Book review: The Atrocity Archives and Concrete Jungle by Charles Stross
Charles Stross has written the best new books I’ve read over the past few years.
Singularity Sky, Accelerando, Halting State, each excellent. And his books explore different ideas and are set in very different worlds. With the exception of the dismal Family Trade series, his writing has been excellent.
The Atrocity Archives and Concrete Jungle, two shorter works set in the same world are the first fantasy I’ve read by him, and they are crazy good. Halting State good, but these stories are modern fantasy integrated into the technological world, magic for hackers that participates in the modern world revolutionized by discoveries in mathematics, electronics, modern physics, and computers. A magical worldview that has confronted modern physics and considered the natural consequences of computers.
The book was a real page turner–errr, a virtual page turner that I read on computer. The Atrocity Archives is better than Concrete Jungle. Jungle seems constrained by its short length, the ending feels rushed. After Concrete Jungle I immediately sought a sequel and was glad to find The Jennifer Morgue.
