A Book Review: Charles Stross’ The Laundry Files Series

I must apologize for my absence from this blog. Yes, I am still alive and well. So on with this month’s installment...

While not strictly in the domain of alternate history or of parallel universes, the series of books – The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, The Fuller Memorandum and now, most recently, The Apocalypse Codex – that comprises the Landry Files series by Charles Stross, details the workaday adventures of one Bob Howard.  Bob leads an average life. He has a loving girlfriend, Mo and a boss who has fast-tracked him for Bigger and Better Things. Did I mention he is a computational demonologist who works for a top secret British agency that defends the U.K. against those Things that Go Bump in the Night? Did I mention that Bob met Mo while fighting entities from another dimension? And that Bob’s boss… he’s …oh well…umm.

It’s a very fun read. Much of the series’ universe is based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft’s delightfully nihilistic Cthulu Mythos and those who would bring about the time when the Old Ones would again return to walk the surface of the earth, known as CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN (think of a really, really bad version of the Harmonic Convergence.).

Okay, I admit it here – in the interests of full disclosure – I have a deep interest in the Mythos. Many authors including myself (Truth, Justice and the 1962 War Against Evil) have taken their turns to romp around in what has inadvertently become a very large and very scary shared universe.  I'l also admit that I am also now working on a draft of a Lovecraft-inspired book.

But enough about me.  I happen to love Stross’ contribution to the Cthulu Mythos. Much of it is written in a deliciously paranoid tongue-in-cheek style with touches of sheer brilliance when it comes to workplace satire.  He also works in the style of famed British author Len Deighton, whose novels and movies featuring the decidedly low rent exploits of his bespectacled antihero spy Harry Palmer were the perfect counterpoint to that same era’s over the top exploits of a certain 007 (Deighton also happens to the author of the alternate-history classic, SS-GB.).

Bob Howard is cast in much of the same mold as Harry Palmer.  He wins just as often as he loses. And if he does win, it’s more likely he’s done so by just muddling through.  There’s a certain kind of realism there that’s refreshing.

And maybe that’s who we need defending us against The Old Ones and all the other horrors out there. Not some flash-in-the-pan 007 superspy, but a lowly computational demonologist with a knack for muddling through.

Do I recommend the series? Absolutely.  If you haven’t read any of the books, now’s the time.  While there’s still time…

Meanwhile, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing my books, Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and now The Key to My Heart, also $2.99 (all are free to preview). All books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  And if you’re looking for an experienced marketing communications guy, do me a favor and have a look here. Thanks.

Update: The Key to My Heart Granted Smashwords Premium Status

Well, good news! The Key to My Heart has been approved for Smashword’s Premium  Distribution, which means it will be soon available on such retail websites as Chapters Indigo,  Apples iTunes and Barnes and Noble.  Meanwhile, you can always buy it here.

Meanwhile, as I said, I’m reading the latest installment in Taylor  Anderson’s long-running Destroyermen series, The Iron Gray Sea. I’m about half-way through it, but by now, you should know that I’m a dedicated fan of the series who is eagerly wondering how the whole thing must end.

At one point soon, I’ll also be talking about my next favorite, Charles Stross’ spy/horror series, The Laundry Files, which I can only describe as Len Deighton meets H.P. Lovecraft.  Not that it has much to do with alternate universes –some—but it is a darn good read.

Meanwhile, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing my other two books, Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 (both are free to preview). Both books -- which are already on Smashword's premium distribution list -- are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  And if you’re looking for an experienced marketing communications guy, do me a favor and have a look here. Thanks.

An Excerpt: The Key to My Heart

I knew she was trouble as soon as she stepped into my office. The type of trouble that only gets talked about by lonesome men in dusky bars over gin in dirty glasses. The type of trouble that leaves a smile on your face and you begging for more. The type that if it hasn’t killed you stone cold, it’s only because it’s driven you nuts first.

She wore a long black cape with her hood up and under it, a hint of long blonde hair. Her cold red lips parted in a ghost of a smile. “Mr. Gannon,” she said. “Chance Gannon.”

“That’s what it says on the door,” I said, sitting up behind my desk. Behind me, a tabletop fan battled the steamy August night air. I could tell by the sweat beading on my forehead it was losing. Somewhere, the latest Dorsey tune droned from a radio. A half-read pulp magazine – Amazing Stories- lay unfinished on my desk with a shining finned rocket ship sitting tail-first on a moonscape with jagged alpine peaks in the background and planet earth glowing in the sky above. It was a cinch I wasn’t going to finish that. “Have a seat. What can I do for you Mrs...?”

