The Annihilation Score

By: Charles Stross

Narrated by: Elle Newlands

Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross presents the next case in The Laundry Files. Dominique O'Brien - her friends call her Mo - lives a curious double life with her husband, Bob Howard. To the average civilian, they're boring middle-aged civil servants. But within the labyrinthian secret circles of Her Majesty's government, they're operatives working for the nation's occult security service known as the Laundry, charged with defending Britain against dark supernatural forces threatening humanity.

Mo's latest assignment is assisting the police in containing an unusual outbreak: ordinary citizens suddenly imbued with extraordinary abilities of the superpowered kind. Unfortunately these people prefer playing superpranks instead of superheroics. The mayor of London being levitated by a dumpy man in Trafalgar Square would normally be a source of shared amusement for Mo and Bob, but they're currently separated because something's come between them - something evil. An antique violin, an Erich Zann original, made of human white bone, was designed to produce music capable of slaughtering demons. Mo is the custodian of this unholy instrument. It invades her dreams and yearns for the blood of her colleagues - and her husband. And despite Mo's proficiency as a world-class violinist, it cannot be controlled....

©2015 Charles Stross (P)2015 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"A weirdly alluring blend of super-spy thriller, deadpan comic fantasy, and Lovecraftian horror." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Building to a great climax

Loved it, though with stross changing his style again it was a bit of an adjustment. Brilliantly written and leaves the story in a very interesting place

it lacked structure but not characters

The main issue is this book presentation is almost all tell and no show. While there is various moment s of character s interacting they too are abstracted, and the reader gets the cliff notes. The main character was while involved with the main plot, was not responsible for it's reveal. The main character was almost entirely passive. And she was a damsel in distress at the climax, which I only knew was approaching because I knew how many chapters there were. The main character is deep and interesting she just wasnt the most interesting for the events happening in this book. And to be fair our previous protagonist, Bob would have been more boring during this time period too.

A disappointing addition to a great series.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would not recommend this book to a friend. While a tolerably book in its own right, it is a disappointment when put into the context of the series. It lack the joy and irreverence of the earlier books despite the absurdist plot elements. Beyond that Mo, who had been a likable if not particularly well developed character, takes center stage and becomes both significantly less likeable and less interesting. There are also some of the cringe worth moments due to the author writing from the point of view of a woman and not quite getting it right. I would recommend reading the series but skipping this book.

If you’ve listened to books by Charles Stross before, how does this one compare?

Definitely my least favorite of this series.

Sympathetic protagonist for a Laundry Files story

I'm a big fan of Charles' Stross other work (Singularity Sky, Halting State ...) but I had never gotten into the Laundry Files series and wouldn't have grabbed this one if I'd realized it was part of that series.

That being said, I found "Mo" a sympathetic protagonist who held my attention and interest and I found the thematic parallels between the bad guys in this story and the New Republic society in Singularity Sky very interesting ..

I don't really know what I'm talking about here (since I'm a guy), but I was also very impressed with Stross' first-person view from inside a female's head for the whole story ... it looked genuine to me!

Disappointing.

I have really enjoyed the series up to this book. I stuck with this one only because I read the reviews for the next book in the series and figured I would need to know what went on in this one to understand the next one. The narrator was decent, but did not have the same pizzazz as the other narrator. Also the story unfolded slowly and then just continued to plod along until the unsatisfactory ending.