I can barely keep up with Charles Stross and his productivity. Recently, not one but two new Stross novels were published by TOR Books. The first, Escape From Yokai Land, features Bob Howard who is a key figure in Britain’s super-secret agency, The Laundry. The Laundry fights threats of the H. P. Lovecraft variety. In this adventure, Bob is sent to Japan to work with the Miyamoto Group to inspect the wards that lock down sites of danger. In this case, the yokai–traditional magical beings who can be mischievous and bizarre–break free and Bob faces a confrontation with a massively powerful pink yokai. GRADE: B
Charles Stross enjoys taking a break from the Laundry Files story arc to write books like Quantum of Nightmares set in the Laundry universe where magic is common…and deadly. Britain is ruled by a Prime Minister who is secretly an ancient Eldritch god with incredible powers.
Eve Starkey, head of a massive company–the Bigge Organzation–plans to enhance her powers. But Eve’s bohemian brother, Imp, and his crew of transhuman misfits have other ideas.
My favorite character is Mary MacCandless who uses her powers to babysit a group of magical children. Quantum of Nightmares is a wacky, wild screwball fantasy novel with plenty of laughs…and mayhem. GRADE: B+
There must be writers with brains that spit out plots faster than I can recite the alphabet. With writers that produce a lot, it is almost always more about plot than character-not that it’s a bad thing. I certainly envy it.
Patti, I totally agree. I envy prolific writers, too. Especially the ones who keep the quality of their work high over their oeuvre.
Speaking of thst, I am currently reading that James Patterson memoir you reviewed a while ago. It does just move along, doesn’t it?
Jeff, I haven’t read a lot of James Patterson–mostly his early mysteries–but I really enjoyed his autobiography. The pages fly! And, Patterson tells some great stories about his Past!
I loved Pattersons’ Fillmore East stories. You could tell he had really been there. That place was LOUD! I remember leaving there after a concert and walking from 6th Street down to Houston Street to catch the subway, and the ringing in my ears just strting to subside after six or seven blocks.
Jeff, and I’m amazed by all the people James Patterson knew in New York City! And, that was all before Patterson hit the Big Time!