Whatever else you want to call the arc represented by the first three books in Stross' "New Management" series, you might describe it as occult divorce for survival and advancement. While Eve Starkey, might have thought she had put her so-called "husband," the sorcerer Rupert de Montfort Bigge, down for the count, when the eldritch master of Great Britain wants Bigge's literal head, it's do or die time. Further, Stross continues to extend the purview of his ever-metastasizing "Laundry" universe, as if you're going to go back in time to post-1814 Britain, why not make it a regency romance? To put it simply, I had as much fun with this particular arc as anything I've read by Stross in awhile, and I'm giving this book top marks for sticking the landing. ( )

I geared myself up for a tale of skullduggery and adventure under the New Management, and well this is sort of that crossed with Jasper Fforde and Genevieve Cogman and Georgette Heyer via 7 decades of Regency romances via The Prisoner. All told with Stross's undoubted skill and horror dissipating humor. ( )

A.k.a. "The Dream-Quest of Evelyn Michelle Starkey." This third novel of the New Management trilogy dependent from the Laundry Files series is focused fully on Eve, who had been drawn conspicuously to center stage in the previous book. I have grown to like her, but I don't know if this book is a suitable point of entry to the Tales of the New Management, in part because it picks up so late in her character arc. Her brother Imp and his team are decidedly on the fringes of this story.

For the children's literature angle developed in the previous two books (which riffed on Peter Pan and Mary Poppins respectively) this one exploits Through the Looking-Glass. The Black Pharaoh and Prime Minister of England N'yar-lat-hotep effectuates more of his aspect as the intelligence governing dreams, when Eve takes on the role of Alice.

For subject matter, we are given a foray into Regency gothic, a highly articulated historical romance sub-genre. It may thus appeal to fans of the supernatural Regency hit Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, but as contrasted with Clarke's book, Season of Skulls indulges in a great deal of pointed anachronism. Besides Eve's own 21st-century perspective, the chief oopart is the Village, from the Patrick McGoohan television series The Prisoner. In looking-glass fashion, people from Eve's world have counterparts reflected into 1816.

The whole story was strikingly similar to the author's previous novel Glasshouse, which involved a carceral theme and "time travel" via simulation. In both books, the protagonist gets to experience the patriarchy of an earlier age as a woman. In Glasshouse she is previously male. In Season of Skulls she is previously a frigid girlboss.

I could tell that Stross did a lot of historical research to tell a story that he passes off with his usual glibness. This book may have spent the longest time in composition of any of the Laundryverse tales. I did enjoy it, and I wonder what has happened since 2017 in that world.

I still miss the Laundry, but the stars came right, and under the New Management there are other key characters. Here we focus on Eve, who ended the last book involuntarily married to her boss and under an obedience geas to him; unfortunately, he wasn’t quite dead yet, and the Black Pharaoh has assigned her to bring him Rupert’s head. Off into the dream roads she goes, which leads to many situations that reminded me of Genevieve Cogman’s Library series in terms of narrative energy. Given the link between computer programming and sorcery, I particularly liked the phrase “problem exists between spell book and sandals.” ( )

The New Management books are not a patch on the original Laundry Files series. Disappointing. ( )