Charles Stross’ Equoid won the 2014 HUGO Award for “Best Novella.” Equoid is one of Stross’ Laundrey stories. The Laundry is a British super-secret intelligence agency whose mission is to deal with supernatural and extra-dimensional threats (think H.P. Lovecraft monster-type menaces). In this adventure, agent Bob Howard uses the unpublished letters of H. P. Lovecraft to help deal with a threat of a unique, scary presence (the cover of Equoid gives you a good idea of what’s in store for humanity. I’ve read all the Laundry novels and stories. Equoid is one of the best. GRADE: A
Fascinating title and cover, George, and it sounds a bit like “Men in Black” on paper.
Prashant, “Men in Black on paper” is a pretty good description of what goes on in EQUOID. Throw in some H. P. Lovecraft and you’re got it!
I tried one of Stross’s other series (TheMerchant Princes) but couldn’t get interested enough to read it. This one does sound more like it.
Jeff, I like Charles Stross’s Laundry series a lot. There’s some humor (of the dark kind) and plenty of action. Here’s the series in order:
The Atrocity Archives (2004, ISBN 1-930846-25-8; also contains the extra story The Concrete Jungle, Best Novella winner, 2005 Hugo Awards[22])
The Jennifer Morgue (2006, ISBN 1-930846-45-2; also contains the extra story Pimpf)
Down on the Farm (2008 novelette) available online
Overtime (2009 novelette – set less than 18 months after The Fuller Memorandum[23]) available online
The Fuller Memorandum (2010, ISBN 1-84149-770-3)
The Apocalypse Codex (2012)
Equoid (2013 novelette – Takes place after the events of Down on the Farm, before the events of The Fuller Memorandum) available online
The Rhesus Chart, (2014, ISBN 978-0-425256-86-2)
The Annihilation Score (forthcoming,[24] probably July 2015[25])
The Nightmare Stacks (working title, probably 2016)[26]
There sure seem to be a lot of novellas being published these days. Also doorstop novels. Let’s go back to something in between. Like Jeff, I tried Stross and was unimpressed.
Rick, I wasn’t impressed by Stross’ early novels either, but I found I really liked The Laundry Novels. And, they are mostly normal novel size, not doorstops.