[Aptorian]

22% in

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She was a lethal bounty hunter, modelled on Grace Jones’s character in Luc Besson’s The Sixth Element.

What? Is this some alternate earth thing? I just spent 5 minutes trying to figure out if this was a real thing.

[amphibian]

Grace Jones is not in The Fifth Element and I don't think any character particularly looks like her or acts like her. Maybe the Diva Plavalaguna, but that's such a huge stretch.

Must be an alternate Earth thing or a fuckup.

[Abyss]

It's a joke. Invokes an image anyone who catches the references can get, but utterly unimportant. Tells you a bit more about the character.

It's a world where superheroes fly around, magic is real, geased Elf soldiers are executing shoplifters in the street and the general public is aware that the avatar of a Thing From Beyond runs the UK. Reality is hardly an issue.

Great book so far, loving this cast.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 03 November 2020 - 02:02 AM, said:

It's a joke. Invokes an image anyone who catches the references can get, but utterly unimportant. Tells you a bit more about the character.

It's a world where superheroes fly around, magic is real, geased Elf soldiers are executing shoplifters in the street and the general public is aware that the avatar of a Thing From Beyond runs the UK. Reality is hardly an issue.

Great book so far, loving this cast.

About 5 chapters in and HOLY HOLLYWOODACTIONFNCK THAT WAS AWESOME.

This is a complete shift from The Laundry and its a blast. So far, shades of Dr Who, Tarantino, Jessica Jones, Fringe...

[Cyphon]

I really need to get this, but won't until I'm caught up on the forum reread.

[Aptorian]

I'm about two thirds through the book and I agree this feels like a pretty different book but still familiar.

I saw an AMA on Reddit that Stross plans to make this story line/branch a trilogy of books.

[amphibian]

Aptorian, on 04 November 2020 - 06:17 PM, said:

I'm about two thirds through the book and I agree this feels like a pretty different book but still familiar.

I saw an AMA on Reddit that Stross plans to make this story line/branch a trilogy of books.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Turning Bob from the main character into Angleton not only in spirit but in terms of screen time seems like a very, very strange decision.

Especially with the big showdowns about to happen.

[Aptorian]

It doesn't seem to be intentional. He lost his mom recently and apparently decided to shift his writing because he wasn't in the right place in terms of writing mojo:

https://www.reddit.c..._lies_dreaming/

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caelric 25 points · 1 day ago

I was going to ask why you published a book that was in the same universe, but not part of the storyline of the Luundry Files, but you asnwered that:

Quote

It's is the start of a new trilogy, but inevitably got marketed as book 10 of my long-running Laundry Files, with it shares a universe.

Instead, I will ask why you wrote a book that was outside the main storyline? I know that I, and I suspect many other readers, want to advance the storyline, and especially want to know more about Bob, his sometimes wife, and the rest of the cast of the main storyline.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Dead Lies Dreaming, but I would have much rather read another book in the main storyline. And one with something about Cassie. Yepyep.

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cstross AMA Author Charles Stross 80 points · 1 day ago

My mother was dying slowly in a nursing home from late in 2018 through most of 2019.

I couldn't write at all, but needed to express ... something ... to figure out how I felt. So I gave myself permission to write any old crap as therapy. And what came out turned out to be Dead Lies Dreaming.

We tend to forget that the original pre-Disney Peter Pan was an attempt to explain to under-5s why their baby siblings weren't coming home from the hospital, in an age when infant mortality ran at over 20%. Dead Lies Dreaming started as my attempt at re-tooling Peter and Wendy to peer into the dark recesses of my own head: it kind of worked, but there's more ore in that vein, hence sequels coming.

(There will be more about Bob, Mo, Alex, Cassie, the Senior Auditor, and so on in due course: I just need to get my head back into the right frame of mind to write about them, which may take a couple of years.)

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 05 November 2020 - 02:48 AM

[Aptorian]

Finished Death Lies Dreaming.

Really enjoyed it. Especially the fact that we get a parallel view of some of the events that have taken place during the recent books. The inspiration of Peter Pan Lore as a foil for some of the characters and world building is also interesting and I get the idea that's not wrapped up just yet.

I wish we'd gotten a bit more info on non-laundry, non-scientific approaches to using magic and making deals with the creepy things on the other side.

I also thinks the story ends a bit too abruptly. The fate of... you know who is surely not wrapped up yet?

This book is also the first book that I think hints at a way to save the world before Case Nightmare Green goes too far. I wonder if this is something Stross has in mind as a contingency in case he wants to wrap up the series in a non/less apocalyptic fashion.

[Aptorian]

The 11th Laundry Files book is coming put July 13th and it’s called Escape from Puroland!

It’s a Bob book!

Quote

Description
Product Description
Regular readers of Charles Stross's Laundry Files might have noticed Bob Howard's absence from the events of The Nightmare Stacks, and his subsequent return from Tokyo at the start of The Delirium Brief.

Escape from Puroland explains what he was doing there.

Bob's been assigned to work with the Miyamoto Group, checking the wards that lock down Japan's warded sites―a task previously handled by his predecessor Dr. Angleton, the Eater of Souls. This mostly involves policing yokai: traditional magical beings, increasingly grown more annoying and energetic.

But then Bob's simple trip turns into a deadly confrontation with the ultimate yokai. It's massively powerful. It's pink. And it says "Hello."

[Abyss]

Aptorian, on 27 February 2021 - 05:37 AM, said:

The 11th Laundry Files book is coming put July 13th and it's called Escape from Puroland!

It's a Bob book!

Quote

Description
Product Description
Regular readers of Charles Stross's Laundry Files might have noticed Bob Howard's absence from the events of The Nightmare Stacks, and his subsequent return from Tokyo at the start of The Delirium Brief.

