Charles Stross's The Atrocity Archives (which also includes a second novella, "The Concrete Jungle") has a great conceit: What would happen if the British spy networks regularly quell Lovecraftian invasions? It's a great idea, and Stross throws into it just about every element of both pulp genres with gusto: Nazis, gadgets, intergalactic spaces, and the creaky British bureaucracy.

The two stories Stross tells are also pretty amusing; I won't spend much time describing them. It's clear in both that they're early Stross. The two novellas display an alarming lack of narrative discipline. "The Atrocity Archives," for instance, starts out with a very long scene that really should have been left out altogether, and sort of limps along until halfway through. Stross is also very fond of lengthy exposition. And the protagonist of the two novellas (some guy named Bob) is a little too obviously a wish-fulfillment fantasy: He's a computer technician and self-acknowledged geek, but with a crackerjack wit, uncanny physical dexterity, and a serious way with the ladies. (Naturally, the only woman fully described in the first novella is a total hottie.)

The most annoying part of The Atrocity Archives, though, is Stross's voice. I understand he's the hottest thing in science fiction since H.G. Wells. But Bob, the narrator in both novellas, is a relentless smart-aleck who thinks he's funnier than he is. Even worse, everybody else (except for the stuffy bureaucrats) is just as fresh. I'm pretty sure Stross thought his dialogue was crackling when his characters exchanged hyper-geeked, quip-filled dialogue. But it sounded too much to me like everybody, including Stross, was stroking his comedic ego. Even worse, some of the funny talk fell flat, as when one of the characters jarringly mentions that all your bank accounts are belong to us. (That is so 2001.)

When Stross lays off the voice and stops trying to make Bob sound hip, he becomes surprisingly effective. (See, e.g., the ending of "The Atrocity Archives.") He doesn't do it enough though. The Atrocity Archives is a fun book that I recommend, but God, can it be aggravating.

Copyright © 2005 Steven Wu