For a while I've had Stross in my sights to add to the reading pile, and grabbed copies of The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue and Halting State (Martin gave Halting State a favourable review). The Atrocity Archive is actually one of Stross's early/first works but it wasn't published until 2006. It's in the form of a novel with a novella tacked on the end, though this doesn't spoil the enjoyment. The book is a pretty unusual combination of spy novel, scifi and occult. I'm not a big fan of horror/occult but this book rocks and I read it cover to cover over a couple of evenings. It has all the best elements of a modern hip spy novel with a healthy dose of science fiction/fact and the occult aspects of the writing is fortunately more Lovecraft than Denis Wheatly.

7/10 - A bloody good romp.