A book about heists, magic and time travel? Sounds like a good time! I really liked the writing which flowed really well. The most enjoyable aspects were the peter pan references, and the ending really left me wanting more!

I read a lot of ravishing reviews about Charles Stross' books but this is the first one I read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I love stories set in alternate London and this one was perfect for me.
Great storytelling and world building, a cast of interesting characters and tightly knitted plot.
I can't wait to read other books by this authors, this one is strongly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Dead Lies Dreaming is the first in a new series set in the world of the Laundry Files, it jumps straight into action with a robbery in Hamleys toy shop by a gang of magically inclined lovable scamps. Wendy Deare a disillusioned ex-police turned private security worker that can create solid illusions is set to find them.
I read the first Laundry Files book and can’t say I enjoyed it that much. I can see why people would but there was too much techno babble and info dumping for me but I gave this a go because I thought it would be more like a police procedural. It was and it wasn’t. I did enjoy it more than the Laundry Files there was more meat to the characters and there wasn’t too much techno guff (there was a lot of accounting guff instead).
I loved Eve. I don’t know if I was supposed to but I did. She’s despicable and vulnerable and ruthless but has a heart (or does she?) and she’s a damned genius. I loved her Gammon as well. Everyone should have a decent Gammon. So it’s worth reading for Eve alone.
Stross crams so much in it that it sometimes felt ideas weren’t as fully explored as they could have been but this might be rectified in further books. There were a lot of allusions to Peter Pan which felt a bit half baked and could have been pushed a bit further.
All in all though an interesting start to a new series.

DNF

trigger warning
<spoiler> ableism </spoiler>

This was a pretty instant dnf. I had high hopes for this and was eager to discover a new urban fantasy series to love to pieces, but it was not meant to be.

The author uses "to trigger" in the meaning somebody is an angry special snowflake who is to be ridiculed. I thought I could overlook that, maybe, but on the next page fun was made of victims of gaslighting.

I don't need this toxic garbage in my life. Nobody does.
I am saddened and upset that yeah, maybe the author thinks so, but the editor did not do anything about it, or any other readers if there were some.

So, you could ask why I chose to review this despite not even getting 10% read.
Two reasons: I refuse to let this affect my Netgalley ratio because I was willing to read and fully review this title. It's not my fault somebody lacks basic decency.
And second, this is a thing people have to know before getting into it. If I can do something to minimize the impact some arrogant people have on everybody else, I'll do it.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

I want to quickly point out that I never read any of the Laundry Files novels, but these are not vital for this book/series. I just wanted to make it clear so you understand exactly where I'm coming from with my interpretation and review of this book.
It begins with Santa being publicly executed outside a toy shop. Yep, you read that right. His crimes apparently include being an unregistered transhuman, aka having superpowers. This is a key concept throughout this book and supposedly the rest of the series.
I'm not going to really talk about the plot too much for a couple of reasons, mainly that I just couldn't. It is complicated and hard to explain properly, plus it would kind of ruin it for anyone who goes on to read the book. So instead I'll just mention a few key bits.
This book has a transgender superpowered villain (as well as various other interesting characters), lesbian love affairs, magic, and not-exactly-time-travel. I can certainly say I've never read anything quite like it. And the main characters, mostly criminals, are definitely unique too. They're not all exactly likeable, but some of them had their charms. The relationships between them are pretty great, in my opinion.
The only kind-of criticisms I have about this book are that it was pretty slow to get into, and also pretty difficult to follow and complicated at times. I probably missed some key parts here and there, or at least a joke or reference or something. Still, I enjoyed reading it. I didn't know what was coming around ever corner. Maybe if I were to read the other Laundry Files books and then come back to this, I would understand it a bit better. Overall, I gave Dead Lies Dreaming 3.5 stars.

I DNF'd this book at 50%. This is no fault of the book, it's just not my cup of tea. I think had I read Charles Stross' previous series I might have enjoyed it more. If you like quirky futuristic heist stories then you should definitely give this one a go!

I’d wanted to get right up to date with The Laundry Files series, thinking that this book was also set within that world and that I’d need to know what was going on. In the event I didn’t – but that meant I read two of Stross’ books back to back, which is something I generally avoid doing.

Therefore, I found it a tad difficult to initially get into this one – the world is a bit bleak and grungy and the protagonists, although sympathetic and well written, were clearly very much the underdogs. While there was humour, it came from the snark between the Imp’s ragtag band of misfits – which I didn’t initially find as appealing as Bob Howard’s magnificently dry delivery. However, they did grow on me and as the first major action scene unspooled, there were some very funny moments in amongst all the tension and danger, which I thoroughly appreciated.

