Dead Lies Dreaming

I'm cutting this book some slack because Stross explains how it wasn't supposed to exist and was written amidst a lot of stress and family turmoil in his blog. It's not Laundry, it's Laundry adjacent and lets him write about life under the New Management. I kept reading and was waiting... waiting for Mo, Bob, vamps, someone, but not just anyone, familiar to come riding in and update us on where they've been. What became of them. What they became. But no. We did get many a reference to previous book events and how a random new bunch were affected. That was cool. But, not what I waited all year for. Like I said, it's Stross and an interesting look at the current state of things, but it was very obviously written with less of the usual Laundry flare. If this series is winding down, I hope the rest is filled with many updates on our core heroes and a satisfying Rainbow coded end.

Unfocused and unengaging, this Stross novel is well below his usual bar. It's in the same continuity as the series but has zero ties to prior stories - no established characters, no recurring plot lines, even the magic is different. He's ditched the "computational demonology" magic system, beloved by computer nerds, and in its place given readers a bunch of kids with poorly explained medium-grade superpowers. The unique magic was the one of the main draws of the series. Bland modern fantasy doesn't hold up. There's nothing inherently bad with new characters but the book doesn't take the time to flesh them out. It also doesn't bother to ramp up the stakes: the supposed protagonists are in mortal danger from the start. As a result, there's no tension; they clearly won't die, so it's merely a question of what plot convenience will save the day. Overall 3/5 because Stross is still a good writer and his work is mediocre at worst. This is fairly close to his worst, though.

on first read I gave it three stars, upgraded now to four stars. given the author's personal sexuality, the disgusting story-telling isn't a surprise, but the ultimate gender-brending fabula is a hit. I'd like it more if every character wasn't queer. again, given the author, no surprise. hey as**ole , Trump won again, suck my ****.