The Delirium Brief

Laundry Files #8

by Charles Stross

Bob Howard's career in the Laundry, the secret British government agency dedicated to protecting the world from the supernatural, has involved brilliant hacking, ancient magic, and combat with 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 government looking for public services to privatize. There are things in the Laundry's assets that big business would simply love to get its hands on . . .
Inch by inch, Bob Howard and his managers are forced to consider the truly unthinkable: a coup against the British government itself.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Lovecraftian

448 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 11, 2017

About the author

Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His works range from science fiction and Lovecraftian horror to fantasy.

Stross is sometimes regarded as being part of a new generation of British science fiction writers who specialise in hard science fiction and space opera. His contemporaries include Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod, Liz Williams and Richard Morgan.

SF Encyclopedia: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_...

Tor: http://us.macmillan.com/author/charle...

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second read in about a single year. How about that? But the series is great and I feel nothing but happiness when reading it. BOB IS BACK. I admit I've been missing him.

Suffice to say, I'm REALLY looking forward to the next and latest book to come out at the end of October!

Could anything get MORE FUBAR for the world?

Lesser evils, indeed. lol


Original Review:

I'll be honest, I've been a long-time raving fan of the Laundry Files, so when I got the next pre-release from Netgalley I practically fell over.

For those of you who've never had this on your radar, let me synopsize: It's part Spy-Novel, part Gibbering Cthulhu horrorshow, and part bureaucratic nightmare. Oh, and it's wickedly funny and charming and I love all the characters in this SF-UF. Sound good?

Oh yeah, and we get a huge dose of Bob in this latest one. Lately, we've been getting great Mo and great Alex and Cassie, too, but Bob has been my main go-to guy here, from his days as computational magic-tech-support all the way through his rise in active-duty Spy to middle management and THEN to... *gasp* upper-management. His wife Mo with her ex-eldritch-murder-violin has had her own bump into Senior Auditor status, never to be left behind.

But what about now? What is the Eater of Souls doing?

Oh, nothing much. Just fielding the Elvish invasion/sanctuary application fallout on English Soil, fencing with mind-numbing horrors and other paperwork, and a full-scale liquidation of the Laundry Files. Oops. Political nightmares! But what about all the demons in the basement? What is to happen with them or our Special K or our beleaguered fanged civil servants?

Here's the best part, however... we get a huge dose of Bob AND Mo AND Alex and Cassie in this novel, yo! All the mainstays get their time in the light, and good thing, too, because things have never been this dire.

What about the (magical) Oaths of Service, man??? Oh man...

Is it the end of the world? Very likely.

I won't spoil this because it hasn't even been released yet, but the twist is absolutely horrifying. I read the entire thing with a huge smile on my face. It's just one of those kinds of novels.

Utterly enjoyable, that is.

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

This eighth book in the Laundry series is a bit darker than the others. Not as much as I had expected after some warnings (after all, we had baby-sacrificing religious nutters before) but still dark. It's the end of the world after all. Or one of the ends.

An old enemy has made his way back across the dimensions and positioned himself as well as his followers to take out governments. Not really hard since all it takes to make politicians his best buddies is some blow and a few hookers. Although, to be fair, they don't know what those "hookers" will REALLY do to them. *sniggers*
However, that also means that this foe is now able to go after the Laundry itself. And so he does. Not sure if the outcome would have been different if they hadn't been so woefully understaffed after the previous events, but in the end it doesn't matter. The entire organisation. Poof!
Thus, Bob and his colleagues and friends go underground. Not beaten yet but in a serious predicament. We get their underground fight, them being seriously outgunned, scrambling for resources against a foe so mighty, it had already almost succeeded in taking the Laundry out back when it was almost at full strength.
So what to do? Well, like most leaders, the current one in charge of the rag-tag band (no, not Bob) chooses the lesser evil. IF the Black Pharao can be called that.

In between we get some excellent schemes and plots and counter-plots as befits what basically is a paranormal spy novel. We also get some cool gimmicks and gizmos, some wonderful magic (I'm a fan of Persephone's), some serious ass-kicking (Johnny is cool, too) and Spooky gets mentioned at least. Oh, and the author throws in the occasional look at current political themes as spice to an already yummy dish (sorry, coulnd't resist considering what the Sleeper's minions really are).

