Charles Stross: Season of Skulls (EBook, 2023, Orbit)
eBook, 391 pages
English language
Published Feb. 12, 2023 by Orbit.
Welcome to the sunlit uplands of the 21st century! Britain's avuncular Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much.
Hyperorganized and formidable, Eve Starkey defeated her boss, the louche magical adept and billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge, in a supernatural duel to the death. At least, she has reason to hope he's dead. But though she's now in charge of the Bigge Corporation, she's not free of him yet. Through the fecklessness of her brother Imp, combined with the intricate feudal law of a tiny Channel Island, it would appear that unbeknownst to her, she was married to Bigge--and that proving his death and releasing herself from his arcane bindings will take years and cost millions. …
Welcome to the sunlit uplands of the 21st century! Britain's avuncular Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much.
Hyperorganized and formidable, Eve Starkey defeated her boss, the louche magical adept and billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge, in a supernatural duel to the death. At least, she has reason to hope he's dead. But though she's now in charge of the Bigge Corporation, she's not free of him yet. Through the fecklessness of her brother Imp, combined with the intricate feudal law of a tiny Channel Island, it would appear that unbeknownst to her, she was married to Bigge--and that proving his death and releasing herself from his arcane bindings will take years and cost millions.
Then an emissary of the Prime Minister arrives with an offer that she absolutely can't...well, you know.
This is the final novel in the trilogy that began with Dead Lies Dreaming and continued with Quantum of Nightmares.
An excellent entry in the Laundry Files series. The tone and genre are a bit different for Charles Stross as a classic Romance, but there is still plenty of eldritch horror to go around.
Whilst I appreciate Stross' desire to stretch himself as a writer, neither of those settings particularly resonate with me. One thing I have always liked about the Laundry Files is that it is steeped in a modern (for the time of writing of the book) setting. That being said, this actually worked for me. Hence the 4 stars. I did get a giggle out of him dropping the Prisoner into this but there is a bit too much re-statement that the Regency period was bad (for women in particular) that had the odd section dragging, for me. Still this fair rattled along entertainingly and provided a satisfactory resolution for these characters in this arc. Recommended.