“Miss,” she smiled. “Miss Melody.” She lounged in my sofa, her long tanned legs peeking through her cape. “Mr. Gannon, six months ago, you were retained by an associate of mine, the late Walter Carswell.”

I said nothing. But I remembered Carswell.  He vanished just after I started to work for him. Never knew what happened to him; but she seemed to.  I slid my hand towards half-open desk drawer where my .45 lay.

“That’s all right; I know. Before Walter died, he placed something with you for safekeeping. It belongs to me.”

“You’ll have to excuse me, but I’ll need a bit more proof than that before I hand anything over.”

“Carswell said when the time was right, I should come to you and give you this.” She stood up and placed it on my desk. The golden heart basked in the weak light from my lamp’s 40-watt bulb.

I picked it up. “There’s a little tarnish on your heart.” 

She smiled. A gleaming 9 mm automatic appeared from the folds of her cape. “Give the item to me, Mr. Gannon. Now.”

I dove for my drawer and my .45, but she’d fired first. Two slugs bore into me, burning hot pokers of pain into my leg and my thigh, tearing into already scarred flesh. As I lay up against the wall in a pool of my own Type “O,” I looked up at her as smoke curled up from the barrel of her gun. We could both hear wail of sirens coming down the block. That’s what you get for having nosy neighbors. “Guess you lose, babe. You don’t get it.”

“Next time, Mr. Gannon,” she smiled, walking for the door. “Next time.”

She’d be back. And I don’t think it was because she loved me. As her heels clicked down the linoleum of the corridor and the sirens got closer, I slumped back against the wall. The pain shooting up through my body, it wasn’t nearly as bad as when I got shot up after jumping into France back in ‘44. But four years later, on damp mornings — which are most mornings in San Francisco — my knee still ached and I still walked with a cane. And I didn’t like the idea of carrying more lead in my body.

I looked up to the sound of flat feet charging up the hall. I knew the uniform that came through the door, gun drawn: Bertinelli. Holstering his revolver, he walked over and knelt beside me. “Jeez...Chance!”

“I’ll live,” I croaked. “Anyone see the woman who did this to me?”

“A skirt.” Bertinelli got to his feet, smiled as he picked up the phone to call for an ambulance. “Always figured it’d a be woman who’d do you in.”

Copyright 2013, Michael Cnudde

####

And the mystery, as they say, only deepeens.  Liking what you read?  You can buy The Key to My Heart here, for just $2.99. 

Meanwhile, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing my other two books, Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 (both are free to preview). Both books are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  And if you’re looking for an experienced marketing communications guy, do me a favor and have a look here. Thanks.

The Key to My Heart Launches on Smashwords!

I must apologize.  I’ve missed a whole month on this blog; but rest assured it’s not been in vain.

I can now announce that my latest novel, The Key to My Heart is now on sale as an e-book via Smashwords.

Chance Gannon is washed-up P.I. who survives in post-war San Francisco by taking divorce cases and drinking himself to sleep at night. When he’s gunned down in his own office by a mysterious and beautiful femme fatale, it launches him on one last case that not only threatens his life, but the entire world!

The Key to My Heart is my homage to hardboiled detective fiction, complete with the femme fatale, the loyal girlfriend, and the hard-nosed cop who’d just as soon see Gannon behind bars.

But… if you know me, I’ve also thrown in a dash of SF – something about aliens and time-travelers, if you can believe that, plus a few other things.  But I'll say  no more, because I’d be spoiling it. 

As The Key to My Heart is not yet available through Smashword’s Premium distribution system, you can buy it here, for just $2.99. Watch this space for further announcements regarding this.

As an update, I'm also reading the latest installment in Taylor Anderson's long-running  Destroyermen series, The Iron Gray Sea.  I'll talk about it in a future posting.

Meanwhile, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing my other two books, Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 (both are free to preview). Both books are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  And if you’re looking for an experienced marketing communications guy, do me a favor and have a look here. Thanks.

The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter: A Review

This is one of my favourite new books.  

