[JPK]

Looks like LAUNDRY #13, A CONVENTIONAL BOY, has released. I'm both a bit excited and nervous about this one after the way the last couple books in the overall universe have gone.

[JPK]

I'm most of the way though A CONVENTIONAL BOY now, and while it isn't breaking the mold by any means, it's really enjoyable. Lots of the Laundry stumbling through bureaucracy and having things slip through the cracks. Very much like being back around book 3 or 4 in a good way.

[Abyss]

shame on me not posting this here....

Abyss, on 23 January 2025 - 08:31 PM, said:

Just Finished Charlie Stross' A CONVENTIONAL BOY. Some weirdness here, it's a Laundry book, but a flashback that takes place circa 2010, and it's packaged with two stories, OVERTIME and DOWN ON THE FARM, that have been around for years and were packaged w ATROCITY ARCHIVES, i think. Then as a bonus there's a piece at the end w Stross discussing the crossover between Dungeons n Dragons and the rise of the radical right. All of which is to say, it's a good thing i really enjoyed BOY because an entire Audible credit for a five hour story and some repackaged stuff i already owned might have otherwise annoyed me, tho the Stross discussion piece is in fact very interesting.

BOY is great. A relatively straightforward story about Derek, a man who was arrested i error by the Laundry when he was 14 for playing DnD during the Satanic Panic, who spent the rest of life in a detainment camp but decides to go on the run to attend a TTRPG convention. It's.... honestly its brilliant, the kind of writing that yanked me into the Laundry stories way back and kept me there even when the series goes thru dips. There are easter eggs and call backs and references right thru to various DnD and other gaming elements, and little nuggets for the rest of the series. Derek is at once sympathetic and a victim and thoroughly engaging as a gamer on a mission with a few things he's learned from years in a Laundry prison camp. The choice of past/future High Priestess of the Black Pharaoh Iris as a second pov works well too. It's a very satsfying Laundry story, worth the time/money, and i hope like hell Stross plans to bring Derek back in a future book because dammit the guy still has a few dice left to roll.
...

[Abyss]

new book blurb NEW BOOK BLURBBBBBBB

Quote

An occult assassin, a living god and an elderly queen face off in
THE REGICIDE REPORT,
the thrilling conclusion to Charles Stross' Hugo Award winning Laundry Files series.

After 60-plus years in power in the U.K., Queen Elizabeth II has gathered a surplus of mana from believers spread across the British Commonwealth. That makes her a threat to the Elder God recently installed as Prime Minister—and a target to a shadowy faction within the Laundry looking to depose the Black Pharaoh.An assassin is dispatched to take out Queen Elizabeth and neutralize the threat of the Black Pharaoh. Bob Howard and Dominique "Mo" O'Brien return for the last time, reluctantly pressed into service protecting the queen.Plus, Mhari Murphy and her team, many of whom are now infected with vampirism, are back from their mission to Washington DC with mixed success.

God save the Queen—someone has to.

who's excited???? I AM EXCITEDDDDDD!!!

[JPK]

Abyss, on 12 May 2025 - 04:06 PM, said:

new book blurb NEW BOOK BLURBBBBBBB

Quote

An occult assassin, a living god and an elderly queen face off in
THE REGICIDE REPORT,
the thrilling conclusion to Charles Stross' Hugo Award winning Laundry Files series.

After 60-plus years in power in the U.K., Queen Elizabeth II has gathered a surplus of mana from believers spread across the British Commonwealth. That makes her a threat to the Elder God recently installed as Prime Minister—and a target to a shadowy faction within the Laundry looking to depose the Black Pharaoh.An assassin is dispatched to take out Queen Elizabeth and neutralize the threat of the Black Pharaoh. Bob Howard and Dominique "Mo" O'Brien return for the last time, reluctantly pressed into service protecting the queen.Plus, Mhari Murphy and her team, many of whom are now infected with vampirism, are back from their mission to Washington DC with mixed success.

God save the Queen—someone has to.

who's excited???? I AM EXCITEDDDDDD!!!

Conclusion is a dirty word.

[amphibian]

Oh wow, I stepped off this series when it went to Not Bob (I did read the accidental elf invasion one) and I guess I have some catching up to do. Will report back in a few months.

[Abyss]

JPK, on 12 May 2025 - 08:34 PM, said:

Abyss, on 12 May 2025 - 04:06 PM, said:

new book blurb NEW BOOK BLURBBBBBBB

Quote

An occult assassin, a living god and an elderly queen face off in
THE REGICIDE REPORT,
the thrilling conclusion to Charles Stross' Hugo Award winning Laundry Files series.

After 60-plus years in power in the U.K., Queen Elizabeth II has gathered a surplus of mana from believers spread across the British Commonwealth. That makes her a threat to the Elder God recently installed as Prime Minister—and a target to a shadowy faction within the Laundry looking to depose the Black Pharaoh.An assassin is dispatched to take out Queen Elizabeth and neutralize the threat of the Black Pharaoh. Bob Howard and Dominique "Mo" O'Brien return for the last time, reluctantly pressed into service protecting the queen.Plus, Mhari Murphy and her team, many of whom are now infected with vampirism, are back from their mission to Washington DC with mixed success.

