I generally love Charlie Stross’ books (I’ve read pretty much everything the man has published). Atrocity Archives: fantastic. This book: not so much. I fear the Bob Howard stories are going to become somewhat of a franchise not unlike Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. Some of the ‘humorous’ foot notes were toe-curlingly bad. It started out good, but near the ‘climactic’ end I stopped caring entirely and battled my way through.

I still like Charles Stross, but I can’t recommend this book. Or rather, I would recommend you read any other book by him. Go read Accelerando, Halting State, or Atrocity Archives.