This is what happens if you say to yourself, "I know! For my debut, I'll write an SF novel that's a giant allegory for the Edinburgh Festival!"

OK, there's more to it than that and it's a page turner. Those familiar with Stross's later works will see many familiar themes here - Cthulhu mythos, the Singularity, absurdities...

I'm ambivalent about this series: most of Stross's flaws are absent - no Luggage Syndrome! - but somehow it's not the page turner most of his books are. Thinking about why that is led me to two conclusions. Firstly the characters are not that interesting. Secondly, the characteristic Stross humour is conspicuous by its absence. There's another volume combining books five and six that wraps up the series and I'll likely read it some time, because I'm just invested enough to want to see how things turn out.

The second book moves faster than the first.

Going by that thinly disguised re-cap of the preceding plot, I've started book 4 of the series, book 2 of this volume.

I think I'm coming to the close of what was originally the first of two separately published books. 'Cos I'm nearly half-way through the volume and everything just erupted with gunfire...