The Delirium Brief: A Laundry Files Novel

Charles Stross

Jul 2017 · Laundry Files Book 8 · Sold by Tor Books

About this ebook

*2018 LOCUS AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST FANTASY NOVEL CATEGORY*

“Smart, literate, funny.” —Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians

Someone is dead set to air the spy agency’s dirty laundry in The Delirium Brief, the next installment to Charles Stross’ Hugo Award-winning comedic dark fantasy Laundry Files series!

Bob Howard’s career in the Laundry, the secret British government agency dedicated to protecting the world from unspeakable horrors from beyond spacetime, has entailed high combat, brilliant hacking, ancient magic, and combat with indescribably repellent creatures of pure evil. It has also involved a wearying amount of paperwork and office politics, and his expense reports are still a mess.

Now, following the invasion of Yorkshire by the Host of Air and Darkness, the Laundry’s existence has become public, and Bob is being trotted out on TV to answer pointed questions about elven asylum seekers. What neither Bob nor his managers have foreseen is that their organization has earned the attention of a horror far more terrifying than any demon: a British government looking for public services to privatize.

Inch by inch, Bob Howard and his managers are forced to consider the truly unthinkable: a coup against the British government itself.

Laundry Files
1. The Atrocity Archives
2. The Jennifer Morgue
3. The Fuller Memorandum
4. The Apocalypse Codex
5. The Rhesus Chart
6. The Annihilation Score
7. The Nightmare Stacks

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

What attracted me to this series was mathematics, programming, geeky protag blended in with magic and eldritch horrors. And this book is all about that, with much greater emphasis on eldritch horrors this time. That the author hinted Bob might no longer be the spotlight protag (a pity) make this entry all the more precious, but other "supporting" characters have been very entertaining and well-fleshed out. What I liked was also how Stross writes unreliable narrators. Granted it can be frustrating, but the plot and pacing and eldritchity makes up for it.

I want to give this a 4 out of 5. However the story is really dry. Imagery and decription relies too heavily upon prexisting knowedge of britian and the city systems that is england. I may buy the first of the series to compare notes. However I may just be spoiled by Terry Pratchett.

Slow reading took 24 months to finish

About the author

CHARLES STROSS is a British SF writer, born in Leeds, England, and living in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has worked as a tech writer, a programmer, a journalist, and a pharmacist; he holds degrees in pharmacy and in computer science. He has won three Hugo Awards for his short fiction, including in 2014 for Equoid, a Laundry Files novella originally published on Tor.com.