The Annihilation Score
by Charles Stross · first published 2015
7mentions
3recommended by
7HN commenters
2015–2023first – last mentioned
43% recommend43% neutral14% critical
"Mo's latest assignment is to assist the police in containing an unusual outbreak: ordinary citizens suddenly imbued with extraordinary abilities of the superpowered kind. Unfortunately these people prefer playing super-pranks instead of performing super-heroics"--
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Suggested reading: "The Annihilation Score", by Charles Stross. This is the latest in the Laundry series, about a unit of the British government which deals with paranormal problems. They have to deal with someone who calls himself "The Mandate".…
on “Your Job as a Founder Is to Create Believers” ↗I know Charlie Stross reads HN, so I'm going to say that I really enjoyed his book The Annihilation Score, which uses Peel as a plot device. It's book six or seven in a series, but all the books really stand alone.
on “Peelian Principles” ↗The Annihilation Score is a pretty good skewering of modern bureaucracy; we've borrowed a lot of terminology from the Americans and imported a lot of their corporate thinking, so it makes sense that the tone shifts. And again,…
on “How to Be a Professional Author and Not Die Screaming and Starving” ↗> I only need to read about the "chair" once. In that case you probably won't like the "violin" in Charles Stross's 'The Annihilation Score' [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laundry_Files#The_Annihila...
on “Why the Culture Wins: An Appreciation of Iain M. Banks (2017; by Joseph Heath)” ↗The early ones certainly aren't, they're just about pitch perfect. Somewhere mid way, probably around The Annihilation Score, they become so and it starts to feel off, in part because the perfect pitch has become off key. That's entirely ignoring Labyrinth Index centred on Mhari, as it's the weakest book of the series, for…
on “How to Be a Professional Author and Not Die Screaming and Starving” ↗…triangle in a small mid-western town. Funny, dark, and a vivid portrait of that kind of town. A huge cast of characters, some only on stage for a moment or two and yet each integral and colorful. The Annihilation Score: I love the series but this wasn't my favorite despite starring one of my favorite characters for the first time. The Rhesus Chart: Another of the Laundry Files series. A sanguinary disease nearly brings…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗…(staggeringly incomplete) - The Desert Spear (incomplete) - The Lost Fleet: {Dauntless,Fearless,Courageous} (third one incomplete) - Superintelligence - Nexus, Crux (incomplete) - Another Fine Myth - The Annihilation Score - The Man with the Golden Torc, Daemons are Forever - The Fractal Prince (incomplete) - Crooked - Ancillary Mercy - The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - The Traitor Baru Cormarant - Excession…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