The Atrocity Archives – Charles Stross
Hachette Livre Orbit, 2007
319 pages
RRP: AU$19.95
ISBN: 978-1-84149-569-9

Reviewed by Jacinta Rosielle.

Zombies, gorgons, and lamias. Hi-tech spy gadgetry and blood-daubed pentacles. Charles Stross has created a world in which the occult, the supernatural, history and science fiction weave together to form a bizarre re-working of our current reality.

The Atrocity Archives is the story of Bob Roberts, a guy working for the Laundry, a secret government department that deals with paranormal threats, in the fashion of The X-Files. Like a TV series, the novel is divided into two ‘episodes’, “The Atrocity Archive” and “Concrete Jungle”.

In “The Atrocity Archive”, Bob is sent to investigate why Dominique, a British philosophy professor, is being detained in the United States by the Department of Defence. Shortly after Bob meets her, she is kidnapped by three men who have links with terrorist forces. When Bob tries to save her, he inadvertently becomes entrusted with her care, a job that involves encounters with strange beings summoned from other worlds and long-kept secret Nazi atrocities.

In “Concrete Jungle”, Bob is sent to Milton Keynes to investigate a cooked cow in the middle of a field of concrete cows (an artist’s installation). Through a series of classified documents dating from 1892, a frightening alternative use of city surveillance cameras is revealed, as is Stross’s apparent criticism of the ridiculously risky decisions made by those in power.

Stross regularly uses lengthy dialogue to attempt to explain unusual occurrences in this novel. These explanations are often heavily laden with scientific jargon linked with a logic he creates in relation to occult procedures. These often left me with even more questions.

The character of Bob Roberts is a little disappointing, as his development is negligible throughout the course of the novel. He is not terribly fond of his conscription into the Laundry, his treatment by his superiors is enough to drive most people to drink or entertain thoughts of murder, and yet he thinks and does very little besides his work. Although he often contravenes the department’s rules, he does so unintentionally, merely responding to unexpected events in what seems the most suitable way at the time. He appears to be little more than a cog in the Laundry’s machinery.

“The Atrocity Archive” was originally serialised in Spectrum SF in 2001 to 2002, with “Concrete Jungle” a later addition to the narrative. “The Atrocity Archive” seems more suited to serialisation than the novel form. The plot drives through some vivid scenes and unique ideas, however it seems to lack the natural growth of tension, character development and slow resolution that readers expect of a novel. A fantastic climax is reached in “Concrete Jungle”, however both stories seem to finish far too quickly.

Those criticisms aside, the novel is certainly worth a read to see how Stross has realised his ambitious concept of combining science fiction, history, the occult and the supernatural into the one novel. “The Atrocity Archive” contains some spectacularly imaginative scenes worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster and “Concrete Jungle” won the Hugo Award for best novella in 2005.

Originally released as a novel by Golden Gryphon Press in 2004, The Atrocity Archives has now been re-released by Orbit.