Eve is a difficult character to initially bond with – she is an assistant to one of most truly horrible antagonists I’ve met for quite a while. And therefore, has to also become unpleasant – so I didn’t appreciate how much of a victim she actually was until well into the book. There was a particular bonding moment when I had a lump in my throat when reading about a scene with her parents – it was beautifully handled.

In amongst Rupert Bigge’s scramble to the top and Imp and his little gang trying to eke a living while illegally squatting in what used to be his old family home – there are also some lovely touches of magic. The time-travelling scenes back to Whitechapel Road, back in the Victorian era were genuinely creepy and vividly depicted. I loved the way the narrative played out and very much hope we get to see more of Imp, Game Boy, Del, Doc and Wendy – and of course, Eve – in future adventures. This is a cracking start to a new series that is set in contemporary Britain, where the monsters are in charge…

Highly recommended for SFF fans, who enjoy their urban fantasy with a sardonic twist and something a bit different. You don’t need to read The Laundry Files to enjoy this one. While I obtained an arc of Dead Lies Dreaming via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10

My thanks to Little, Brown Book Group U.K. - Orbit for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Dead Lies Dreaming’ by Charles Stross in exchange for an honest review.

While listed as Book 10 in Stross’ Laundry Files series, it is actually the start of a planned spin-off trilogy set in the same alternative universe. I have been intending to read Stross’ work for some time and so this seemed a good place to start.

With the New Management now in charge of the British government, magic and superpowers have become mainstream. The government has taken to using private contractors to hunt down such felons.

Wendy Deere is supernaturally gifted and is employed as a thief-taker. Her current target is Imp, the cyberpunk head of a gang of transhuman petty criminals, who call themselves the Lost Boys.

Imp’s sister, Eve, is employed by the vile billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge. Rupert has heard news that the sole surviving copy of the long-lost concordance to the one true Necronomicon is coming up for sale in an underground auction in London. He is determined to get his hands on it and assigns Eve the task of procuring it by any means necessary. She turns to her brother for assistance in pulling off the heist

The homage to Peter Pan is very clear throughout the novel and Peter provides “an inspiration to Imp in every way imaginable”.

Stross is clearly skilful at blending genres. Here he combined elements of comedy and satire with urban fantasy, science fiction, cyberpunk, and horror. Comedy and horror can be a tricky combination though Stross’ style definitely worked for me. The novel likely contained references to the Laundry Files, though these passed me by.

Still, after such a positive and enjoyable experience, I will be looking forward to further books in the series and have also lined up a couple of the early Laundry Files to read in the interim. Indeed, given their reputation, I may read all nine.

Definitely recommended.

The third reboot / re-entry point for the long-running Laundry Files series, the least connected to the "main" plot line, and possibly the most successful in making a now-familiar setting pop again. It's weighed down by a over-busy, grungy first act, but builds steam steadily to reach a propulsive (if slightly familiar) set piece finale that puts it just on the edge of four-star territory..

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Despite being in many ways a step away from the main series, Dead Lies Dreaming fits the formula of the recent Laundry books to a T: pick a spec-fic classic or sub-genre, strip away the frilly bits, fill back with computational demons and tentacles to taste. This really shouldn't work for Peter Pan, which is the classic in the cross-hairs here, but Barrie's work makes for a strangely solid fit to Stross' approach. It helps that the basic material of Pan is, well, pretty creepy (as we're reminded perhaps a little too overtly), and Stross's re-imagining doesn't just parody the original but leans hard into its themes of death, family, and the end of childhood. It's also a relief to have a novel in the series that takes the time to flesh out the richness of the Laundry setting with (comparatively) normal people. There's a whole host of little callbacks and Easter eggs that help make the series feel cohesive, even if elements like pseudo-Bonds, disposable Russian heavies and occult corporate villains have maybe been trotted out a few too many times already.

So far, so promising, but you might be forgiven for putting the book down before it really gets going. The first act is lumbered with a fairly large cast to introduce, main-series continuity to establish, plot breadcrumbs to scatter, and quite a bit of complicated back-and-forth to get all the characters together. Add in some occasionally gratuitous sleaze and grit that makes it feel like the book is trying too hard to show that it is in fact, all grown up, and it's a rocky start.