What I still despise is Bob's and Mo's relationship and in the first half of the book that really got to me. You can't act as if the bad stuff from book #6 didn't happen and the way Mo behaves despite her being the culprit here, was despicable. Apparently the author saw that, too, and chose to try and change course but it was a small consolation for me. One hot night and her finally finding a magical solution isn't gonna erase anything either, on the contrary. Therefore, I actually enjoyed Mo being told right at the end of the book that the Black Pharao saved her life and thus bound her to him forever in a very Schadenfreude-filled way.

Oh, and the converging of so many characters we met throughout the series was cool as well. Just like how Bob feels about Alex. *lol* Despite this being a gold mine, I can see the author working his way towards the epic finale, drawing the circle tighter and tighter. I might also be completely wrong. We'll see (the next volume is due for release in October).

Anyway, the series is wonderful on so many levels: great characters, fantastic magic and scifi elements, top notch action, engaging writing style (and the narrator of the audiobooks is always great, too).

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first encounter with Stross and his British ministry in charge of keeping the supernatural from consuming the Earth that we know. Urban fantasy is a popular genre with many vying for your attention. Though this is book 8 in the series, I grabbed it off the shelf on a whim and I am glad that I did. Though quite different from an American Harry Dresden file, this novel shows the same attention to detail and a heavy coating of black humor.

The humor, for me, tends to balance the gore and no subject seems to evade Stross’ eye. Most of it is directed toward Brits, so it helps to have some idea of British culture and politics. But there is plenty directed toward popular culture and particularly the USA’s contribution to that. Time is spent on office manners and the foibles of management and managers.

This review is over, but you might want to check out some of the excerpts below to determine whether Stross is capable of finding your funnybone.

"I might remonstrate with them politely. I could explain the errors of their ways and suggest, more in sorrow than in anger, that although I have been promoted into a very senior dead man’s shoes I don’t look good in a suit, I don’t suffer fools gladly, and if they really want a spokesman they ought to hire someone who’s trained for it, rather than being better qualified for fighting off a zombie invasion or fixing a broken firewall."

"Lord Acton said power corrupts, but PowerPoint corrupts absolutely—"

"This is not just asking for trouble: this is like walking up to a baby grizzly bear and punching him on the nose in order to get momma’s undivided attention."

"It’s insane, but no more insane than Japan shutting down its entire nuclear reactor fleet in the middle of a heat wave because an extreme tsunami washed over one plant, or the USA invading a noninvolved Middle Eastern nation because a gang of crazies from somewhere else knocked down two skyscrapers. In a sufficiently large crisis, sane and measured responses go out the window."

"It would have been bad enough if said organization consisted of four pensioners in a Nissen hut, playing cards and reminiscing about the Malayan Emergency. As it is, we have over nine thousand employees, £1.2 billion of Crown Estate properties, a small but terrifyingly proficient special forces detachment associated with the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (the successor to the SAS), and a remit to conduct covert operations all over the world. We don’t cost quite as much to run as GCHQ—if only because we don’t launch our own spy satellites—but there are any number of things about the Laundry that are deeply unpalatable to anyone from a government service background, starting with our lack of accountability and going on from there."

"If my office needs redecorating I can’t moan at my boss anymore, I am the boss. So I need to know how to fill out the right magic scrolls to summon Facilities, recite the correct incantation to invoke Painters and Decorators, and propitiate the demons of Accounts by documenting peeling wallpaper and rising damp. Which is to say, I’m learning a whole lot about how this organization works, in ways I’d barely even noticed before."

"I don’t understand exactly what she thinks we need to talk about, but maybe that’s half the problem. So I nod and try to look as if I understand, because listening is half of the solution."

“I have a little out-of-the-office errand I was going to attend to this evening but I’ve been delayed and I was wondering if you could take care of it for me? It’s just a short diversion on your way home.”

"A fiftyish face that’s been lived in for too long, like a once-handsome shopping mall on the downslope to demolition.”

