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The Nightmare Stacks

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
The Laundry Files’ “fast-paced blend of espionage thrills, mundane office comedy and Lovecraftian horror” (SFX) continues as Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross assigns a day trader to a permanent position on the night shift...
After stumbling upon the algorithm that turned him and his fellow merchant bankers into vampires, Alex Schwartz was drafted by the Laundry, Britain’s secret counter-occult agency that’s humanity’s first line of defense against the forces of darkness. Dependent on his new employers for his continued existence—as Alex has no stomach for predatory blood-sucking—he has little choice but to accept his new role as an operative-in-training.
 
For his first assignment, Alex is dispatched to Leeds to help assess the costs of renovating a 1950s Cold War bunker for use as the Laundry’s new headquarters. Unfortunately, Leeds is Alex’s hometown, and the thought of breaking the news to his parents that he’s left banking for the Civil Service, while hiding his undead condition, is causing him more anxiety than learning how to live as a vampire secret agent preparing to confront multiple apocalypses.
 
Alex’s only saving grace is Cassie Brewer, a drama student appearing in the local goth festival who is inexplicably attracted to him despite his awkward personality and massive amounts of sunblock.
 
But Cassie has secrets of her own—secrets that make Alex’s nightlife behaviors seem positively normal...
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 4, 2016
      In the latest Laundry Files supernatural investigation, Stross makes the wise decision to move away from the jaded and worn voices of Bob Howard and Mo O'Brien as protagonists, but the story suffers from muddled plotting and jokes that too often fall flat. Dr. Alex Schwartz is a newly created vampire (having survived the vampire onslaught in The Rhesus Chart) who's still learning the ropes of the Laundry, the British secret agency that deals with horrors and extradimensional threats. Alex is sent to his hometown of Leeds to scope out a potential new headquarters, where he meets a woman named Cassie who has her identity and memories stolen by Agent First, a member of a long-forgotten race that is on the verge of extinction. Stross continues to ably mix technology and Lovecraftian horrorsâfinally letting the tech advance to the age of smartphones, which helps the story along considerablyâand delivers a stellar ending. Alas, the third-person voice that delivers much of the narration (other than some of Alex's diary entries) never gives the material the snark and verve it merits. Fans of Stross's worldbuilding will still be entertained, but compared to the rest of the series, this installment is underwhelming.

    • Booklist

      June 1, 2016
      The Laundry Files' latest installment shifts the series' focus from stalwart series hero Bob to a new character, Alex Schwartz, who used to be a banker until he stumbled on an algorithm that turns people into vampires. Immediately recruited by the Laundry, the shadowy British organization that protects the country from the forces of interdimensional evil, Alex is sent on an assignment to see whether an old military bunker in Leeds would be suitable as the Laundry's new HQ. But Alex is having a hard time concentrating on his assignment, what with trying to get the hang of being a vampire, returning to his hometown (he really hates Leeds), and trying to figure out why a girl he just met is interested in him and what secrets she might be hiding. The Laundry Files novels are comic fantasies in the Tom Holt vein, mixing the humdrum with the astonishing, the normal with the extraordinary. This one will definitely appeal to series fans, but, because it operates as a stand-alone with a new protagonist, it's a perfect way for newbies to join Stross' wonderfully rich world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

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  • English

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