However, things tighten up nicely once a certain door is opened near the halfway mark, and the gradual revelation of why our Peter Pan stand in never wants to grow up — and why his sister has grown up only too too much — develops a surprisingly large amount of pathos. The phantasmagoric Victorian set piece that takes up nearly the entire third act is spectacular, and it's easy to forget that all the action in Neverland is covering up some shaky setup. Still, it's a welcome change of pace for the series, and hopefully future adventures with not-Pan and his Lost Boys will be able to keep the pizzaz without the labour of rebooting the series ever time. Third dying star to the right, and straight on until morning or the Elder Gods catch up, whichever comes first..

That book is incredibly beautiful. It has a wonderful cover, a great cast of characters and a story that lured me from the beginning.
Sadly, though, I was not in the right mindset when I had started this book. I didn't manage to focus properly, which is a shame because from what I've maganged to keep in mind, this book is awesome.. The writing style and the characters were so well done and I am a digger for The Law VS Criminals, especially if those criminals are so well organised as Game Boy and the gang were.
I did not quite grab the context or actual sense of the Transhuman thing, but seeing this is the spin off to another series, I presume it's my own fault...
However, I still enjoyed this read. The writing style was beautiful, the characters were complex and motivated and I deeply regret that I wasn't able to enjoy this book the way it devers to be.
I received a free copy by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

When magic and superpowers emerge in the masses, Wendy Deere is contracted by the government to bag and snag supervillains in Dead Lies Dreaming, the tenth instalment in the Laundry Files series, and although not strictly a necessity, I would recommend reading them chronologically. As Wendy hunts down Imp―the cyberpunk head of a band calling themselves “The Lost Boys”― she is dragged into the schemes of louche billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge. Rupert has discovered that the sole surviving copy of the long-lost concordance to the one true Necronomicon is up for underground auction in London. He hires Imp’s sister, Eve, to procure it by any means necessary, and in the process, he encounters Wendy Deere. In a tale of corruption, assassination, thievery, and magic, Wendy Deere must navigate rotting mansions that lead to distant pasts, evil tycoons, corrupt government officials, lethal curses, and her own moral qualms in order to make it out of this chase alive.

Returning to an alternate England, Kensington to be exact, we embark on a dangerous adventure with both new and old characters sharing the spotlight. The worldbuilding is impeccable, immersing you in the world with ease and this instalment is certainly a lot more dark and gritty than the preceding books. It's a madcap caper with lots of hilarious humour and a cast of characters who are eccentric and engaging; Wendy and The Lost Boys, a gang of superpowered transhuman heisters comprising Imp, the Deliverator, Doc Depression, and Game Boy, are superbly developed and each has their own distinct personality. This is a captivating, zany and refreshingly original series (and book) which is thoroughly entertaining with its chaotic intersecting plotlines, sardonic wit and great characterisation. There is danger, drama and bullets flying and enough to keep you engrossed and absorbed from first page to last. Many thanks to Orbit for an ARC.

(I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an unbiased review)

I added this book to my 'to-read' shelf thinking it was the next book in the Laundry Files. Serves me right for not reading the page posted above (https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2019/12/introducing-dead-lies-dreaming.html) until AFTER I finished it!

Stross explains it like this: 'This is not the Laundry Files. It's Laundry-adjacent, however, and it tackles the sort of social themes that a cumbersome government bureaucracy mired in paperclip audits and ISO9000 form-filling simply can't touch: crime and justice, deviance and conformism, life in a time of creeping and pervasive environmental crisis.'

'Dead Lies Dreaming' starts off as a heist book, and meanders into the paranormal/supernatural reasonably quickly. The magic system will be familiar to any who have read the Laundry Files, so needs very little exposition, and thankfully is not to be found in any great capacity.

Although a little confusing to start with (although I think this was due to the formatting of the ARC), we have five main characters providing points of view (as well as a few others that drop in and out). They do all have distinctly different voices though, so don't worry as you start getting deeper into the story.

This story felt simultaneously familiar and new, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. I will be picking up 'Dead Lies Dreaming; Book 2' as I am intrigued as to how this side of the LF world will play out (although I do miss Bob).

