The Nightmare Stacks
A Laundry Files Novel
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4.6 • 109 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
The Laundry Files’ “fast-paced blend of espionage thrills, mundane office comedy and Lovecraftian horror” (SFX) continues as Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross assigns a day trader to a permanent position on the night shift...
After stumbling upon the algorithm that turned him and his fellow merchant bankers into vampires, Alex Schwartz was drafted by the Laundry, Britain’s secret counter-occult agency that’s humanity’s first line of defense against the forces of darkness. Dependent on his new employers for his continued existence—as Alex has no stomach for predatory blood-sucking—he has little choice but to accept his new role as an operative-in-training.
For his first assignment, Alex is dispatched to Leeds to help assess the costs of renovating a 1950s Cold War bunker for use as the Laundry’s new headquarters. Unfortunately, Leeds is Alex’s hometown, and the thought of breaking the news to his parents that he’s left banking for the Civil Service, while hiding his undead condition, is causing him more anxiety than learning how to live as a vampire secret agent preparing to confront multiple apocalypses.
Alex’s only saving grace is Cassie Brewer, a drama student appearing in the local goth festival who is inexplicably attracted to him despite his awkward personality and massive amounts of sunblock.
But Cassie has secrets of her own—secrets that make Alex’s nightlife behaviors seem positively normal...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the latest Laundry Files supernatural investigation, Stross makes the wise decision to move away from the jaded and worn voices of Bob Howard and Mo O'Brien as protagonists, but the story suffers from muddled plotting and jokes that too often fall flat. Dr. Alex Schwartz is a newly created vampire (having survived the vampire onslaught in The Rhesus Chart) who's still learning the ropes of the Laundry, the British secret agency that deals with horrors and extradimensional threats. Alex is sent to his hometown of Leeds to scope out a potential new headquarters, where he meets a woman named Cassie who has her identity and memories stolen by
Customer Reviews
CASE NIGHTMARE RED!
“The Nightmare Stacks” is the sixth full novel in the Laundry Files Series. In these books, Charles Stross takes us into the world of the UK’s secret government agency which protects its citizens from supernatural horrors from the darker parts of the multiverse.
The protagonist of this particular novel is Dr. Alex Schwartz, who is a pretty new Laundry employee. He is also a vampire (or PHANG in Laundry-speak). He was introduced in the fourth novel “The Rhesus Chart”. He’s just met a smoking hot girl named Cassie, who is much more than she appears. In fact, she is an eldritch spy, Agent First of Spies and Liars, and a member of a race from a parallel earth called the alfar. These magic-using hominids have visited the earth before and given rise to many ancient legends. Alex doesn’t know it yet, but he will soon be declaring the first actual incident of CASE NIGHTMARE RED.
The story of the Laundry and its staff are rife with dry dark humor that is characteristic of this series. It’s interesting to see a novel written from a different viewpoint than Bob or Mo. Alex is the storyteller here, with supporting roles from Pinky, Brains, and Pete the Vicar. In spite of all the Lovecraftian darkness, we get to see the Laundry do the best they can to keep the monsters and villains at bay, while simultaneously dealing with rules, regulations, and red-tape found in any bureaucratic organization.
The Nightmare Stacks
Best book of the series by far. Case Nightmare Red finally happens. In Yorkshire.
Eehhhaggghahhugh. Ack, death.
So the thing is, I love Charles Stross' books. Been with him through all of the laundry series, love all of it, novellas, all of it. Supremely talented author with a great voice and a firm grasp on the genre. However, at a couple different points in the book,(up until I put it down) it got to be really excessively graphic. I'm not squeamish, and definitely not one for censorship, but yeah. Just maybe tone it down a touch, Stross? I've been looking forward to the newest book in the series for a year or more and when it's basically just murder-porn, it turns into a huge bummer. Couldn't get through it, sad to say.