The Atrocity Archives

Infobox Book |
name = The Atrocity Archives
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Charles Stross
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
subject =
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Golden Gryphon Press
release_date = May 28, 2004
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 295 pp
isbn = ISBN 1-930846-25-8
preceded_by =
followed_by = The Jennifer Morgue

"The Atrocity Archives" (2004, ISBN 1-930846-25-8) contains two stories by British author Charles Stross, consisting of the short novel "The Atrocity Archive" (originally serialized in "Spectrum SF") and "The Concrete Jungle", which won the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Novella.

The stories are Lovecraftian spy thrillers involving a secret history of the 20th century. Horror elements such as the Nazis using higher mathematics to open "gates" to other dimensions are combined with humorous elements satirizing bureaucracy. The protagonist of both stories is a computer expert named Bob Howard forced to work for a secret British intelligence organization called "The Laundry".

A sequel entitled "The Jennifer Morgue", patterned after the James Bond movies, was released in November in 2006.

Stross's earlier story "A Colder War" also mixes elements of Lovecraft and espionage, and is sometimes mistaken as a tie-in with the Bob Howard stories, however the fictional background and assumptions are quite different.

Literary significance and reception

Publishers Weekly was somewhat mixed in their review saying "though the characters all tend to sound the same, and Stross resorts to lengthy summary explanations to dispel confusion, the world he creates is wonderful fun."cite journal|date=April 26, 2004|title=THE ATROCITY ARCHIVES (Book)|journal=Publishers Weekly|volume=Vol. 251|issue=Issue 17|pages=p46|issn=0000-0019] The Washington Post called it "a bizarre yet effective yoking of the spy and horror genres."cite web |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37896-2004Jul8.html |title=Other voices, other worlds and a dose of urban fantasy. By Paul Di Filippo (washingtonpost.com) |author= Paul Di Filippo|authorlink= |coauthors= |date= 2004-07-11|format= |work= |publisher= |pages= |language= |archiveurl= http://www.webcitation.org/5bINovJSs|archivedate= 2008-10-03|quote= |accessdate=2008-10-03]

ee also

Another work of speculative fiction that tackles many of the same themes (albeit from a Catholic perspective) is Tim Powers' "Declare". In the afterword, Stross notes that friends warned him against reading "Declare" while he was working on "The Atrocity Archives" due to the strong parallels between the two works.

In the introduction to the Science Fiction Book Club 2-in-1 edition of Atrocity Archives with The Jennifer Morgue, Stross mentions that his inspiration for the spy in these novels is closer to the out-of-place bureaucrats of Len Deighton than to the James Bond model.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.goldengryphon.com/atrocity-frame.html Golden Gryphon Press official site]
* [http://www.goldengryphon.com/Stross-Concrete.html "The Concrete Jungle"] from "The Atrocity Archives" published under a Creative Commons License
* [http://www.marsdust.com/strossexcerpt.htm Excerpt] from "The Atrocity Archive" on MarsDust.com.