads to some uneven pacing and occasionally awkward jumping around.

Spoiler alert: At the beginning of book 6, several nuclear bombs are detonated in Washington, D.C., killing thousands of people including then-president George W. Bush. Cheney (dubbed WARBUCKS) is sworn in, but shortly thereafter dies of a heart attack. I think Stross took a certain pleasure in those particular plot points, and I must admit I did too. Cheney really deserved it, after all.

Clearly this is outlandish fantasy, but it's a fun read.