Stross' latest is a Laundry Files spin-off, a nested Peter Pan riff posing as an occult/techno-thriller in a sideways London where the Lovecraftian apocalypse is real to the extent that Nyarlathotep is now Prime Minister. So there's the first problem: it's another dystopia which in fact looks fairly appealing compared to our own timeline. There's one scene where a character's ward is nullified as she comes under psychic attack: "a bleak tide of depression washed over her. It felt like she'd jumped in a river of regrets, her pockets stuffed with cobblestones. It came to her distantly that she could barely muster the energy to breathe – in fact begrudged herself every successive moment of mindlessly prolonged life." At which I could only sigh enviously at the thought of a world where that mood is the result of magical aggression, rather than the day-to-day default. Hell, I was feeling a bit this way with the previous Laundry novel proper, and that was pre-lockdown. A development Stross could hardly have predicted, granted, but there's no such excuse in having the villain here be a tycoon whose political career was stymied by photos of him fucking a dead pig at university, something which is obviously no impediment in our own world. Said villain is called Rupert de Montfort Bigge, and depicted with exactly the degree of subtlety that moniker suggests, a monster of greed and depravity in a way which feels slightly old-fashioned when we know the destruction our own world's super-rich can cause while having entirely colourless private lives. Yes, having Rupert be a feudal lordling of a Channel Island called Skaro did make me chuckle at the near-anagram with a little extra bite, but there were definitely times here where I was getting a Pat Mills vibe, a sense that while I absolutely agree with the author about the evils of privatisation, deregulation and unfettered inequality, he was still hammering the point to the extent it was harming the art*.

The protagonists are a more rounded bunch. Wendy, a long way from the Barrie via Disney version we expect, is a rentacop who can magically summon items; she ends up on the trail of some Lost Boys pulling superpowered heists to fund a Peter Pan film; and then Bigge's mutinous PA also gets involved. But none of them ever quite came alive for me to the same degree as the leads in the Laundry Files proper, perhaps because there the narrators always had at least a whole novel to inveigle themselves into your sympathies, instead of having to share space like this. Still, it's not like Stross hasn't created compelling leads in shorter spaces before, and this contributes to a general sense that he's not quite operating at the peak of his powers here. Lords know he's not been having a good time of it lately, and some of the most powerful sections feel like they may be drawing on that – for all the Cthulhoid nasties, the most genuinely horrific passages are undoubtedly the ones about dealing with a parent's degenerative illness, the indignities and damage attendant on that. Elsewhere, though, there are big action sequences which feel a little too straight thriller, a bit big-budget TV, and not really what I'm after in a Laundry (or even Laundry-adjacent) book, to the extent that it can start feeling like a franchise extension by another hand. Except then you'll get a passage that's pure Stross, like the novel twist on the magical Macguffin, or in particular the tense discussion on the technicalities of its attendant curse – "ancient death spells and intellectual property laws don't always play nice together".

It all builds to a conclusion which is equal parts atmospheric and frustrating; its approach to a key SF trope feels a bit cake-and-eat-it, which I could forgive for the mood it builds, if it weren't then slightly swamped in too many factions whose motives I didn't entirely buy given they were mostly meant to be on the same side. You know Ben Wheatley's Free Fire? Imagine if, on top of the other things which made it less than entirely satisfying, the warehouse location and its immediate environs were really interesting in themselves, and the gunfight was largely getting in the way. There are some fun traps and reversals, but mostly I was left with the sense of a book which might have been happier as its own thing, or perhaps earlier in the Laundry timeline (circa Annihilation Score, for instance), but which as it stands feels like a bit of a square peg.

*It should be noted that I'm reading a Netgalley ARC, granted with a proviso that details could change before final publication, but this is not a matter of line-by-line quotes which could be checked so much as a general issue with the fabric and feel of the book.

Synopsis: It’s an alternate London in the Laundry Files universe, but with a fresh start of characters and topics, and hopefully less tentacles. An anarchic robber gang, the transhuman “Lost Boys”, stage several robberies. Their ultimate goal is to fund an avant-garde Peter Pan adaption titled “Dead Lies Dreaming” where “Peter was nothing if not pansexual”.

There is a certain risk with those criminal acts, as the new power in Downing Street – headed by an Elder God reintroduced the Bloody Code which “prescribed death penalty for pretty much everything above the level of a parking ticket”. Even Santa falls under that law:

[He] saw four elven warriors shackling a Santa to a stainless-steel cross outside Hamleys Toy Shop. […] When the alfär executioner held his heavy-duty electric screwdriver against Santa’s wrist, the screams were audible over the rumble of passing buses. […] Doc squinted at one of the execution notices taped to the lamp posts. “Huh. He’s an unregistered transhuman.” Superpowered, in other words. Like us went without saying. “Identifies as, well, Santa. Guilty of breaking and entering, animal cruelty, flying under the influence, violating controlled airspace—” his eyebrows rose steadily—“human trafficking, slave labor, shoplifting toys, breaking rabies quarantine with reindeer.”

