Path: ...!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Bobbie Sellers Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Season of Skulls by C.Strass Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2024 10:48:19 -0700 Organization: none at all Lines: 29 Message-ID: Reply-To: blissInSanFrancisco@mouse-potato.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sun, 01 Sep 2024 19:48:19 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="1126171981928e95f54474bf7a9ca290"; logging-data="1662117"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19W8R6s1lzoNPeEF1r7ULeO" User-Agent: Betterbird (Linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:KXeFSYlTT5s9/gmXJFwBHUCqplU= Content-Language: en-US Bytes: 2482 Season of Skulls by Charles Stross Found at the SFPL-Main as of Wednesday August21     I have completed reading a new Charles Stross novel and it really holds your attention. This is set in the world and in adjacent irreality where the Black Pharaoh has taken control of the UK and sidetracked the personnel of the Laundry to do clean up of sorcerers who resist his hellish reign.     No Laundry Files personnel on stage but hungry musical instruments are in evidence. Evelyn Starkey, Wife of Rupert Bigge, Baron of Skaro and initiate of the Mute Poet (a Mexican deity) who like the Black Pharaoh loves the power that comes from human sacrifice, is the main character attempting to track her insane husband on the dream roads. She is his PA and runs his immense business for him but suffers under multiple geasa, forced to his will and nastily trapped into a marriage where he can force her will to his ends even more. Both she and hubby are powerful sorcerers. He is attempting to get the Mute Poet to be triumphant in a contest with the Black Pharaoh by founding and directing cults of the Mute Singer in the past.     This was very amusing and Stross has the knack for drawing you into his work.     This is set in the same Universe as the Laundry Files where magic is best worked by computer as humans suffer deleterious parasitism when they do magic. Not too good for the computers either as I recall. bliss -- b l i s s - S F 4 e v e r at D S L E x t r e m e dot com