Escape from Puroland explains what he was doing there.

Bob's been assigned to work with the Miyamoto Group, checking the wards that lock down Japan's warded sites―a task previously handled by his predecessor Dr. Angleton, the Eater of Souls. This mostly involves policing yokai: traditional magical beings, increasingly grown more annoying and energetic.

But then Bob's simple trip turns into a deadly confrontation with the ultimate yokai. It's massively powerful. It's pink. And it says "Hello."

VERY HAPPY ABOUT THIS.

Stross has also posted that he finished a sequel to DEAD LIES DREAMING and has a third almost done, so YAY!

[Aptorian]

Fast writer is fast.

[Aptorian]

Puroland has been pushed to March 2022. Much sadness.

I was looking forward to that Bob fix.

[Abyss]

Aptorian, on 31 May 2021 - 07:42 AM, said:

Puroland has been pushed to March 2022. Much sadness.

I was looking forward to that Bob fix.

CASE NIGHTMARE DAMMIT

[Aptorian]

Puroland is delayed but the spin-off series "New Management" is getting the first sequel: Quantum of Nightmares, the follow up to Dead Lies Dreaming.

Coming out January 11th.

I'll put the description in a spoiler box because it's sort of spoilery for the first book.

Spoiler

Quote

A unique blend of espionage thrills and Lovecraftian horror, Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross's Laundry Files continues with Quantum of Nightmares.

It’s a brave new Britain under the New Management. The avuncular Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much.

Hyperorganized and formidable, Eve Starkey defeated her boss, the louche magical adept and billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge, in a supernatural duel to the death. Now she’s in charge of the Bigge Corporation—just in time to discover the lethal trap Rupert set for her long ago.

Wendy Deere’s transhuman abilities have gotten her through many a scrape. Now she’s gainfully employed investigating unauthorized supernatural shenanigans. She swore to herself she wouldn’t again get entangled with Eve Starkey’s bohemian brother Imp and his crew of transhuman misfits. Yeah, right.

Mary Macandless has powers of her own. Right now she’s pretending to be a nanny in order to kidnap the children of a pair of famous, Government-authorized superheroes. These children have powers of their own, and Mary Macandless is in way over her head.

Amanda Sullivan is the HR manager of a minor grocery chain, much oppressed by her glossy blonde boss—who is cooking up an appalling, extralegal scheme literally involving human flesh.

All of these stories will come together, with world-bending results...

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 16 December 2021 - 07:32 PM

[Aptorian]

Oh and checking Escape from Puroland I see that it's now renamed Escape from Yokai Land and coming out in March???

It's a busy first quarter for Laundry fans.

[Abyss]

Aptorian, on 16 December 2021 - 07:28 PM, said:

Puroland is delayed but the spin-off series "New Management" is getting the first sequel: Quantum of Nightmares, the follow up to Dead Lies Dreaming.

Coming out January 11th.

I'll put the description in a spoiler box because it's sort of spoilery for the first book.

Spoiler

Quote

A unique blend of espionage thrills and Lovecraftian horror, Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross's Laundry Files continues with Quantum of Nightmares.

It's a brave new Britain under the New Management. The avuncular Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much.

Hyperorganized and formidable, Eve Starkey defeated her boss, the louche magical adept and billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge, in a supernatural duel to the death. Now she's in charge of the Bigge Corporation—just in time to discover the lethal trap Rupert set for her long ago.

Wendy Deere's transhuman abilities have gotten her through many a scrape. Now she's gainfully employed investigating unauthorized supernatural shenanigans. She swore to herself she wouldn't again get entangled with Eve Starkey's bohemian brother Imp and his crew of transhuman misfits. Yeah, right.

Mary Macandless has powers of her own. Right now she's pretending to be a nanny in order to kidnap the children of a pair of famous, Government-authorized superheroes. These children have powers of their own, and Mary Macandless is in way over her head.

Amanda Sullivan is the HR manager of a minor grocery chain, much oppressed by her glossy blonde boss—who is cooking up an appalling, extralegal scheme literally involving human flesh.

All of these stories will come together, with world-bending results...

Am disproportionately excited about this.

...wait, no, it's exactly proportionate.

[Aptorian]

Finished Quantum of Nightmares. I've got a question about the children in the book.

Spoiler

What was that D'n'D session about? How did Game Boy come up with the campaign about the four kidnapped kids? How did Eve channel the character of Mary Drop? She made it up on the fly... Or did she?

[Abyss]

Aptorian, on 01 February 2022 - 06:03 PM, said:

Finished Quantum of Nightmares. I've got a question about the children in the book.

Spoiler

What was that D'n'D session about? How did Game Boy come up with the campaign about the four kidnapped kids? How did Eve channel the character of Mary Drop? She made it up on the fly... Or did she?

Interesting question...

Spoiler

Rob had already told Gameboy about what was going on w Mary by then, even if he thought it was still legit, and gameboy used that in his planning.
The Eve thing could have been GB assigning a name, or that could have been Eve's pregenerated character's name already.

It's been suggested that GB's power has a wider scope than just keeping him out of danger, and someone, Eve or Wendy, suggested that there may be other forces moving in mysterious ways now that the New Management has come out of the supernatural closet.

Unrelated/related, did you catch the brief reference to Bob?

[Aptorian]

Finished Escape from Yokai Land yesterday.

Actually a bit angry at this release. It's an inoffensive short story of about 80 pages. Typical Bob Howard government Voodoo story where stuff goes sideways. Entertaining enough and satisfying for Bob fans.

But this book was listed as a preorder for the 12th Laundry book. Not a short story. I didn't pay 13 USD for a short story that doesn't even matter in the greater Laundry plot. Bad form by the publisher to burn fans that are willing to pre-order a series they love.

What ever, hopefully Stross gets a few percent.