"The idiots in Whitehall are trying to sell us down the river. They liquidated the agency and they’re trying to outsource the remains of ops to a fellow called Raymond Schiller, who just happens to be the current host of the Sleeper in the Pyramid. The Prime Minister belongs to him. The Cabinet Office is his plaything. His followers have riddled the Black Chamber like maggots in a coffin, they’re making a power play in Washington, DC, and now it very much looks as if they’re trying to take over here as well.”"

“How long was she in that place?” “Most of six years.” Dr. Armstrong nods at Womack’s sharp intake of breath. “Yes, exactly. At first it was just for the duration of the COBWEB MAZE wrap-up, but when we couldn’t get a lock on the scope of the mole problem everything dragged on. Unconscionably so. Then OPERA CAPE came up and there was the throw-down between Basil and Old George and it became clear that being penetrated by the Cult of the Black Pharaoh was the least of our problems. And now there’s this.” “Are you sure she’s still loyal?” “Yes, absolutely. Which is to say, her overall objectives have always been aligned with those of this organization."

"The most efficient kind of censorship isn’t the heavy-handed black inking of the secret policeman; it’s the self-censorship we impose on ourselves when we’re afraid that if we say what we think everyone around us will think us strange."

[Olav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure, I'm a bit of a Charlie Stross fanboy.

That being said, The Delirium Brief is that rare sequel that elevates the books that preceded it. Laundry Files novels have occasionally been amazing, and rarely disappointing (Jennifer Morgue being the low point IMHO), but this one followed through on so many story threads from previous novels that it made those novels more satisfying.

This is probably the darkest of the series. Don't expect as much humour, but instead expect every action to have consequences.

[Mikhail · Rating 2 out of 5]

Something I may come back too later. Stross is a good author as always, but I feel like he's been getting more and more depressing every time I read him. Sort of... I always perceived the Laundry Files as a kind of horror/comedy, and I feel like since about Book 5 the comedy bit has become increasingly lost.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only a half-decent end saves this long story from a 1-star. 3 of 10 stars

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A culmination of several book's worth of characters and plot.

We return to Bob Howard as our narrator which is the first time since he became the Eater of Souls. There's plenty of Mo, Cassie and Alex though as well as Mhari and the Senior Auditor. In The Rhesus Chart (LF#5) the Laundry came directly under attack and was weakened badly. In The Annihilation Score (LF#6) the need for greater engagement from the Laundry came clear even as it lost access to one of its greatest weapons. In The Nightmare Stacks (LF#7) the UK gets invaded by illegal aliens (the magic-wielding pointy-eared dragon-riding type), and while the Laundry saved the day, thousands of people are dead and the public want to know why.

The Laundry is weak and under pressure and the universe of Stross's Laundry Files is not short on predators. What follows is a feeding frenzy of political opportunism and stupidity with the return of some of the most horrific old enemies that Bob has seen.

Moving from Alex and Cassie in the previous book to deeply depressed now-management Bob really highlights how far Bob Howard has come since the inexperienced nerdboy of The Atrocity Archives. There's much less of the feel of a journey for the character that we got in previous books and more of a window into the daily struggle of a middle-aged couple facing truths that are apocalyptic. And a recognition that not all wins feel like wins. Or leave you in a better place.

Where we are at the end of this one should make the next step in this universe interesting indeed.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 4 out of 5]

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

With The Delirium Brief, Stross reaches an aggressive midgame of The Laundry series. The past five books were setting pieces on the board, moving pawns, feint with a knight or bishop. Now, he savagely uses those pieces, cutting down whole swaths of the setting. Expect to see all your favorites from the series to show up, don't expect them to survive, at least not with all their parts...

In the wake of the CASE NIGHTMARE RED incursion in Yorkshire, the Laundry is very much blown and very much in everyone's bad graces. With thousands dead, and billions of pounds of property damage, it's hard to point out that hey, without us you'd be talking megadeaths. The situation is so bad that Bob Howard is running PR, since everyone else is too disgraced. The Laundry might have a full arsenal of banishment rounds and SCORPION SCARE basilisk guns, but they're no match for a new breed of cultists, chanting horrific words like "privatization", "outsourcing", "reorganization", "efficiency", and "ISO compatible."

