The Atrocity Archives

A Laundry Files Novel

By: Charles Stross

Narrated by: Gideon Emery

Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Bob Howard is a computer-hacker desk jockey, who has more than enough trouble keeping up with the endless paperwork he has to do on a daily basis. He should never be called on to do anything remotely heroic. But for some reason, he is.

©2004 Charles Stross (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"In Atrocity, Bob, a low-level computer fix-it guy for the Laundry, a supersecret British agency that defends the world from occult happenings, finds himself promoted to fieldwork after he bravely saves the day during a routine demonstration gone awry. With his Palm, aka his Hand of Glory (a severed hand that, when ignited, renders the holder invisible), and his smarts, he saves the world from a powerful external force seeking to enter our universe to suck it dry....With often hilarious results, the author mixes the occult and the mundane, the truly weird and the petty." ( Publishers Weekly)

Interesting content and enjoyable characters!

The topics in this story were very interesting. The story seemed fast paced ,there was a lot of technical speak that kind of goes over your head at first but really add to to the story and the complexity of what the characters are faced with. Theere's a small amount of swearing and some gruesome content (which the title infers). I enjoyed these books very much and would recommend them.

Cthulhu, 007, and Office Space had a love child...

The Laundry Files is a great listen for fans of Cthulhu, IT workers, and gamers.

Follow the misadventures of a cubicle worker who gets promoted to field agent for a organization that deals with what happens in this dimension and others.

This series throws Secret Agents, Lovecraftian Mythos, Magic, Office politics into a blender for a delicious concoction.

My kind of yarn.

Cheeky commentary, geeky but imperfect main character, techy references, mild horror but not too disturbing (think Doctor Who levels), this book was right up my alley. It doesn't have the shocking grindhouse gore of something like Monster Hunter International, the main character wasn't some ubermensch Navy Seal type, so this book stands alone.

babble

there is quite a bit of technical babble which made my eyes glaze over the story is good but so much jargon that I didn't know broke the emerson

cute

Cute story. a little silly and technobably, but fun. Helps if you've faced govt tape before.

What if Aurors were real?

But came with all the office politics and bureaucracy of the modern nation state.

Mix in a lot of British subculture and a good mystery with a very interesting, unique cast of characters, and you have the Atrocity Archives.

Creative and well structured. Solid narration.

Solid narration by Emery Gideon. The style feels like Grimm Fairy Tales with a scifi twist to it.

Good story, poor reading

Love the story so far (3hrs in), but the reading is somewhat bland and drones on to the point where I'll randomly lose focus and, I often find myself having to go back or to pull up the app to see why there was a sudden jump to a different scene.

The reader does try to do voices, but its a slight pitch change at best so some characters end up with the same voice.

Great performance, fun story.

I enjoyed the story, but the performance of this audio book really stood out for me.

Fantastic! Nerd humor + Lovecraft! :)

You had me at "Knuth, Dykstra, Al-Hazred"! :) Chock full of great "inside" jokes for nerds, but great story! Reminds me a lot of Thursday Next books (in a good way)!