While The Long Earth is indeed about parallel earths, but as the authors very quickly point out, it is one on a grand scale.  “All those parallel earths are identical…on all but the detailed level,” one character points out early on, “Oh save that they are empty… this is tough luck on Adolf Hitler, who hasn’t been allowed to win his war anywhere!”

Imagine millions of earths coexisting with our earth on a slightly dimensional plane on ether side of this earth, and you get the picture.  Travel between the earths is possible by “stepping.”  Some use a device called a stepper (which when described, you can sense the whimsical hand of Pratchett behind it) while others seem to have a natural talent. Others can’t step at all.

Authors Pratchett (famous for his Discworld series) and Baxter (his Odyssey was reviewed in an earlier posting on this blog), with a mixture of humour, gentle satire and awe, paint a wide canvas of a world whose population one day awakens to realize that the old saying “there’s only one earth” no longer applies, but there are literally millions of new worlds the taking, and how the peoples of the earth wrestle with the vast implications of what now faces them.

The book has a number of characters and plots, but the main plot follows the path of an unlikely pair of a natural stepper, Joshua Valiente and an intelligent computer program who may have once been human, Lobsang, as they explore deep into the Long Earth to find the source of an impending disaster, sweeping in like a tidal wave of doom across the alternate universes, that will eventually overwhelm and destroy the home (or datum) earth, along with the entire Long Earth, if not stopped.

But that’s all I’m going to say here.  

My recommendation: if you’re looking for a great summer read that will keep you turning pages, buy this book. And then, of course, you’ll have to wait for the next book in the series, The Long War, coming soon.

Meanwhile, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing both Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 (both are free to preview). Both books are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  And if you’re looking for an experienced marketing communications guy, do me a favor and have a look here. Thanks.

Amelia Earhart’s Plane Found on Sonar?

Regular readers of this blog will know that we’ve closely followed the search for Amelia Earhart’s aircraft by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR). 

Now, perhaps, most intriguingly, their search may have paid off. TIGHAR'S long-standing mission has been to find the twin-engined Lockheed Electra that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan flew in while making the fateful Pacific leg of their round-the-world flight attempt, before vanishing in July 1937.

A sonar scan shows an “anomaly” resting in about 600 feet of water, off of Nikumaroro Island, which is some 350 miles from their planned destination, Howland Island.

Is this Earhart's Plane? - TIGHAR

This, along with a recently unearthed picture taken in October 1937, showing some debris closely resembling the landing gear of Earhart’s aircraft sticking out of the water off of Nikumaroro Island, is the strongest evidence unearthed thus far to suggest what happened to the plane.

But what happened to Earhart and Noonan?  Were they trapped in their plane when it crashed, perhaps rendered unconscious by the impact and couldn’t escape?  Did they make to the nearby island, where they managed to eke out an existence for a while? If so, what happened after that?

It’s likely these questions will never be fully answered and the mystery that had intrigued so many – including myself – for well over 75 years, will endure.  Amelia, of course, is a prominent character in my alternate history novel War Plan Crimson and has a short story all to herself in my alt-history collection, Elvis Saves JFK!

Meanwhile, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing both Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 (both are free to preview). Both books are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  And if you’re looking for an experienced marketing communications guy, do me a favor and have a look here. Thanks.

Poetic Justice - Part II

It’s not always parallel universes and alt-history on this blog. Sometimes it’s other stuff. Like poetry. Yes, poetry. You’ll remember how in this space, a few months back, I wrote about the release of the poetry anthology Poems from Planet Earth, from the good folks at Leaf Press and edited Yvonne Blomer and Cynthia Woodman Kerkham.

Well, the good news is that it’s finally out and the poetically-minded of you can order it online here.  

The book has its genesis in the Planet Earth poetry and spoken word series held every Friday night at the Moka House in Victoria.  I was honored to be a regular reader at the series that featured many fine poets, including Patrick Lane, Pamela Porter (a Governor General’s award winner for poetry).  I remain indebted to Yvonne and the others at Planet Earth for their graciousness and kindness (Hi Sheila! Hi David!).

I am also highly honored that I also have a poem included in the anthology… it’s also quoted in  a  chapter introduction, which also freaks me out a little. If you like poetry, or just remotely curious, I encourage you to give this book a try.

Meanwhile, you can help out a poor unemployed writer by purchasing both Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 (both are free to preview). Both books are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Chapters Indigo, Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.  And if you’re looking for an experienced marketing communications guy, do me a favor and have a look here. Thanks.