Reddit mentions of The Atrocity Archives (A Laundry Files Novel)

Not really in the Lovecraft style, but I highly recommend The Laundry Files series by Charles Stross. It starts with The Atrocity Archives, followed by The Jennifer Morgue, The Fuller Memorandum, and The Apocalypse Codex. The basic premise is that there's a civil service department run by the British that deals with all of the occult stuff that goes on (the Deep Ones, monkey's paws, etc.). It is sometimes quite dark (gaping maws, dead planets, old gods, ancient rituals), but shot through with a good bit of humor.

Also, there's a (award-winning) novelette by him called, "A Colder War", which you can read online here. It's a fusion of Cthulhu Mythos and the Cold War.

I really like the Laundry Files novel series by Charles Stross. It's hard fantasy, is very well written, and is quite fascinating.

Basically it follows a British secret agent as he tries to survive various adventures. He works as an IT guy and a computational demonologist in an agency that deals with the supernatural. The idea is that using certain advanced mathematics and science you can breach walls in reality, summon interdimensional aliens (AKA demons), get them to do stuff, etc. If you run those algorithms in your head you run the risk of having the demons eat your brains. If you run them on a computer, you get to be far more powerful.

Here are a couple of free short stories from that universe: http://www.tor.com/tags/Laundry%20Files

Also, here is the first book in the series: The Atrocity Archives

I highly recommend these books. They are very neat, and the series is still being written. The latest book came out this summer - I can't wait for the next one.

If you find an egg of Cthulhu, do not take it home. Do not stare at it. Do not attempt to burn it in a fire. Alert the authorities (ideally the Q division of the Special Operations Executive) and pretend it never happened.

If I was going to pick Stross books for their similarity to Snow Crash I would have gone with the laundry series (Jennifer Morgue, Atrocity Archives and Fuller Memorandum). They have same sort of 'playing with the genre' feel and a tendency to play things for laughs.

Charlie Stross' Laundry series (The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue and The Fuller Memorandum) are available on Amazon as Kindle downloads, and I highly recommend them, being a witty and amusing blend of Mythos and James Bond.

Bücher, die einen ansprechen, findet man so spannend, dass man nicht merkt, wie lange man schon dasitzt.

Du hast bereits erkannt, was Dir nicht gefällt (Fantasykrams, Zauberei, "Eure Hochwürden"); die Frage ist nun: was gefällt Dir?

Man muss ja nicht den 6'000 Seiten historischen Roman über das Leben einer Wanderhure im Deutschland des 14. Jhd. lesen; man kann auch einen spannenden Action-Thriller mit Weltraumschlachten und klaren Hierarchien lesen!

Ich lese extrem viel Sci-Fi; insbesondere Hard Sci-Fi und Military Sci-Fi (die Genrebezeichnungen müssen Dir nichts sagen; sie sind sowieso unscharf und begrenzen eher, als dass sie helfen).

Richtig gute Bücher (alles sehr subjektiv) ((Im englischen Original im Regelfall besser; wenn du allerdings nicht fließend Englisch lesen kannst macht es keinen Sinn, Bücher lesen auf Englisch anzufangen; mach' das dann in 2 Jahren oder so)):

John Scalzi:
Krieg der Klone

Charles Stross: The Atrocity Archives (leider nur auf Englisch lesbar; deutsche Übersetzung scheint sehr schlecht zu sein). Wenn du IT-Afin bist, ist dies ein MUSS.

Marko Kloos: Sternenjagd Military Sci-Fi ohne den Hauch eines Versuchs, mehr als spannende Action zu bieten. :-)

I've actually never read anything by him. Checked out his goodreads page, though, and based purely on speculation I think you might like these:

Charlie Stross Atrocity Archives Book 1 of the Laundry series


Neil Gaiman Preludes and Nocturnes it's a comic but don't think it's for kids, book 1 of the Sandman series

Jonathan Howard Johannes Cabal The Necromancer

Top 5 off those shelves would be:
The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Alt History detective novel by a Pulitzer winner
http://www.amazon.com/Yiddish-Policemens-Union-Novel-P-S/dp/0007149832
The Atrocity Archives - Lovecraftian spy thriller and IT hell
http://www.amazon.com/Atrocity-Archives-Laundry-Files-Novel/dp/0441016685/
Books of Blood - A compilation of Clive Barker's nasty little 80s horror anthologies
http://www.amazon.com/Books-Blood-Vols-Clive-Barker/dp/0425165582/
Perdido Street Station - Steampunky fantasy with excellent worldbuilding that's apparently a good example of the New Weird, whatever that is and however it differes from the Old Weird
http://www.amazon.com/Perdido-Street-Station-China-Mieville/dp/0345459407
American Gods - Gaiman's mythology based urban fantasy; a modern classic
http://www.amazon.com/American-Gods-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0380789035

As for the Weird Tales collection, it's Weird Tales: 32 Unearthed Terrors. It sets out to present the best tale from each year of the magazine's original run. Published in 1988 and edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz (as if the eldritch gods didn't inject enough unpronounceable names into the mix) you've got everyone from Isaac Asimov to Seabury Quinn to good ol' HPL himself with "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward"
http://www.amazon.com/Weird-Tales-32-Unearthed-Terrors/dp/0517661233
Not quite the $1 deal I got from the library sale, but not as outrageous as some of the out of print prices on Amazon.

The Atrocity Archives, by Charles Stross

British spy novel meets Lovecraftian horror, same first-person dark witty supernatural adventure horror as John Dies at the End. There's a whole great series of these books and theyre a ton of fun.

• Science Fiction with plenty of action would be John Scalzi's Old Man's War and it's sequels.
  
  
• Combine James Bond, H. P. Lovecraft and IT management and you get Charles Stross's Bob Howard/Laundry series. Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue
  
  But as far as adventure, Robert E. Howard's classics are imo still the best in pulp adventure fiction.

Damn, those tricky vampire hosting companies. If you enjoy the idea of a mix of supernatural with computers I wonder if you might enjoy reading The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. It's the first book in a series.

Charlie Stross sounds like just the ticket:

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/buy-my-books/buy-my-books-us.html

I would suggest this to start, short and sweet, funny & dark:

http://www.amazon.com/Atrocity-Archives-Charles-Stross/dp/0441016685/

Also, what others have said about Iain M Banks and his Culture Novels - they're pretty awesome; Consider Phlebas isn't a bad place to start.

For flights I usually go with something lighter, I find I have a hard time getting into complex books on flights.

So, in that spirit I recomend The Atrocity Archives

Or anything by Malcolm Gladwell if you feel like something pop.sci.

try Charles Stross' Atrocity Archives. fun stuff. :)

Incredibly late to the party... but right now I'm reading The Atrocity Archives - by Charles Stross. If you like well written sci-fi, Lovecraftian interdimensional horrors, and computer science, this is the book for you.

One of his other novels, Glasshouse, might be my all time favorite book. It's pretty easy to read sci-fi, has some awesome new concepts, and surprisingly really delves deep into gender issues. The last part kinda threw me but it's really well done and a very well presented.