Ray Schiller is no maniacal Bond villain. This touch of humanity is not something that is only applied to the protagonists of the story. These vignettes aren’t throw away filler either and are called back to throughout the story. We also get to see the lighter side of their lives as well when they have another married couple over for dinner and they struggle to skirt around just exactly what they do and stay within their cover stories. The part where they hold each other when the nightmares are gruesome is particularly poignant.
We get to hear about their daily life as a couple and how it is impacted by the difficult jobs that they both do. This books shines the spotlight on this through his interactions with his wife, Mo. In each book we get to watch him grow into a deeper and more believable person. The thing that I love the most about this series and this book in particular is that Bob is not a stagnant character.
The assignment is a test for Bob on many levels and we get to see how he reacts as everything goes pear shaped. Bob is given responsibility to oversee Persephone Hazard and Johnny McTavish as they investigate the evangelical american preacher Ray Schiller. This is the department that handles jobs that would be embarrassing to Queen and Country but are outside the purview of the Laundry. Bob is on the fast track for promotion and has been assigned to External Assets.
Stross feeds us the story through Bob’s memoirs and the reports of the other people involved in the event. The story opens as Bob is recovering from an operation that has gone bad. The Apocalypse Codex continues the story of Bob Howard, computational demonologist. He blends lovecraftian mythos, spy thrillers, and office comedy into a captivating story that never loses site of the humanity of the characters. This newest addition to the series only further cements my love of this world and cast of characters. I have spoken about Stross’ Laundry files here before. I have been making an effort to carve out more time for reading and have recently finished The Apocalypse codex by Charles Stross. I’ve kept up with my comics and graphic novels but have had little time to dedicate to my passion for science fiction and fantasy. My reading for the past few months has been somewhat sporadic.
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