The Nightmare Stacks is a return to a more classic Laundry novel, with a new protagonist, a new enemy, and metric shittons of style. The story follows Alex, one of the PHANGS (Vampires with sorcerous abilities from The Rhesus Chart), as he's coming to terms with his new life as a civil servant and combat mage, and an unsatisfying assignment back in his hometown of Leeds.

While Alex is scouting out squalid Cold War bunkers as a new HQ, a cold and vasty intelligence has turned it's eyes towards Earth. In this case it's elves, who Stross' perfectly casts as the post-apocalyptic remnants of a high magic civilization turned into a perfect fascist imperial machine through mind control magic. CASE NIGHTMARE RED (oh yes, there is a whole rainbow of CASE NIGHTMARES!) involves extraplanar invasion by intelligent beings, and Stross does an incredible job showcasing the Cthulhuoid bio-horror military of the elves going up the scanty rapid response forces the diminished British military can throw together. Stross's ambition in this book was to treat folklore about elves with about the same coherence as an Afghan villager's account of why SEAL Team 6 shot up his village, and it works! This is the best world-building in the series since book one, and promises a major shift of events for the next book.

That said, as a protagonist Alex is kind of a wet squib. Yet another math nerd with women issues and a developing moral compass. He's a lot like early Bob Howard, without the sarcasm or the fun. The supporting cast exceeds. "Cassie", elven spy and princess, does a great job with her confusion at Earthly mores and her very predatory alien mindset. Pinky and Brains are back, along with their refurbished Kettenkrad. And the Most Awkward Family Dinner in History adds some solid human drama.