My Goodreads review: Season of Skulls

[ankh_hpl]

Season of Skulls by Charles Stross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Even by the elevated standards of the Laundry Files as a whole, Season of Skulls is remarkably weird. Stross exploits the time-travel & time-branching aspects of his dream roads for all they're worth, allowing the improbable combination of The Village(yes, that Village, be seeing you) & The New Management to wind itself up to an epic conclusion.

This one is Eve Starkey's novel (finally!), which gives the reader a good look into the complex magical system of the Laundry universe. Eve is a highly talented sorceress on a desperate mission, & she won't allow trivialities like a whole Hunt of Tindalos to get in her way. Meanwhile, back at home, brother Imp & his superpowered housemates are doing their utmost to help -- which of course results in additional chaos.

Like all the Laundry novels, this one is self-referential -- do not attempt until you're up to date on at least the New Management arc, preferably the whole series. Stross has also introduced characters both real & literary from the Regency period, though he includes some helpful comments in his Acknowledgments. All in all, I found this one a bit complicated at points, but in no way disappointing. And it does indeed complete the trilogy which began with Dead Lies Dreaming.



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