Yes, friends, The Laundry is summarily shuttered on a Monday morning, pending a new occult intelligence agency provided by an American company, Golden Promise Security. Golden Promise is an arm of the Church of the New Flesh, the baddies of The Apocalypse Codex, who somehow survived being stranded on a lifeless planet with a dead elder god. The Reverend Raymond Schiller has a new parasite that's even creepier, and a new plan to suborn the British government, either in service or in fear of whatever nasty has taken over the United States.

The first two thirds are a slow burn of bureaucratic intrigue and contingency plans, but the last section explodes in kinetic and arcane violence, as the underground remnants of The Laundry throw in everything they have against Schiller, including making a bad alliance with a Lesser Evil Elder God, on the basis that the thing that just wants to be adulated is better than the one that wants to eat your soul.

As always, it's a pleasure to be back with Bob, and the whole Mahogany Row or Deeply Scary Sorcerers finally makes sense. I actually enjoy Stross's cutting remarks on bureaucracy and the drugs-and-sex-and-corruption at the top echelons of society. Nobody gets mad like a Scottish Socialist. That said, I feel like this book could have used another edit for style, and a more judicious use of call-backs. I like this series a lot, and I often thought "who was that, and when they did first show up?"

[Nye · Rating 2 out of 5]

Charles Stross tries something very interesting here - narrating the coming out of hitherto secret government agency after a major crisis that the agency caused. There's just a few problems:

- Stross clearly hates the current government and that leaks into his writing, he's unable to envisage that the political class (and the senior civil servants) are in it for anything other than their own base desires.

- Stross clearly ran into a brick wall about the sheer scale of what he was attempting to portray and instead decided to tell a story about a band of adventurers wandering through military bases and murdering people.

If that sounds like your type of book then go for it. I was just disappointed.

[Loren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I'm over Stross' Laundry Files. The last outing pitted us up against superheroes which seemed to me to be low hanging fruit. Stross' writing style has veered into his narrators telling the reader something and not allowing the reader to discover things themselves. A shame really, because Bob Howard was, at some point, a likeable character. Not so much anymore. All of the characters are just worn out tropes bandied about every few years doing very predictable things. The most shocking thing in The Delirium Brief was how unphased I was by dick slugs.

[O.S. Prime · Rating 2 out of 5]

A series that began as a fun, cheeky take on fantasy, IT and bureaucracy is now a drudge. First two-thirds of the book are more about UK politics than about anything interesting. Ending is unsatisfying.

Looking back, my personal jumped-the-shark point in this series is when the V Syndrome characters were introduced. All downhill since. Stross should turn the crank just one more time to finish this series.

[David Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm grateful to the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

What can I say? Strauss's Laundry series gets better and better with each volume.

The Laundry is the section of the British Civil Service that deals with funny business - monsters, magic and unspeakable beings from beyond the stars. The books are, if you like, techno thrillers - if your tech is necromancy, and the thrills come from abstract maths.

In the latest book, we see the aftermath of the attack on Leeds by an elven host in The Nightmare Stacks. And if that was a spoiler then stop now and go and read the earlier books - you shouldn't be here. If you read any further your eyeballs will catch fire, unless you've applied the correct wards, OK?

Now, assuming you haven't been blasted into another universe which has too many corners, I'll continue.

This is the eighth volume in the series (with a few novellas and short stories besides) and what strikes me is how the storytelling has evolved, in two ways.

First, the theming of the books. Beginning as brilliantly written pastiches of different espionage authors, the series then moved onto books each featuring a well known fantasy creature. It has now dropped the pastiche/ monster of the day thing - fittingly, since the Laundry is exposed to its enemies as never before and confronting a new level of threat. It's time to come out in the open.

Secondly, the books have also shed what was very characteristic wheels-within-wheels-within-wheels plotting, where every paragraph seemed to hint at a secret, for something a little more straightforward. There are still of course plot twists, and indeed deeply shocking reverses and hidden agendas, but it's a little more "what you see is what you get" with the psychic space thus cleared allowing a greater focus on character (Mo and Bob are one of the great couples of modern fantasy: genuinely real, fleshed out people, albeit with bizarre problems) and on how those characters shape up in view of the coming threat.

