The idea that thoughts, concepts, mathematics, logic themselves can affect reality is hardly unique. I've previously reviewed The Incompleat Enchanter by Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague deCamp, in which Harold Shea and Reed Chalmers work out the Mathematics of Magic which allow the users to cross to other worlds, Doctor Who has frequently used the concept (Castrovalva, the Shakespeare Code, etc.) and numerous other authors have taken their turns with it.
The Atrocity Archives is Charlie Stross' take on the concept, done in a more modern and hard-edged manner than most. Bob Howard (not his actual name – I don't think we ever learn it, at least not in this book, and I would guess almost certainly taken from Robert E. Howard of Conan fame, but with middle initials to give him also the initials BOFH, Bastard Operator From Hell, in keeping with his impressive computer-related skills) is an operative for the ultra-top-secret unit of the UK government called "The Laundry". As The Atrocity Archives begins, he is on his first actual field assignment, something he requested as he finds being just their systems operator person somewhat boring.
This quick mission – basically to enter a building, locate some kind of file that a particular person has been working on, and get out with the info – illustrates the operations of the Laundry, the type of person Bob is, and the reason for the Laundry's existence. Yes, magic exists. Yes, it's basically a particular set of applications of mathematics; perform the calculation, you're investing it with energy – information. Unfortunately, that data can resonate with the underlying structure of reality, effectively unlocking doors or signaling to those on the other side that you are present and accessible. Even more unfortunately, many of the Things that are on the "other side" – which is really an infinite number of "other sides", realms of infinite probabilities – are best described as "Lovecraftian" in the worst interpretation of the term.
Thus, the Laundry – and other organizations around the world – watch very closely anyone who seems to be in a field of study that might lead them to discover one of the basic principles or methods that allow the use of this sort of magic. There are many reasons someone might do this, ranging from pure mathematical research without the faintest clue that there's anything more to it, up to someone recognizing just how much power is potentially available and being willing to risk a literal apocalypse to get it.
However, the Laundry is still run by human beings… and it's still part of a bureaucracy. So while the external affairs of the Laundry, and agents like Bob, may be focused on saving the world (or sometimes merely individuals) in whatever way necessary, back inside there are proper reports to fill out, schedules to keep to, internal training courses to attend, and those running the schedules live for such things.
I've seen The Atrocity Archives and its related Laundry novels described as a sort of cross between Dilbert, James Bond, and H. P. Lovecraft. In a way, that's a fair description, but in another it's not. Dilbert's world is driven, to a large degree, by the fact that competence is the enemy of the organization he works in; the Pointy-Haired Boss neither understands the technical issues, nor cares much, as long as the long-term outcome is good for the PHB. The Laundry has extremely competent people in most of its key positions; if it did not, disasters of epic proportions would be the least of the results. The Atrocity Archives is a story of a hard-boiled hacker detective stuck in a Shadowrun universe, forced to work for a terribly pragmatic group of defenders of reality. High-tech combines with ancient sorcery, with Bob being a self-deprecating wiseass hero-by-necessity as our guide.
Bob's real break for fieldwork comes shortly after his simple mission, when what should have been a simple demonstration of summoning goes horribly wrong. Bob is present when the containment of the summoning is violated and makes the correct split-second decision to take down the possessed person instantly.
This is, of course, the key element one looks for in a field agent. It's not the 99% that is, effectively, routine that matters; it's the agent's reaction in that horrific 1% of the time where everything's coming apart that determines just how good he or she can be at the job. Most people panic; some overthink; others take the wrong actions. Having the right instincts, the right preparations, and the ability to make use of both quickly and efficiently is a very, very rare skill, and it's the skill that makes a field agent who they are.
Bob is given an assignment to contact and retrieve a scientist who is currently on American soil who wishes to return to the UK. It turns out that the scientist, Dominique O'Brien, nicknamed "Mo", is one of those who has found a branch of mathematical analysis of interest to the Laundry – and to the equivalent U.S. agencies. This is bad enough; while technically the countries are "friendly", such very valuable, rare, and powerful assets aren't ones either wishes to just let go.
Unfortunately, someone else is also very, very interested in Mo…
Stross' world often rides the edge of my dark tolerance. While Bob's wry delivery and low-key descriptions can sometimes minimize the impact, a lot of the time his very calm and cynical descriptions convey horror far more clearly than Lovecraft's overwrought prose or a more graphic depiction by more modern writers. Bob's slow realization, at one point, of just what kind of truly cosmic horror is about to gain entrance to our universe, and how his own people have made a mistake that may actually throw that door wide, is one of the most chilling sequences (pun intended, if you read it) I have ever read.
To make this work is no mean feat, and there's good reason that Charlie's won a lot of awards, because he pulls it off. The sometimes oppressive mundanity of part of Bob's life serves to both contrast with the dark-majestic horror of the universe, and to give us a breather from apocalypse. We get pulled into the insistently normal as a shield from the mind-destroying monstrosities that surround our reality in the world of the Laundry. Bob has human concerns and fears that are completely normal and ordinary – dating, sleeping, simple comfort – and these help anchor us to him when suddenly his concerns become whether he can manage to prevent something from an alien and hostile universe from entering our own. The humor of his delivery both takes the sting from, and points up in ironic detail, the terror that makes The Atrocity Archives work on a dramatic level.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit – both the main story The Atrocity Archive and The Concrete Jungle, a shorter story in the same universe. They're darker than my normal fare, but I intend to move on a bit and see how it goes. There are plenty of implications that this world could end up way too dark for my preference; this is a world where the government is planning for "Case Nightmare Green", which is in effect "The Stars Are Right and the Great Old Ones Have Returned", with weapons that amount to wirelessly networked technological Gorgons. (I do like Stross' twists on mythological and fictional creatures made Lovecraftian). But it's also possible it will not do so; Bob has so far survived and kept the world alive, maybe he will do so even when CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN comes to pass.
In any event, a highly recommended supernatural modern novel!
I don’t find the darker aspects all that bothering, but I suspect because it resonates with my British sense of humour, which by comparison to most is rather morbid. We’re all doomed I tell you (said in a Scottish voice).