Okay I'm amused when a writer who has a series that's basically HP Lovecraft Applied Mathematics; Comp Sci division who devotes much of an entire short story to mocking Lovecraft.
(Not just his purple prose and the man's... issues).
But more taking the piss of the man's creative chops and bemoaning his literary influence (this particular series is first person so it's a bit difficult to separate author from character).
Then I realized that it was tongue-in-cheek. And that the main character was being a wanker. The real penny drop came when someone had to explain to him r/K selection theory.
Terminology that said character immediately started using like it was old hat.
Said character then started having his own "apocalyptic journal" get infested with purple prose and tacitly admit that Lovecraft's own narrative was actually correct.
So this is my roundabout way of saying that Stross' Equoid was rather amusing.
Though man... Stross needs to take a holiday somewhere and get some trigger time to add a touch of verisimilitude to his work. While it's great that his main character has become less of a "I don't like guns" weenie as he's matured (Yeah Bob, if you're a bloody necromancer working for nasty secret intelligence you don't get to whine about having to use a gun).
And that's not even getting into the... CisBritish goodthinker politics that seems so quaint when put in well.... Applied Mathematics Lovecraftian Horror.
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