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Charles Stross: The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files, #1) (2006, Ace Books) 4 stars

Bob Howard is a computer-hacker desk jockey, who has more than enough trouble keeping up …

Fun series starter

No rating

I’ve been meaning to read this for a while and was pleased to find it delivered what I expected: an entertaining mix of technology, bureaucracy and eldritch horrors (you can decide if the last by definition encompasses the other two…)

The narrative is in Bob’s first person, present tense point of view. I wasn’t especially taken with him as a character, though I wasn’t so put off as to bail out. He always managed to have the skills or items needed to meet the challenges before him, or some associate intervening at the right moment.

The office politics were boldly drawn. I wouldn’t have minded more subtlety, a bit more behind the scenes manipulation and gaslighting rather than the (office equivalent of) straight-up moustache-twirliness that came across. We were never really left in doubt of the outcome.

Overall, a fun series starter.

@bodhipaksa Yep, that's what I did.

Someone (was it you? maybe someone you were in conversation with?) suggested that you can "neatly" boost by replying to the post on the followed account but removing the original poster's tag, and then boosting your reply. That's what I've been attempting to do as a kind of quote toot with added hashtags.