I finished the fifth Laundry Files book, found out the sixth one doesn't have Bob as the narrator, and became actually, genuinely upset, as though I lost a friend or something
Which I suppose speaks to the writing
Like he's a bit of a dick (quite a big dick actually at the start) but he grows
Anyway the new narrator for book 6 is his wife so it'll be interesting to see their marriage from her POV
Bob has always said he's an unreliable narrator too, so that'll be fun to witness
@purplelotus13 @arendleejessurun "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow @pluralistic is a free #book downloadable from Cory's website.
https://craphound.com/littlebrother/Cory_Doctorow_-_Little_Brother.pdf
Alt formats also available from Cory's website
https://craphound.com/category/littlebrother/
I have the sequel "Homeland" on my TBR pile too. Scarily prophetic for what is happening in USA right now. Maybe not great for hopeful escapism altho I expect a survivable ending cos the next in the series "Attack Surface" has some of the samecharacters.
For weirder escapism I'm also reading Merchant Traders series by Charles Stross @cstross
https://www.goodreads.com/series/40515-the-merchant-princes
They're portal fiction unlike the James Bond on a budget meets Lovecraft + Brit bureacracy of the #LaundryFiles. The latest ones in the New Management phase may appeal
https://www.goodreads.com/series/335314-the-new-management
Or the lighter UK X files but police and magic and nicer #RiversOfLondon series by Ben Aaronovitch in #books and comics
https://www.goodreads.com/series/51937-rivers-of-london
I also read cosy mysteries like Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/299267-thursday-murder-club
And for total escapism, Georgette Heyers' historical romances. Try The Grand Sophy
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/261689.The_Grand_Sophy
Another strong entry in the recent #LaundryFiles novels, with a really interesting trip into the Regency period of England.
(comment on Season of Skulls)
I learn more vocabulary and weird facts from @cstross 's books than anywhere else. As I find myself on a bender of the later #LaundryFiles series, I need to either read in ebook format for the built in dictionary or have my phone or a physical dictionary near me.
Today's gem was learning about The Bluestocking Society, a women's rights and intellectual movement from the 18th century.
The new characters started out slow for me in Dead Lies Dreaming, but it's been picking up speed ever since I started that one. Here we are on the third novel with Wendy, Eve, Imp, and the crew.
40 pages in and I already know this one's going to be a banger!
(comment on Season of Skulls)
Equoid
https://library.hrmtc.com/2025/04/04/equoid/
#BobHowardFictitiousCharacter_ #BobHowardFictitiousCharacterFiction #book #CharlesStross #ContemporaryFantasy #DeMonologieRomansNouvellesEtc #demonology #DemonologyFiction #fantasy #FantasyFiction #fiction #GreatBritain #IntelligenceService #IntelligenceServiceGreatBritainFiction #LaundryFiles #OccultFiction #ParanormalFiction #review #ScienceFiction #TPolyphilus #TwoHourLiteratureFictionShortReads #TwoHourScienceFictionFantasyShortReads
@Turr1caN Here's the blurb: "The "Laundry" is Britain's super-secret agency devoted to protecting the realm from the supernatural horrors that menace it. Now Bob Howard, Laundry agent, must travel to the quiet English countryside to deal with an outbreak of one of the worst horrors imaginable. For, as it turns out, unicorns are real. They're also ravenous killers from beyond spacetime..." #LaundryFiles
@Turr1caN Wow, that looks cool. I might watch that. Made me think of Charles Stross' Equoid novella which is really really good. https://torpublishinggroup.com/equoid-a-laundry-novella/ #LaundryFiles
Cached US Kindle giveaway on bsky: 10 copies of @cstross' The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files Book 1), over at https://bsky.app/profile/kithrup.bsky.social/post/3lipn7c247c2u
#KindleBookGiveaway #CharlesStross #TheAtrocityArchives #LaundryFiles
“The room reeks of old, dead terror—and a brooding malevolence, as if the instruments of torture are merely biding their time. Just you wait, they’re saying.”
#asIf #bidingTheirTime #BobFictitiousCharacterFiction #BobHowardFictitiousCharacter_ #book #broodingMalevolence #CharlesStross #ComputersInternetHumor #dead #demonology #DemonologyFiction #GeeksComputerEnthusiasts_ #GeeksComputerEnthusiastsFiction #gothicHorror #GreatBritain #GreatBritainFiction #HardScienceFiction #HorrorComedy #Howard #instruments #IntelligenceService #IntelligenceServiceGreatBritainFiction #justYouWait #LaundryFiles #merely #monsters #MonstersFiction #nazis #NazisFiction #OfficePolitics #OfficePoliticsFiction #old #ParanormalFiction #quote #reeks #room #saying #ScienceFictionGeneral #ScienceFictionFantasy #terror #torture
Finished the new
@cstross #laundryfiles novel A Conventional Boy. It's a good 'un and maybe (spoiler alert) foreshadows peril for BOFH in volume 14.
Book Review: A Conventional Boy by Charles Stross
Breaking out the D20s and introducing a Dungeon Master into the Laundry Files.
@Princejvstin has our review for your Friday. Roll initiative at the NOAF blog
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2025/01/book-review-conventional-boy-by-charles.html
90 pages into A Conventional Boy, it had me laughing out loud and going "WTF" in the best possible way 😁
I'm feeling a little sick today, so I'm staying in bed. I have the latest #laundryfiles book "A Conventional Boy" to keep me company, though. Thanks @cstross - these books have been a consistent delight for me.
Reading update!
I've finished Laundry Files, just in time for next years double bill/coup de grace.
Taking a short pallet cleanser before the New Management trilogy, but can't decide what. I'm torn between various things I picked up at/after WorldCon.
I also recommended Ursula K Le Guin's Those Who Walk Away From Omelas to a bunch of young adult friends on Saturday. I'm sure they'll be fine.
Just now referred to "new management" at #NaNoWriMo & had a queasy feeling that took me a moment to put my finger on.
Finally it hit me: The term "New Management" has much, MUCH more sinister connotations for me since @cstross started publishing his #LaundryFiles follow-on series of that name.
#NewManagement
So excited! 😲💖 I always doubted if H.P. Lovecraft’s style was for me, but Charles Stross's #LaundryFiles series converted me! 📚✨ Just pre-ordered the newest book, “A Conventional Boy,” a year in advance! 😍🎲 Can’t wait for adventures with Derek and his magic dice bag! 🐉🌌 #BookLover #FantasyGirl #Excited #NewRelease #CharlesStross #DarkFantasy #DungeonsAndDragons #Anticipation #GirlWhoReads #BookWorm #LaundryFilesSeries #LaundryFilesFan
#SF #SciFi #LaundryFiles #CharlieStross
Last night I decided to rectify a gap in my fiction consumption and checked out “The Atrocity Archives” by Charlie Stross. I have been working in the high-tech industry since the mid-nineties, so I am absolutely loving all the references to tech gear from the era.
The main characters (Bob and Mo) are well-written and are generally decent people so far (I’m halfway through) and I’m looking forward to what happens next!
“But do we get to play with safe opto-isolated geometry engines and invocation clusters here? Do we, fuck: we’re stuck with Dr. Volt and his thuggish friend Mr. Amp, and pray we don’t get a stray ground loop while the summoning core is present and active.”
