The Fuller Memorandum
Third Laundry novel. Bloody good
Category: Thriller
gates?
The Atrocity Archives
well?
All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye
Excellent escapist action thriller
die?
A Snowball In Hell
The return of Angelique da Xavia is
leuchars?
The Execution Channel
MacLeod tries something new with this near-future thriller. Set in a world with rampant terrorism (including nuclear attacks) and American offensives throughout Central Asia.
Principally told through the eyes of James Travis, a middle aged IT professional with incriminating links to a foreign power, and his daughter Roisin who’s a peace protester camped outside RAF Leuchars (now a USAF base in all but name).
Things kick off when Roisin photographs something unusual on the base just before an explosion wipes the base out. At the same time James’ cover is blown.
Everything gets murky and mucky from there on in as politics and power come to bear.
It’s a world where disinformation on the net is co-ordinated by governments, manipulating soldier’s blogs and feeding stories to bloggers with strong enough a reputation in order to manipulate public perception.
It is, to tell the truth, full of interesting ideas but ultimately falls of being an exceptional piece of work as the story never feels like it pulls together to give a really powerful payoff. Also the only character I thought was anywhere near nuanced enough to be interesting was the daughter and even she seemed a touch on the underwritten side at times.
I suppose I sound a bit disappointed with this, but please don’t get me wrong it’s a pretty strong read – it just could have been extraordinary.
librarian?
Halting State
By far his best novel so far, Halting State is a near-future thriller set in Edinburgh.
mabuse?
The Jennifer Morgue
The second Bob Howard book is a genuine delight.
Where the first played with the tropes of a Len Deighton style spy, this one subverts the James Bond archetype.
Full of clever twists and humour, Stross subverts your expectations at every step.
Of all his varied output I think that the Laundry books come out best – he tries a bit too hard with his full-on SF and seems a bit bored of his fantasy series. With the Laundry he\’s just having fun and it shows.
I wholeheartedly recommend that you read both The Atrocity Archives and this one – you will not regret it.
buzz rickson?
Pattern Recognition
blue bell?
All Fun And Games Until Somebody Loses An Eye
This is one of Brookmyre’s novels where an ordinary Scot finds themself in the middle of a full out Hollywood movie situation.
It’s a blast from beginning to end and features one of the best characters that Brookmyre’s ever come up with. Jane Fleming is an East Kilbride based grandmother that feels resigned to the scrapheap of life.
Except she’s not yet 50, and there’s still a spark of the girl that was a punk in ’77. When her engineer son goes on the run for his life after he falls foul of the arms industry, that spark is fanned into flame.
Recruited by a team of mercenaries to help in locating and protecting her son, she transforms from a dowdy grandmother/housewife into an asskicking undercover operative.
Sure it’s totally unbelievable, but that’s pretty much the point.
If you’re not looking for realism but rather for a really fun read for the summer holidays then I totally recommend this book.