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damerell at 06:28pm on 01/07/2018
damerell at 06:28pm on 01/07/2018This is basically all spoilers for The Delirium Brief, one of Stross's Laundry books.
Gripe the first: midway through the book the Senior Auditor talks to Iris Carpenter. In this conversation it's established that her previous involvement with the Cult of the Black Pharaoh (_The Fuller Memorandum_) was as part of a Laundry-sanctioned infiltration.
First of all, this is a bit of a stretch. Angleton clearly didn't know about it (and doesn't Angleton know everything?), but also the cult's scheme to bind the Eater of Souls into Bob fails (according to TFM) because of Iris's incompetence at demonology and because the Eater of Souls is already bound.
Even imagining that nothing we were told in TFM is true (and invalidating the whole plot of TFM is an unwelcome move), and that Iris is intentionally incompetent, and that the SA lets this go ahead because he knows the Eater is already bound so it won't work, the scheme involves the murder of a baby and Angleton's protege. Shouldn't a Laundry infiltrator derail the scheme before it reaches that point?
Secondly, the question of why Carpenter was then locked up for six years is rather badly addressed in this conversation; superficially plausible but after a few pages you find yourself realising that no, the SA is more than able to get her out of pokey during a half-decade period, so why hasn't he?
Thirdly, it seems completely unnecessary. In the rest of the book, Carpenter dutifully serves the Black Pharaoh; her actions make perfect sense given her TFM-era canon, so why not keep it intact? Given the SA's desperation at this point, releasing her makes just as much sense (more, in fact, since her being locked up now makes sense); her background as a Laundry employee still makes her the least worst cultist even if she was never acting as an infiltrator.
Gripe the second: the Mandate. In _The Armageddon Score_, the Mandate is very convincing and looks funny, but doesn't have any other powers - it's not merely the case that we don't see any, but we know he hasn't already become PM and feels the need to get Mo's organisation behind him before making a move. He can be easily intimidated with the bone violin (admittedly, a fearsome weapon) and if you stick a bag over his head and stop him talking, he's helpless.
In TDB, all of a sudden, he's enormously powerful, able to blow Schiller's top handmaiden into greasy smoke without blinking an eyelid. TDB-Mandate would already _be_ in charge of the country at the start of TAS. He's also a representative of the Black Pharaoh, quite possibly an avatar of Nyarlathotep himself, and again this has just popped out of nowhere because the plot demands it...
... except the plot doesn't demand it. TAS-Mandate functions perfectly well as an extremely dangerous figurehead to take over the government with, leaving TFM-Carpenter as the Black Pharoah's representative on Earth.
Trivial gripe: about 2/3 of the way through the book, we find Mhairi has dyed her hair black to help disguise herself. A sound move! Then when she and Persephone [1] have infiltrated Schiller's flat, she is left behind to ambush Schiller; she has to be the one to do it because she is blonde. At the height of the crisis, then, she has redyed her hair back to her normal, recognisable (per TAS) colour.
Gripe the first: midway through the book the Senior Auditor talks to Iris Carpenter. In this conversation it's established that her previous involvement with the Cult of the Black Pharaoh (_The Fuller Memorandum_) was as part of a Laundry-sanctioned infiltration.
First of all, this is a bit of a stretch. Angleton clearly didn't know about it (and doesn't Angleton know everything?), but also the cult's scheme to bind the Eater of Souls into Bob fails (according to TFM) because of Iris's incompetence at demonology and because the Eater of Souls is already bound.
Even imagining that nothing we were told in TFM is true (and invalidating the whole plot of TFM is an unwelcome move), and that Iris is intentionally incompetent, and that the SA lets this go ahead because he knows the Eater is already bound so it won't work, the scheme involves the murder of a baby and Angleton's protege. Shouldn't a Laundry infiltrator derail the scheme before it reaches that point?
Secondly, the question of why Carpenter was then locked up for six years is rather badly addressed in this conversation; superficially plausible but after a few pages you find yourself realising that no, the SA is more than able to get her out of pokey during a half-decade period, so why hasn't he?
Thirdly, it seems completely unnecessary. In the rest of the book, Carpenter dutifully serves the Black Pharaoh; her actions make perfect sense given her TFM-era canon, so why not keep it intact? Given the SA's desperation at this point, releasing her makes just as much sense (more, in fact, since her being locked up now makes sense); her background as a Laundry employee still makes her the least worst cultist even if she was never acting as an infiltrator.
Gripe the second: the Mandate. In _The Armageddon Score_, the Mandate is very convincing and looks funny, but doesn't have any other powers - it's not merely the case that we don't see any, but we know he hasn't already become PM and feels the need to get Mo's organisation behind him before making a move. He can be easily intimidated with the bone violin (admittedly, a fearsome weapon) and if you stick a bag over his head and stop him talking, he's helpless.
In TDB, all of a sudden, he's enormously powerful, able to blow Schiller's top handmaiden into greasy smoke without blinking an eyelid. TDB-Mandate would already _be_ in charge of the country at the start of TAS. He's also a representative of the Black Pharaoh, quite possibly an avatar of Nyarlathotep himself, and again this has just popped out of nowhere because the plot demands it...
... except the plot doesn't demand it. TAS-Mandate functions perfectly well as an extremely dangerous figurehead to take over the government with, leaving TFM-Carpenter as the Black Pharoah's representative on Earth.
Trivial gripe: about 2/3 of the way through the book, we find Mhairi has dyed her hair black to help disguise herself. A sound move! Then when she and Persephone [1] have infiltrated Schiller's flat, she is left behind to ambush Schiller; she has to be the one to do it because she is blonde. At the height of the crisis, then, she has redyed her hair back to her normal, recognisable (per TAS) colour.
(no subject)