After surviving his first couple of adventures as a Laundry Files field agent, Bob Howard has been promoted to SSO and has been tasked with attending a joint-liaison meeting in Germany with other EU agencies which perform similar tasks to his own organisation. Things quickly head sideways though when after arriving at his hotel he meets Ramona, an American assassin who also happens to be a succubus who works for the Black Chamber, and they’re supposed to be working together. Firstly to disrupt what’s about to go down and then to stop an evil genius who is about to raise something from the sea floor which shouldn’t be seeing the light of day. If this was the mission all along then why wasn’t he briefed?

James Bond meets H. P. Lovecraft with a dollop of geekdom thrown in for good measure make this an enjoyable continuation of this urban fantasy series. Bob & Ramona are great characters who play off each other really well and when you add Mo to the mix it really ramps up the ante. The villain is suitably Bondian through necessity as it’s all plot-driven and the author really exploits all the foibles you usually find in that franchise.

As with the first book there is also a short story with Bob back in the office with HR on his back. This time around he gets lumbered with an intern who does exactly what Bob tells him not to do and ends up trapped in an MMORPG. Unfortunately for Bob this particular intern got the position through nepotism and if he wants to avoid some nasty repercussions then he’s going to have to rescue him.

The way the series has started it could be a rival to the Dresden books for my favourite of the genre. ( )

It not my first run through "The Jennifer Morgue," but I think I enjoyed it just if I'd never heard it. It was quirky and delightful. I enjoyed it more is that I understood more of the jokes because I know more programming languages. It is a recommended series for Nerds. This book was the second in the series, so there are more to come, and I am glad for it. ( )

Good but u didn't enjoy as much as the first one. ( )

This is an excellent follow up to The Atrocity Archives.

On the plus side, Stross managed to tone down the technobabble from ridiculous to only mildly over the top. There's still more than enough references to enjoy and enough neat world building on the (non Euclidean) edges between technology and demonology, but it's not quite hitting you over the head like the first one did.

On the other hand, what he gave up in technobabble, he replaced with spybabble. There are are strong hints of spy novel trappings all over the book. Let's just say though, they are there for a good reason.

One neat addition to this book (although I don't know if she'll be back) is the character of Ramona Random. She's not entirely human and has a succubus along for the ride (which leads to some more distinctly R rated scenes than the first book had), but I thought she was a really interesting character. Despite--or perhaps because of--her rather problematic backstory, I really started to root for her throughout the book.

Also Mo. She's something of a badass now, taking on the bigwigs both in the Laundry and in the real world. Her violin is an especially interesting bit of world building. I especially love her part towards the end even if I'll admit that I didn't see the twist coming as soon as I could have. I do hope they do more with her in the latter books.

Merged review:

Not nearly as strong as the other Laundry Files short story I've read, Pimpf basically talks about Bob taking on an intern and fighting real(ish) life demons inside a copy of Neverwinter Nights.

There were plenty of references and a nice does of cosmic madness, but I just didn't get as much into it as I did the Concrete Jungle (let alone the full novels). So it goes. ( )

Oh my, that was a fun ride. ( )