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The second Morris and Chastain investigation closes the circle on the hanging plot lines from the first book. This was clearly in the author’s mind when he wrote the first one and they may even have been a single book in original conception, but separated out to set up and characters and because it would have been way too long.

In general this is a better written book than the first. Gustainins is clearly improving as a writer and finding his feet with the characters and the world. However, there is a big flaw in his world-building in that he succumbed to the temptation to tie in to another contemporary series. Despite the Dracula-link with Morris, that’s not too constraining because Dracula is so light on details of the undead and other aspects of that world’s weirdness. However, clearly influenced by Jim Butcher’s approval and willingness to allow it, Morris and Chastain visit Chicago on a fool’s erran trying to catch up with Harry Dresden (not mentioned by name) and hang out in Mac’s bar (mentioned by name). Now, I’m a big fan of the Dresden FIles, but this was a mistake. The Dresden Files has a significant and well worked out mythology behind it and Chastain’s White Witch is simply too powerful for that universe. She’d have to be a member of the White Council. Plus, the White Council would certainly be on the case of the main story here – the rich bad guy trying to summon up Satan into the world, in a very James Bond-villain way. I’m slightly reminded of The Jennifer Morgue, actually, with the JB motifs running through.

So long as I forget the side trip to Chicago, this is a worthwhile follow-up and kept me interested enough to get the third. Still only for the die-hard urban fantasy fan, though.

Almost caught up on the backlog of book blogging. The three books so far in this series are, I think, the only outstanding ones.

This is another modern day urban fantasy of the veil sub-type, i.e. the supernatural exists but is not acknowledged generally. It’s the start of a series of “Morris and Chastain Investigations”. Its basic conceit is that Quincey Morris’ (the American in Dracula) descendents are battlers against evil magic. His friend Chastain is a white witch. There’s a little bit of sexual tension, unrelieved. This is definitely not paranormal romance. There’s an interesting “Hero of another story” in Barry White, a New York-based Barry Love, who they run into at one point.

In parallel with the main storyline, there’s an interesting alternate linekd tale of an FBI agent and a South African visiting cop on the trail of a serial killer. This is an intricately linked sub-plot and the FBI agent turns up in later books. As does the background figure of the man employing the main antagonist of Morris and Chastain (a black with to Chastain’s white).

I’m not sure about the utility of using Quincey Morris grandson in this. It seems to make this a little like Dracula fan-fiction rather than a real book. It’s also clearly a first novel, with the common pacing flaws. It just drags a bit in places. It’s not a bad example of the type and well enough written that I’ve bought and read the next two in the sequence (re-reading this one to start me off). Recommended only if you particularly like this kind of thing, though. There are better modern urban fantasy series out there (though also many worse ones).

The third, and so far final, Drake Maijstral book. I got my hopes up recently when I saw a listing for “Ten Points for Style” (a catch-phrase in this universe about the necessity to pull off one’s capers with flair) but it turned out to be a book club compendium of all three novels and not something new. As mentioned in my writeup of House of Shards, it’s clear that Williams had a plan of these three right from the start and they form a satisfying complete story spanning all three. In this one, Drake is supposedly on holiday on Earth (which he’s never before visited). Now that he’s the top-ranked burglar in the ratings (following his successful contest in House of Shards) Earth’s authorities are understandably concerned about him practising his profession there. A minor comment on “crying Wolf” here in that Drake really is on holiday but he always claims not to be working for plausible deniability reasons so few believe him. When someone takes advantage of this to frame him for a series of thefts from his aristocratic hosts, he’s forced into working to clear his name. His own and his family’s past (including the details of his grandfather’s sordid past) mix together with Duchesses, superstars, alien (and human) Elvis impersonators (and clones of the King beisdes). Duels, marriage proposals and epiphanies of insight into one’s personality are added to the mix of slapstick humour and wry commentary on the human condition.

Still highly recommended. This sequence doesn’t jump the shark anywhere, and though I’d still like more in this vein, these three books make a nice short collection for raising one’s spirits.

The second Drake Maijstral book is a great follow-up to the first. Williams clearly had this (in fact all three) in mind when he wrote the first as, although they all stand alone as novels, there’s also a significant amount of plot and character development which proceeds through the three books.

This time Maijstral is up against another thief in a head to head battle for supremacy in the league of rankings of professional thieves. In the meantime there’s slapstick, romance, and some piercing commentary on human nature (some of it disguised via alien nature – one of the reasons for reading SF is the ability to compare and contrast different elements of the human condition by playing human and alien cultures side by side in this way).

Another fun romp and, again, highly recommended.

This is the first of (unfortunately only) three humorous SF novels by Walter Jon Williams. It introduces both a wonderful main character and a brilliantly absurd universe. At some point in the near future (but the far past from the book’s point of view) humanity is conquered by an alien race who are represented as the acceptable face of imperialism. After centuries or perhaps millennia in this empire, humanity stages the first successful rebellion ever and creates its own separate area called the Human Constellation. That was in the time of the main character Drake’s grandfather (more on him in book 3). Drake Maijstral would be a waistral but he prefers a more comfortable life and in this bizarre world one can be a registered thief. The rules are that the original owner must be able to afford the loss, the thief must do it themselves directly (henchmen can help but not enter the premises) and they must retain the stolen goods on their person or in their abode for 24 hours, after which they own them.

Amongst stealing to support his own lifestyle, Maijstral takes commissions and one such turns out to have major political ramifications and puts his wits to a severe test.

Artfully and archly written, this is a really funny tale, providing one can suspend disbelief far enough to let it run. Definitely recommended.