The trademark cynical humour is still there, but accompanied now perhaps by a new, sober mood. In my view, it's this ability and willingness to shift tone that keeps this series fresh despite its now considerable length.

This book also brings together for the first time most of the character ensemble which has been forming over the last few volumes - so we meet againAlex and Mhari, the blooddrinking ex-bankers, maniac pixie dream girl Cassie who is dread leader of the aforementioned elven Host, as well as Persephone Hazard (Hooray!) and her sidekick Johnny. There are also several other figures from Bob Howard's past who I won't name (spoilers: but also, something may be listening).

Best of all, we see Mo again and we're back inside Bob's nightmare-haunted mind. Darkness is gathering, and business he thought dead and buried - or at least safely thrust into a cursed dimension - comes back for revenge. Exposed to Government displeasure and a hostile Press storm (there is a very funny passage in which Bob Does Media, specifically Newsnight) the Laundry has for the first time to account for itself. Having had dealings with the eldritch bodies that hold HMG accountable, I smiled to see our favourite necromancers, for the first time, come up against little things like democratic accountability and the need for things to be seen to be done.

It's all, of course, in service of a deeply threatening move by a sinister cult, and they should have seen it coming, but the sheer speed of events puts our heroes on the back foot very quickly. Stross gets some digs in here at the outsourcing process: underfund something, make the service bad, then invite in the boys and girls with the spreadsheets to cream off the work, making a fortune in the process.

If only that were the worst threat here.

By the end of this book we've seen Bob - and Mo - and all the rest pushed to the edge, in several ways, personal as well as professional, and - again on both fronts - there is a real sense of peril which isn't tidied away neatly on the last page. This is certainly the darkest Laundry book yet - despite the vein of humour that does run through it - and in its writing, I'd say, easily the most assured.

And the timing couldn't be better. The books shows a trusted Government organisation seriously challenged by flaky and dangerous outsiders. The organisation we depended on to keep us safe is vulnerable to subversion from above, by the arrogant, the greedy, the stupid. Does that remind you of anything? And more, at a stroke, the Laundryverse becomes a grimmer place - through this series, despite the grim warnings of unspeakable horror, we have perhaps come to see the Laundry as if not a certain shield, a pretty good one. Now... well, read the book and see for yourself.

In passing, I smiled that - despite what I said above - there is a little bit of classic spy fiction resonance here, in that parts of it reminded me of George Smiley & Co running their clandestine operation against the mole-infested Circus from a grubby hotel.

Stross has said that he'll never do Le Carre in this series, and yet...

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE DELIRIUM BRIEF is the latest book in the long-running Laundry Saga by Charles Stross. The Laundry, for those unaware of it, is one of the Neo-Mythos stories which have emerged in the past decade or so that has a postmodern take on the Mythos. Peter Clines, Ruthanna Emrys, Anne Pillsworth, myself, and a few others are similar. In the case of Charles Stross, it's combining the stuffiness of being a British Civil Servant as well as computer programmer with the oncoming end of the world by ooogie-boogies.

I either love the Laundry or I hate it and it's a testament to Charles Stross' skill I'm usually veering between the two because of the emotions his stories bring. I admit, though, to not being a big fan of the previous two novels.

THE ANNIHILATION SCORE had Doctor (Dominque) "Mo" O'Brien as its heroine while doing a unsucessful parody of superhero novels which seemed at odds with the stories' general spy vs. squid premise. It also made numerous controversial choices in portraying Mo as an adulterous spouse to her deeply devoted protagonist husband, which was never going to go down well. THE NIGHTMARE STACKS also veered away from the series' traditional protagonist with a social anxiety suffering hypochondriac having a "manic pixie dreamgirl romance" with an invading Nazi elf woman.

We're thankfully back with Bob Howard, programmer/demon hunter/civil servant/host for a minor god of evil, once more in the driver's seat. Bob has changed a lot since when he first signed up for field work and has been uncomfortably promoted to management. Unfortunately, that's come right at the time the Masquerade (to cop a term from White Wolf) has officially been broken and the world is now aware of the supernatural. I'm iffy about this action as Charles Stross has chosen to portray the world as less, "nothing will be the same again" and more like the Tyler family from the 9th/10th Doctor era where humanity seems too damned stupid to care about it being real.

