Tuesday, August 6, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross



The Jennifer Morgue is the second book in Charles Stross' The Laundry Files, following his "The Atrocity Archives" (Reviewed on the blog here).  The series, which is a combination of various genres such as spy thrillers, workplace comedy (although less in this one), and Lovecraftian horrors, among others, is currently up for nomination for the Hugo Award for Best Series, which is why I tried the first two volumes over the past month.  And I enjoyed the first book just enough to want to read more - though not much more than that - so I was hoping the series would take a leap forward with this second novel.

And...it....does and doesn't?  The Jennifer Morgue is blatantly styled after the writing of Ian Fleming (apparently the prior book was styled after the writing of a different British spy author I don't know) with heavy Bond themes throughout, and the plot is well written and moves nicely sure.  But the book's characters still don't stand out (although the gender issue of the first book isn't a problem here) and the book tries too hard not just to be clever but to make sure the reader knows how clever its trying to be.  I may pick up the series sometime in the future when I have left to read - since this book is enjoyable, don't get me wrong - but The Jennifer Morgue just doesn't do enough for me to feel a strong urge to do so anytime soon, which is a disappointment.

Note: The Book contains a short story/novelette "Pimpf" as well, which I will not be reviewing in this review since it's too short to really merit much attention.  It's solid, if unspectacular, and feels a little dated due to it being based upon 2006 computer tech/games.


----------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------------
Bob Howard may be a field agent for the Laundry - the British secret agency dedicated to keeping the world safe from the otherworldly beings in our world and others, or at least safe from other humans who through math, philosophy, or whatever might (whether on purpose or otherwise) summon such disasters into the world - but he's used to knowing what his mission is before being sent out.  Or well, he wishes he'd have such knowledge.  But when he's sent out on a mission with practically no briefing, gets mentally entangled with a non-human succubus possessed assassin reporting to the American organization "The Black Chamber," and is sent out halfway across the world to confront a billionaire trying to obtain powers from those other beings....well, sometimes you just have to improvise.

But there's a reason for his ignorance, as Bob's girlfriend Mo soon finds out when she confronts their mutual boss in outrage: the bad guy has set things up so that only someone following the playbook of one Bond, James Bond can get close enough to stop him from his evil plan.   And even worse, the bad guy is well aware of the pitfalls of a Bond villain, and Bob isn't exactly the most suave guy out there....and even if he somehow pulls off the job, the process of doing so might change him in irreversible ways....
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The Jennifer Morgue is again told mostly from the perspective of Bob Howard - with occasional side glimpses into the perspective of Mo, though as soon as the book puts the two characters in the same area, it returns to Bob's perspective even when he's just watching Mo's actions.  And again, like the first book, the book is filled with occasional nerd (a few rare bits of leetspeek sigh) dialogue and obnoxious code names for the reader to muddle through, though they're never TOO confusing.

And again, Bob is a fine narrator and a decent main character - he's just not much more than that.  Oh he's pretty darn capable - although quite out of his depth for much of this book - especially when it comes to tech solutions to his problems (what's a Bond pastiche without gadgets?) and he's usually, although not always, quick enough on the uptake to realize what's going on without too much headbanging from the reader (although he takes a while to figure out the Bond thing).  But just as with the book itself (more on this below), the story tries to make Bob sometimes seem cleverer than he actually is and it's kind of annoying.  And we have two other major characters of note this time after a one-note first novel: our femme-fatale pastiche and non-human Ramona Random, who works pretty damn well, as well as our returning love interest Mo, who's both a lot more this time and a lot less, since so much of what she does occurs off page.

As for the plot itself and the setting, well again Stross manages to tell a story of a world that's pretty interesting at times, although it very much feels quite a bit like a story written in the early 00s, from the technology and other things referenced.  As I mentioned above the jump the story is written in a pastiche of Ian Fleming - with the story itself revolving in large part around the bad guy protecting himself by requiring a hero to act literally as "James Bond" in order to have a shot at stopping him.  And this works for the most part, with the story moving at a nice pace from beginning to end.

On the other hand, as with Bob as a character, the book is incredibly fond at not only trying to be clever in how things work - both the characters, the setting, and the Bond gimmick - but too often feels like it's trying to brag about its cleverness to the reader.  Meta books are far from rare these days, as are other forms of clever plots and gimmicks, but usually those books don't hit their readers over the head with their cleverness like they want a present for it.  The Jennifer Morgue does just that, and by the 2/3 mark it had occurred enough that I was really really irritated about it all.

I don't mean to be too negative - the book reads pretty well and I brisked through it fairly quickly, which is a sign of a solid piece of fun literature.  On the other hand, it's not the type of fun that distinguishes itself from many many other books I've read, so you could definitely do better.
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