The third Bob Howard Laundry Files novel is just the novel, but two shorts are available on Tor.Com (Down on the Farmand Overtime) and both of those are worth reading before tackling this. I’m not cognisant of the spy novels that form that structure of this one (by Anthony Price) but it’s a brilliant piece even without knowing that. Given Stross’ attention to detail I’m sure it’s a pretty good take on that style. In addition to lacking a finial short, this takes a darker turn again after the exuberence of the Jennifer Morgue. The Stars are “Coming Right” and Bob’s world is getting darker. Rather than contrast the horrors of real life and those of the Mythos, in this book they’re intertwined in what Stross himself describes as the scariest thing he’s ever written. It’s very dark, though the leavening of human prevents it from being unbearably so (I like my horror with a good leavening of black humour). A nice British variant on the Hellboy concept is thrown in for good measure, while Bob finds out more about the past, present and future of the Laundry, himself and the world (maybe even the universe).  Great stuff. I’m looking forward to The Apocalypse Codex (next but one book from Stross, IIRC) and hoping for at least one Laundry short in the meantime given his current resolution to write more short fiction this year.

Oh, and if you’re waiting for Stross to take on LeCarre, you’ll have an interminable wait. Not only does he thinkg it doesn’t fit with the Laundryverse, it’s also been done (Tim Power’s Declare, which I read last year on Stross’ recommendation).

Still not caught up on the book reviews, I’m afraid, despite today’s ist of entries. Intercontintental business trips mean I read but don’t write up. I’m catching up a bit, though, with four outstanding just now though of course I’m reading new stuff as well so that may go up again if I don’t get round to writing them up for a few days again, particularly as I’ll be off on another ICBT next week.

As with The Atrocity Archives, this is a novel and short combination. The novel features the eponymous Jennifer Morgue while the short Pimpf introduces Bob’s first subordinate. Bob’s middle names are introduced in the Jennifer Morgue but I must shamefully admit I didn’t get the joke until the title of thoe short and name of Bob’s subordinate hit me over the head with a mallet. Stross had clearly been planning that little joke from the start. It even works in-character since Bob is an acknowledged pseudonym for the memoir writer.

Having done Len Deighton for The Atrocity Archive, Stross takes on Fleming for the Jennifer Morgue. Well, actually it’s a bit more Broccoli than Fleming, for obvious in-story reasons. Stross isn’t content just to riff off Mr Bond, though. He take the Bond mythos well through its paces while subverting most of its tropes on the way through. This is a little more lighthearted than the Atrocity Archive, due mostly to the emulated style and approach. It’s still firmly embedded in the Chulthu Mythos as well, though.

Pimpf, in addition to the Travaglia pun, is a nice little tale of internal ambition and MMORPG danger in a world in which the right (or is that wrong) sort of computation is actually applied demonology. A nice little addition to the series.

This is a novel and a short story. The novel is called The Atrocity Archive and the short is called The Concrete Jungle. Having endured Gene Wolfe’s abysmal Cthulhu Mythos story and Jonathan Howard’s mediocre one, I felt like re-reading a better modern take on the Lovecraftian Oeuvre. Actually, I’m currently also working my way through “Necronomicon – the Best Weird Tales of H. P. Lovecraft” (which will take me a while being all his Mythos short stories and the short novels to boot in one beautiful edition, but I’d go mad if I tried to just read straight through it, I think). This is, I think, my favourite Stross book. I still rate Glasshouse as his best book, but this is my favourite. Its a wonderful blend of comedy and horror. It’s rather reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in juxtaposing the horrors of real life (in this case the Kafka-esque horrors of working for the UK Civil Service) with the beasts from the outermost darkness. With his usual skill, Stross has added a consistent explanation for the ability of the Mythos creatures to do things like possess people’s minds. Things lurk at the bottom of the Mandelbrot Set and mathematics and computation are all that is needed for applied demonology. Combining the myths about Nazi obsessions with the occult (mostly false, but they make a good basis for fiction) with the droll tone of a Len Deighton spy novel, the Atrocity Archive is a dark but immensely funny tale.

The Concrete Jungle “explains” just why there are so many CCTV cameras in the UK (something I’ve struggled to do as part of my work). It’s all so obvious when explained by the story’s protagonist, Bob Howard. The infamous new town of Milton Keynes forms the backdrop to a great short addition to the memoirs of Landry Agent Bob Howard.

Billed on the cover as the “long-awaited sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle”, which is a bit bizarre given the much earlier existence of Castle in the Air, this is the third book set in the world of Howl’s Moving Castle. Like the earlier two the writing is highly accessible to adults and children alike, I think. As with Castle, Howl and Sophie appear but are not the primary characters. They are more in evidence in this one that in Castle, though. This has a little bit of a darker tone than the earlier two (Castle is slightly lighter than Howl, but this is darker than both, I think) and features both a nasty supernatural being and its horrible offspring (more horrible in some ways because they just about appear human). The main magical gimmick this time is the epnymous house which appears to have only two rooms but if one turns immediately upon entering the doorway between the two rooms, one ends up elsewhere. In fact almost all of the doors operate this way. Combined with various magical appurtenances for breakfast, morning coffee, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, this makes life in the house interesting and potentially fattening. It has a wonderful library as well with a humorously twisted spell-book. Once more, highly recommended.

The sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle. In this one Jones riffs on Arab mythology with the whole genie-in-a-bottle thing, but mixed in with her own take on things magical and mundane. The characterisations are wonderful and once again I find no difficulty with the style which I would judge to be highly accessible to older children as well as teenagers (if anything, even more so than Howl’s Moving Castle). The magic carpet, the genie, the princess and the carpet-seller all provide a merry romp that is highly recommended.