God save the Queen—someone has to.

who's excited???? I AM EXCITEDDDDDD!!!

Conclusion is a dirty word.

i'd almost agree w you except that i think he wants to end it and i'd rather see how he does that with finality rather than just leave it aside to die.

[JPK]

Started The Regicide Report today. Two immediate thoughts.

1- I missed Bob and it's good to be back with him.

2- This book would have been much harder to release before now due to events around a certain monarch.

[Abyss]

JPK, on 29 January 2026 - 11:08 PM, said:

Started The Regicide Report today. Two immediate thoughts.

1- I missed Bob and it's good to be back with him.

2- This book would have been much harder to release before now due to events around a certain monarch.

Same/agreed/true.

[Abyss]

2hrs left, i am enjoying the hell (pun intended) out of this!

[JPK]

Abyss, on 02 February 2026 - 08:09 PM, said:

2hrs left, i am enjoying the hell (pun intended) out of this!

I just got to the 2hr remaining point as well and will likely finish this afternoon. This went sideways rather beautifully.

[Abyss]

Just Finished THE REGICIDE REPORT.

I'm... divided.

No spoiler comment: it was great to be back with Bob and Mo, Stross did some very clever work with his setting here and wove in some interesting supernatural espionage. As a LAUNDRY FILES story, this was great fun.


NOW SPOILERS
SPOILERS
ALL THE SPOILERS

Spoiler

As the last LAUNDRY FILES story, i wish we had gotten more. Some closure... really ANY closure. I'm kind of stunned that we got as little as we did.

The underlying story, of the Senior Assessor's big play against Nyarlothep, was intriguing, complex, clever. The double and triple crosses of the Fibes, and Lechter, and the King in Yellow, we all great moments. Pete's storyline was particularly well handled, i loved his exchange w the archbishop and the Church's ultimate fuck you Prime Minister play of vampirizing Her Majesty.

It was neat to see Mo, now way more powerful, wrestle Lechter again. Bob going full Eater of Souls was a kick as was Angleton's brief appearance. I liked the way the vamps were worked in even if we didn't get to see most of the bestest ones.

I can't quite decide whether Stross messes up by showing us the PM poisoning HMTQ because we know the core conflict at the outset and the plot becomes not whether he succeeds but how things go wildly sideways. And of course they do, but the Senor Assessor's plot is never quite as clear until Lechter tries to summon the King in Yellow, and at that point, having repeatedly told us that the SA deeply regretted letting Nyarlathotep take over in order to stop The Mute Poet's takeover, his big play IS TO HAVE THE MURDER VIOLIN SUMMON YET ANOTHER ELDRITCH ABOMINATION???? SERIOUSLY???

And giant-skeleton-golem King Arthur, while obviously a serious threat and providing some great action, is taken out... OFF SCREEN WHILE BOB PASSES OUT FO THE THIRD TIME????
REALLLY????
NO, REALLLYYYYYY?????

And the conclusion.... New management still in place but too weak to try to bring Nyarlathotep into the fullness of his power any time soon, Case Nightmare Green supposedly dealt with but nothing has changed, Bob and Mo retired, and dead but not dead, and... they all live happily ever after except for Pete but at least he won't eat his family.

I'm... just ok with this really. I enjoyed it, but am left feeling kind of let down.

And i ack this kind of finale is consistent w the series, w the poor humans just surviving being kind of a win even so.

I was initially going to reread/ear the last two hours or so but just kind of felt 'meh' an proceeded to Clines' new book with more enthusiasm.

So there.
I love the series, i may even reread it one day, as endings go this was good, not great.

[JPK]

Spoiler

Arthur was a skeleton katamari.

. This book is nuts.

This post has been edited by JPK: 04 February 2026 - 08:41 PM

[Chance]

Abyss, on 04 February 2026 - 08:31 PM, said:

Just Finished THE REGICIDE REPORT.

...

I love the series, i may even reread it one day, as endings go this was good, not great.

It's a difficult thing to end a series, especially something sprawling like the Laundry.

It was a good book but yeah, it's not the best in the series and not close to the worst. Just suspecting that what we read wasn't the original intended ending but one that might have been quite colored by current day events and Stross feelings on them. He even indulges in some Dantesque naming/judging his foes, but I don't understand enough about british politics to really probably get it.

I hope he returns to some side stories in the same universe.

This post has been edited by Chance: 05 February 2026 - 05:19 AM

[Abyss]

JPK, on 04 February 2026 - 08:40 PM, said:

Spoiler

Arthur was a skeleton katamari.

. This book is nuts.

I especially liked the bit where

Spoiler

the commando FANG on the radio says 'be advised he is carrying Excalibur and therefore undefeatable'

...like oh, by the way...