The story follows the gang as they get a special job uncovering an occult book, the famous Necronomicon. Their quest leads them through a inter-universe dream-house on a time travel back into London’s Whitechapel – as ugly as a Brasilian favela back then – in the year 1888. Incidentially, that’s Jack the Ripper’s year.

On their heels, a couple of heavy-armed Russians, and a so-called Mr Bond try to uncover the same item. But the book is highly dangerous itself, protected by wards, and driving mens’ soul to madness.

Review: That longer citation set the comical horror tone of the whole novel. I don’t appreciate horror at all, but in this case it was light enough that it didn’t cause any nightmares (yet). In fact, it is more a thriller with lots of action and shooting than anything else. The transhuman powers and the magic system was introduced very carefully and was amusing first and fascinating later on when the whole setting unfolded. Stross did a masterful job with the novel’s world building.

He probably harvested a lot from his long running Laundry Files series. I just cannot comment on this background, because I haven’t read anything from it, and the novel never gave me the feeling that I missed anything. So far, I’ve read from Charles Stross only his novel Accelerando with the great novella Lobsters, and some other short stories. Dead Lies Dreaming is far lighter with technical terms than Accelerando and easier accessible. It’s a real page turner, never letting up the action and heist story.

I could have lived without the character of Mr Bond who read more like an over-the-top parody and whose plot-line could have deleted without larger impact. Most of the over characters were well-done. The author pushed in LGBTQIA heavily into this story, as we find transgender and multiple homosexual characters in the Lost Boys. I liked them all and cared for them, but in the end it was really a story of two siblings: The leader of the gang Imp and his sister Eve working as executive assistant for an ultra-rich asshole. Their family has a lot of burdens – their father is dead, and the mother in a sanatorium for mages. Stretched over the whole novel, their history and relationship become clear, and I loved the way Stross introduced it bit by bit.

The style crosses several subgenres of speculative fiction: There is some Cyberpunk in it, but Stross never gets too far into infodumping the newest cryptographic terms. He touches lot of occult Lovecraftian elements, and they give far more than an atmospheric twist, because they are essential for the setting and for the plot. And there is the comical superhuman aspect, where many protagonists have one or the other form of special abilities. Stross juggled those subgenres marvelously and weaved them into a action-heavy thriller.

It’s a perfectly enjoyable, giggle-infusing, and well rounded novel in all aspects, and I fully recommend it. I’m very looking forward to the next volume in this Stross come-back.

I’m a huge Laundry Files fan and couldn’t wait to get my claws into this. The more recent LF novels have introduced new main characters and POVs so it wasn’t a surprise when none of the usual faves Bob, Mo, Pinky, Brain, Mhari or even Cassie made an appearance. However it took me a while to get into it and accept the cast to the extent it took me days to read. This is rare in a Stross book where I usually devour it in a single sitting. Still good, but more unpleasant and seedy and way less techy than his usual fare. Regardless of that, I look forward to the next one and the evolution of these characters.

After a couple of years' hiatus it's great to see a novel by Charles Stross hitting the streets again - in this case the streets of up-market Kensington in London, home to hedge funds, shady oligarchs' property investments and minor royalty...

...And also to a gang of anarchic robbers with minor superpowers who are staging audacious daylight robberies in order to raise funds for their avant-garde film based on J M Barrie's Peter Pan (in which 'Peter was nothing is not pansexual' - we're not in Disneyland any more).

The book is set is the world of the Laundry Files, Stross's long running series about the occult division of the British Secret Service and its confrontation with nameless, tentacled horrors from beyond the walls of our universe. It's not, though, a "Laundry Files" novel - you won't find Bob Howard here and while the Laundry itself is alluded to a couple of times, it doesn't feature in the events.

Rather we have the same background, of impending apocalypse, staved off only by the New Management, the ancient horror that has assumed power in Downing Street and which displays the heads of speeding motorists along the M25 - but everything seen much more from an outsider's perspective. The cruelties of the regime are that much starker, when distanced from the high politics that brought them about: 'Imp froze as he rounded the corner onto Regent Street, and saw four elven warriors shackling a Santa to a stainless-steel cross outside Hamleys Toy Shop... When the alfär executioner held his heavy-duty electric screwdriver against Santa's wrist, the screams were audible over the tumble of passing buses.'