Charles Stross is on the record that The Delirium Brief was strongly influenced by the U.K's choice to exit from the European Union. While the Brexit is never directly mentioned, much of the book is an apocalyptic (literally since it may lead to the end of the world) look at the dissolution of the Laundry in order to have them privatized by American companies. Companies which, in this world, are controlled by a Christian-themed monster cult that combines the worst of eschatology and quiver full doctrine with the desire to end the world by giant monster pyramid on Mars. Honestly, given some of my (as a fellow Christian) relationships with people like this--that's not that unbelievable.

The book is a fascinating story with Bob having far more trouble dealing with testimonies before Parliament, budgets, and the sudden loss of privileges he never thought would vanish than the many monsters they fate. While I would have liked Bob and Mo to discuss the events of The Annihilation Score rather than simply reconcile their marriage--that's not what the book is about. It's all about the dangers of bureaucracy in the Laundry's world.

The characters all play off of each other in an interesting way with Bob's terrible ex, Mhari, having become one of the most interesting characters in the story. I was also glad to see the return of Persephone Hazard, the Laundry's erstwhile Modesty Blaise substitute, and how her "blow them up and let God sort them out' attitude plays off against everyone else's doomed efforts to deal with politics in a legal way. When the government is completely corrupt and/or stupid, though, what are your recourses? Especially when the apocalypse is looming? The answer isn't one which someone like Bob can stomach and that's what makes it interesting.

The ending is a huge game-changer for the entire setting and relies a lot on continuity points from the previous books. We see the return of characters I thought were permanently out of the story. It also bodes dark things for the future of the story. I was a bit disappointed the ending was the Laundry resorting to the same tactics which characters from a Michael Bay movie would involve but, otherwise, this was an excellent urban fantasy thriller.

9/10

[Seth Lewis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have no idea why I continue to read these other than habit. It's like the writing was crowdsourced by reddit.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy crap. O.O This one was a rollercoaster ride. Very intense. And now I have to go see when book #9 is going to come out...

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another grim adventure with Bob and the gang.

There is an interesting part in this book where Stross gives us a look at the US military and intelligence organizations from a British point of view.

He refers to the marines as the navy's army, going on to mention that they also have their own airforce.

It make you wonder if the other branches are even trying.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles Stross’s The Delirium Brief is a scathing, satirical masterpiece that trades the series' usual Lovecraftian humor for a terrifyingly plausible political horror. You are spot on with the Empire Strikes Back comparison; after seven books of fighting the darkness, the darkness finally wins—not through magic, but through privatization.

The novel is a pessimistic triumph, arguing that the ultimate evil isn't Cthulhu, but a government willing to outsource the apocalypse to the lowest bidder. The narrative deftly reunites the core cast—Bob, Mo, and the senior auditors—forcing them into a corner where competence is punished and loyalty is exploited. While the absence of Ramona Random is felt (she is notably missing from this British bureaucratic collapse), the focus on Bob and Mo’s desperate, failing struggle adds a necessary emotional weight. The ending is genuinely shocking, leaving our heroes not just defeated, but compromised, stripping away their agency in a way that feels darker than death.

"In a sufficiently large crisis, sane and measured responses go out the window."

"The most efficient kind of censorship isn't the heavy-handed black inking of the secret policeman; it's the self-censorship we impose on ourselves."

[Allen Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://www.themaineedge.com/buzz/the-...

Investing your time in a book series is a risky proposition. We only have so much time to read, so we obviously want the books we choose to warrant the time spent. Bookshelves everywhere are littered with series that started out strong only to peter out due to creative stagnation, diminishing returns or George R.R. Martin-esque gaps of time between installments. As one might imagine, a series that manages to largely avoid all of those pitfalls is something special indeed.

Charles Stross has given us just such a series.

Stross has just published the eighth book in his cleverly, creepily compelling Laundry Files series, titled “The Delirium Brief.” It continues the story of Bob Howard, employee of Britain’s supersecret occult spy agency devoted to protecting not just the country, but the very fabric of our reality.

And it hasn’t been going so great.

