I don’t get that at all. Bob Howard is certainly not stupid, but he’s not a genius-level intellect. And certainly in the earlier books, he is more than a bit bumbling: he’s basically an everyman, surrounded by people and beings smarter, more competent, and much more powerful (well, at least until he becomes the new Eater of Souls and acquires the ability to kill every living being in a 250m radius).
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May as well start with the first one - the atrocity archives. It’s a short novel and includes the novella concrete jungle so you’re not investing a whole lot of time to decide whether you get on with it.
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OK, thanks.
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He’s a bit pulpier, but I’d imagine Jim Butcher has a lot of the same experience here. I love me some urban fantasy, and Jim’s one of the few authors out there pumping it out to a relatively good standard on a regular basis.
Having come to the Harry Dresden series late, it’s fascinating to see the author mature and evolve over the course of his books digested in a relatively short period of time.
I’ve also just finished the latest Laundry novel, The Labyrinth Index, and while I’m getting a little tired of vampires now, it’s interesting to pick up little hints of Charlie’s own experiences with middle age, such as the references to Derek’s creaky knees. I definitely relate to that one!
Also, did I miss an intermediary novel where Derek was the focus? Or have I forgotten him? Also-also, for those that have read the book, is Derek dead or what? Mhari’s exclamation that she lost the DM seemed pretty conclusive, yet from my viewpoint, the last we saw of him he’d been infected with Nazgul v-parasites, but beyond that, nothing else.
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Ooops, I looked it up in my Kindle library… that’s the one I did try.
I guess his work is just not for me.
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Well, de gustibus non est disputandum.
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Yup, there’s no accounting for kink.
And…
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I don’t think so but I’m not 100% sure, though he has been a background character who works in the forecasting ops department. I liked learning more about him though and his occult dice so it was a shame to see him killed off (or turned into a phang).
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Charlie Stross has promised an out-of-sequence novella about Derek and where he came from:
https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2016/04/faq-the-laundry-filesseries-ti.html
(Search for “A Conventional Boy” on that page.)
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Oh! Yeah, i’d completely forgotten about that though it seems to me both him and camp sunshine have already been integrated into recent novels - derek in labyrinth index and camp sunshine in the delirium brief. So maybe he’s shelved plans for that.
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