Yes, the New Management is all for Law and Order, which makes Imp and his gang's activities distinctly perilous.

Like many of the earlier Laundry novels, this story has a (loose) inspiration in an earlier book, in this case, yes, you won't be surprised it's JM Barrie's novel about Peter and Wendy. (Appropriate, given the associations between Peter and Kensington). So the gang - Imp, Doc, Del, Game Boy - are referred to as the 'Lost Boys' (though strictly one's a girl), we find a dangerous Neverland buried deep behind one of those respectable mansions, there is a Wendy (a character who's perhaps a bit under-used: I hope we'll meet her again) and there are clear thematic links - though as I said above, these aren't to the sanitised, Disneyesque version. The Lost Boys are hunted by the law, hiding out in a den where they enthusiastically share drugs, and once their enemies catch up with them, we're not talking fancy swordplay and taunts - the book features serious weaponry, a massive death toll and some very, very nasty villains.

Oh, and a background of child sacrifice, torture and gangsters.

I did feel that the Boys' separate personas took a little time to become clear. In part I think that's because they're introduce in the middle of a caper, deploying their superpowers right and left in fast moving action. In part it's because there are layers to them and aspects of their identities that aren't, even shouldn't be, obvious - just bear with things a bit here, OK?

Chief among the Boys' opponents are billionaire businessman Rupert Bigge (head of the Big Organisation) and his henchwoman Evelyn Starkey - an ultraefficient PA/ assassin ('work was a game she played in boss mode') who spends her free minutes planning new ways to torture those who have crossed Rupert, and to dispose of their remains. (When she's not doing that, the real boss is prone to call her from wherever and demand phone sex). There are also Russian mafia assassins, a James Bond-for-hire and an ancestral curse.

The book features Stross's characteristic hectic multiple plots and hidden motivations (though here, perhaps a bit more linear than in previous books) and occult-technothriller atmosphere. But it also has a genuinely sad family history in the mix, featuring a lost sibling (there we go again with the Peter Pan stuff!), a broken family and aforementioned curse. I don't want to spoil the story but I found that one of the characters who I strongly disliked at first turned out to be very sympathetic and - by the end - perhaps even redeemed. (Perhaps. We'll see, if they recur in a later book). It also has - again , that outsider's view - a grim appreciation of the realities of poverty in 2020s London. I know that in Laundry books, Bob has grumbled about Civil Service wages, but he had a reasonable house provided. Here we find Wendy, for example, very hard up, having to juggle between eating and having the heating on ('Poverty was expensive') and encounter the outskirts of the UK's failing adult care system with a frank appraisal of a home ('Eve did not - could not - believe in a loving God because she visited Hell every second Sunday of the month to take tea with the damned'), and magic-addled victims of K-syndrome wandering the streets. (Yes, Mr Stross, I want to know more about Professor Skullface as well!)

In reading Dead Lies Dreaming I think I benefited from having first read the Laundry Files proper. I knew the world and the setup, and the full significance of certain things that are explained here but only briefly (as well, of course, as knowing where the arc of this world is bending...) Perhaps a reader coming to this world fresh wouldn't feel they were missing out on anything but they might wonder about the emphasis on one or two things.

In short, I enjoyed this book. There is some sharp writing here, quite a few places where I giggled out loud, well imagined characters (though, as I've said, some could have had more exposure) and a pacy plot. It was also good to be back in the horrific, grotesque world of the Laundry with its barely contained paranoia, its horror ruling from Downing Street, its sense of impending doom and of a dissolving society (heightened here by rampaging gangster capitalism). The slightly cooler, street-level view of that world gives a more rounded picture, perhaps than the shenanigans of Bob & Co and reveals it to be a world curiously unlike our own (see for example Imp's frustration at Del's 'perpetually seething low-key state of rage [which] was a potential lethal weakness').

Stross is back with a book that shows how this saga, begun in The Atrocity Archives some fifteen years ago, continues to evolve, becoming, if anything, more and more relevant.

This was an interesting and quick read for me. This is part of a series so I’ll admit some things confused me but I still liked the book. I hadn’t been read any of the authors other books before but I will check them out now as I really enjoyed this world.
The writing was really easy to read and the pacing at the beginning dragged a little as it was setting up the plot. I really liked the heist plot and it was interesting seeing a detective dragged into it. I really liked the magical system and how magic was normal and there were laws about it. I liked this book and I think other people will love it.