The last book saw much of Yorkshire destroyed by an invading extradimensional force of, well … elves. While Bob and his Laundry cohorts managed to ultimately defeat the enemy and thwart the invasion, the scope of the incursion meant that the supersecret Laundry was no longer supersecret. The revelation of the existence of an occult defense agency – not to mention the destruction caused by the onslaught of the Host of Air and Darkness – has unsurprisingly led to a lot of questions.

So Bob, who is still adjusting to his newfound status as the Eater of Souls (don’t ask) and dealing with some marital strife with his (newly-promoted herself) wife Mo, has become the erstwhile face of the Laundry, going on news chat shows and in front of government committees to answer those questions as best he can while still attempting to maintain the integrity of the organization.

However, there are dark forces afoot that see this turmoil as an opportunity. A sinister figure from Bob’s past – someone that he believed to be gone forever – has returned, armed with a legion of fanatically devoted followers, massive amounts of cash and weapons both conventional and magical. The fate of the Laundry hangs in the balance – as does that of the world as we know it.

Pretty typical stuff for Bob, really. All he has to do is stop the bad guy, save reality and figure out how to fix his marriage and avoid consuming too many souls. Oh, and maybe overthrow the British government. No big deal.

The Laundry Files novels have experienced as clean an evolution as any genre series you’re likely to find. The early books had Bob as a bumbler, someone who stumbled through a world that he only barely understood in a fog of confused, self-deprecating humor. But as his adventures continued, he logically became more adept and accomplished – though Stross did well in continuing to keep him out of his depth.

Some of the subsequent books spent time with other main characters, giving the reader a chance to gain new and different perspectives on the Laundry – as well as maintain the in-over-their-head vibe that made those early books so much fun.

Now, with “The Delirium Brief,” we have a Bob who, despite being endowed with unbelievable power, is still in many ways the guy we met all the way back at the beginning, a good-hearted gentle soul who still can’t believe that he’s got to deal with gibbering tentacle monstrosities from beyond the dimensional veil.

Maintaining the joyful blend of humor and horror throughout the series can’t have been easy, but Stross has managed. The interpersonal relationships have grown and the supporting characters have been thoroughly developed; long-dangling threads have been revisited, retied and – in some cases – resolved over this eight-book span.

“The Delirium Brief” is typical Stross and typical Laundry Files. It is smart and funny and weird and scary, driven by engaging, endearing characters and a vividly-detailed world that has been built with exquisite care. To maintain a level of quality this high for this long is a remarkable feat; frankly, I envy those readers out there who have the opportunity to read this series from the beginning for the first time.

[Stig Edvartsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this.

It is more focused and faster paced than many of the previous books and when Stross lets Bob front some of his opinions on politics, politicians and their ilk he takes scathing to levels of fine art.

As with the rest of the series, it gets progressively darker - possibly matching the UK zeitgeist. I wonder how this series will read in 50 years when in the reader's mind it will be divorced from current politics.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alright, speaking here as a government lawyer, if you are a government lucky enough or Machiavellian enough to have The Frelling Eater of Souls on your frelling payroll, don't privatize his frelling department. Even if you're really unhappy that his department just settled an invasion by the Hosts of Air and Darkness by granting said invaders asylum. Better than fighting with dragons. And seriously don't contract with crazy American military contractors to provide the same services cheaper. That way leads to -- well, spoilers. Queen Elizabeth I knew what she was doing when she set up that department.

Not as hopeful as the book with the invasion by the Hosts of Air and Darkness but perhaps more appropriate for our era.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. And a bit tedious. Sure these are always hit and miss, sometimes in the same book, sometime in the same chapter. But this one was a bit of a miss. One part just echoes reality, when the government invites something evil and stupid in. Another part just fell over of its own weight. So bits are good, just not enough of the bits. And it ended up being too focused on plot and not enough on character. Its still a Laundry Book though, just not one of the better ones.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many ratings of a book that's not even been (I think?) preprinted- are all 6 (odd, it says 473?) reviews by people who've seen advance (probably tentative, given the author's laudable willingness to revise often in the interests of story) copies?

Jul. 11 2017- have now read but not ready to write a real review yet. (Besides "Enjoyed very much, thinking of rereading tomorrow.")

