In defense of Mo. I'm putting this under a spoiler cut because it might contain spoilers. I'm not sure if it does.

I love Mo. She's going through a normal process, that generally sometimes happens to women of a certain age. We become invisible. It's not pleasant. It makes you struggle in places where you've earned a place of respect. While similarly aged men seem to effortlessly command the attention and esteem they need to do their jobs, any attempt by an average-looking middle-aged woman to be a boss earns her the nickname Harpy. Battle-Axe. Harridan. Dragon Lady.

Our partners can't see the changes because you are changing so slowly that the crisis doesn't look like a crisis to them. It looks quasi-normal. Our femininity is struggling, and our hormones are flagging at forty. It's enough to make a woman seem completely unreasonable. When we express our anger at anything, it earns us some choice insults on the sly. Mental. Contemptible. Nasty. Mean.
Despicable.

I miss Bob in this book. For Mo. He is her support and her love. But that damn violin. That damn violin, who manipulates and tempts her with the restoration of lust. Who can manipulate her into feeling between sexy and powerful at inappropriate times. I don't blame her for being angry and lashing out at all the wrong people. Well, in the case of Bob, she's angry at The Eater of Souls, not Bob. She's angry at The Laundry.

Stross wrote a great middle-aged character, even if the plot of this one isn't as exciting as all the rest. Mo is a woman dealing with the youth of middle-age. Eventually she'll get used to her invisibility and make it work for her. I hope she and The Eater of Souls can work things out as well. It's the time that makes or breaks a marriage, without god-hood and that damn violin.

I hope that Stross didn't accidentally write a good character going through middle-age. Women at middle age are usually poorly written. In popular culture, middle-aged women are typically toned down to meet the expectations of society. If they are among the good-guys, they are moms and grandmothers that guide and shape. If bad, they are the Karens (I HATE this – It's sexist and awful.) and Cruella De Vils of the world. Anything but the confused women who are attempting to navigate a world that treats them differently from their younger self.

Okay, that's enough of my Mo rant. ( )

Not awful but

Not up to the standards of the previous five volumes in the series. Though that could be just my aversion to the camp end of humor.
There were a couple of instances where I thought the author had joined the "hell with the plot for the sake of ACTION" crew so common nowadays. Then I realized that he'd gone SO over the top that it was a Python-esque gambit rather than error. ( )

I probably shouldn't have jumped directly from the first book to the sixth, but it was on the shelf in the library and I was helpless. ( )

The Annihilation Score takes a bit of a different take from the previous five books, shifting the viewpoint from the previous hero* Bob to his wife Mo.

Previously, Mo had been one of my favorite characters in the series. She's just mysterious enough that she's interesting, coming in to save the day with a truly terrifying violin. Unfortunately, the more I know about her, the less I care.

The basic idea is interesting enough. Basically, as the world careens towards madness, magic is becoming more prevalent. But people don't believe in magic anymore, they believe in superheroes. One thing leads to another and Mo ends up leading a mostly publicly known super-hero task force. Much as The Rhesus Chart, despite the incoming danger, this feels like a de-escalation from the first four books.

One problem that annoyed me throughout the book was the relationship between Bob and Mo. I get it, they've been through Hell (literally) and they're each dealing with their own demons (again, literally), but I don't really understand their reactions to it. It feels more like Stross needed to get Bob out of the picture. So it goes.

Overall, I miss Bob. I miss Mo as a secondary character. I still enjoyed this more than enough to continue the series when the next comes out.

* For some definitions of hero. ( )

I am 75% through this book and the only reason I am aiming to finish it is not to miss anything when starting the next book.

Dominic is the lead character in this book and I believe it is not written as well as the previous books neither Dominic has enough character development to be suddenly put into a chain of event as this book presents.

The second major difference between this book and the prior ones is the way that narrative is weaving. Through multiple layers rather than having the simple organization and structure of the previous books.

This plot has definitely had potential to be one of the best books of the series if it was following the similar organization of the previous books and had enough character development for Dominic. ( )