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

A continuation of the Laundry Files saga. A number of villains from earlier books reappear. Still reasonably amusing but perhaps this saga should conclude soon.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoah! I wasn't expecting that!

Initially I was a little disappointed because the much heralded return of BoB Howard as narrator was not as much as fun as anticipated: his distinctive voice seems to have largely disappeared. To some extent this is understandable since he's ten years older than when he first appeared, has seen an awful lot of horror, terror, death and destruction and has also ceased to be entirely human - but his nutso forms of expression were a great part of his appeal.

Later revelations and plot developments were so unexpected, shocking and game changing in terms of the series as a whole that, in fact, this book re-invigorates a series that was flagging and makes me more excited for the next volume than I've been for quite some time. Props to Stross for taking the series alarmingly far outside its comfort zone.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was sent to me by the publisher, Tor.com, at no cost. It's out in July 2017.

The Laundry, which has several novels about it now, is a secret government agency that's a bit like the Men in Black but more high-tech because the Scary Things in the Night are often accessed via maths and/or technology. Computers may well summon extra dimensional beasties. Bob Howard started as a tech guy who fell into the Laundry accidentally and now he's a fairly significant player in the organisation, although still a bit hapless sometimes. In this novel, someone from Outside (of the world) is trying to take over via minions and the very 21st century method of privatising government operations.

There's unlikely alliances, dastardly deeds, unfortunate deaths, spy craft, domestic difficulties, desperate last-minute decisions, and some rather silly jokes. There's also exasperation at the short-sightedness of governments and some deeply unpleasant actions on the part of the villains.

I've read a couple of the Laundry Files books and short stories in the past. When I first read them, I didn't realise that they're kinda Lovecraftian... because I am no connoisseur of Lovecraft. So that's the first thing to know: if you like Lovcraftian stuff (with humour) and you haven't read this series, you probably want to check it out.

If you loathe Lovecraft and all his derivatives, just stop reading now; it's fine. This isn't for you.

Not sure? Well that's where I fit too. I wouldn't deliberately read a Lovecraft homage, but - obviously - I read this. In terms of horror, it's not so horrible. I mean bad things happen but the levels of violence aren't any different from a lot of science fiction or fantasy. And there's no creeping horror here - that is, I didn't ever get tense and worried about what was around the corner, which is what puts me off a lot of horror. (I don't enjoy being scared.) And you definitely don't have to know anything about Lovecraft to read the book, since I have a passing knowledge of some names from his books and that is it.

Prior knowledge of the Laundry Files is useful for reading this, but not completely necessary; there are a few 'as you know, Bob' bits that basically fill in details of how the agency works. It does flow directly on from the previous book, which I haven't read, but I managed to be going on with it.

It definitely kept me entertained, occasionally grossed me out, and half made me wonder if I shouldn't go back and read more of the earlier ones...

[Kevin Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well.

*That* got dark.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a long-time fan of the Laundry series, I really enjoyed The Delirium Brief. This book is full of old acquaintances, not only Laundry personell, but also adversaries. Unlike in previous books, many of these are not introduced in detail. This has two consequences: First, old Laundry fans will not be not bored with unnecessary context they already know. Secondly, this is the least appropriate book to start with. You'll really get the most out of this if you are already familiar with almost all of the previous books.

[Soo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notes:

Yay for libraries!

What a great culmination of multiple events! Loved the way things tangled up together in this installment. My fav book of the series.

Also, the stories are better when Bob is the main POV.

[Johan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started very promising (4*), then went down to 3* and the ending was chaotic (3-). I am going to have to reread several of the previous books to understand all the references in this book. So many bright/original ideas and exciting/horrific events are crammed into this book, but it is at the expense of the characters and the story.

Reread 2019: While reading "The Delirium Brief" (Laundry Files #8) in 2018 I couldn't place certain references to earlier Laundry Files books. So, I intend on rereading the entire series before starting "The Labyrinth Index". (book 9).

This is the second time I read this novel and I have increased my rating from 3 to 4*. I now feel ready to start reading "The Labyrinth Index".

[Matthew Bates II · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite the ending. This series does not usually end with this kind a cliffhanger. They beat the bad guy but damn where to they go from here.