The Laundry Series by Charles Stross

You guys read this, right?

Because 'The Rhesus Chart' came out today. I just powered through it, and all I can say is: Holy fuck. Talk about a Wham Episode.

I was surprised we didn't have a thread for this, but yes. Huge fan of the Laundry series. And, yes, I was pleasantly surprised when the pre-order came in early. Blazed through The Rhesus Chart—and oh holy fuck Charlie why

Ah, the new one is out? Nice. This series just came up in a discussion a few days back and was thinking a new one should be coming out soon but forgot about it after.

You can read the (rather long) first chapter for free here.

Since you have the book already, can you tell me the rough page count? The remark Stoss made in the comments of that chapter of it being nearly 10% of the whole story kinda got me concerned and is actually the reason I haven't ordered it yet. Not that I hate very short books, but I find them unsatisfactory way too often. Shouldn't be the case here though, since I do like the series.

I read the The Atrocity Archives (the version that also includes that short story about gorgons). Very cool stuff. I've been meaning to follow up on it.

The books are decently long—my copies are on ebook in a mishmash of converted formats, so my count will be off, but Kindle says it's a good 300+ pages for The Rhesus Chart, and it's of comparable length to the others, so you don't have to worry about overly short books.

Am currently reading The Apocalypse Codex

The finished The Rhesus Chart. Talk about a Wham Line...

So, I figure we've got enough between the RPG sourcebooks and the five books in the main series to start work on a character sheet. Any objections?

Also: I've just read Cold Comfort Farm (which wasn't easy to find here in the US, but the county library system comes through once again), and now I'm laughing my ass off as I reread Equoid and catch the references, one by one, from the MP Barry Starkadder to the Hawk-Monitors to "something nasty in the woodshed".

It was a good story even without the references, but yeah, references are nice.

So anyone else read Annihilation Score yet?

All I can say is... oh dear. On so many levels.

Though it is an interesting change in that it follows on directly from Rhesus Chart, which is a first and we finally get the narration from someone other than Bob. This is Mo's book!

I, of course, blazed through it in a couple of days , but that's just how I roll and now I have to wait for Nightmare Stacks.

Also what should Mo's superhero name be?.

Wait...it's out?!

Shit, I was out of wifi contact most of the day, lemme check my Kindle.

...

"Pre-ordered. Delivered Tuesday, July 7th."

...

...

Any one of you lucky sonsabitches to have gotten it before we Ameripoors: not one word.

Is silently smug at Sabres Edge.

edited 6th Jul '15 2:04:58 AM by KnightofLsama

I have acquired and read through The Annihilation Score.

O_O is right. Holy shit, O_O.

I'll need some time to post thoughts and observations, because holy shit.

I will confess, that while I knew that Mo's violin was both creepy and dangerous, I didn't expect it to be an avatar of freakin' Hastur.

Though I just thought of something. If summoning Nyarly (aka The Black Pharaoh) is the end game of God Game Black, would summong he who's name must not be repeated thrice/ The King of Yellow would that be part of God Game Yellow?.

Possible, but unlikely. The way the God Game codes were used in Apocalypse Codex leads me to believe that the colors indicate points along a sequence, with Black being the endpoint (Nyarly is summoned, game over).

I'm reading through Score a second time, this time looking for foreshadowing and the like (now that I know what to look for), and oh god. Certain lines and incidents pick up much more significance.

Also, without spoiling anything, I've been puzzling over Chart and Score—they read slightly differently from the rest of the short stories and novels. I only realized now, though, that this was because these aren't spy novels, but closer to straight-up urban fantasy. Plus, indication is that Chart, Score, and Stacks will be a mini-trilogy of their own—meaning that certain loose ends in Chart and Score that have been nagging at me a bit will hopefully be resolved there.

I don't know. Remember, Nyarly and the Sleeper in the Pyramid aren't the same being. Awakening the Sleeper sets off a chain of events that ends in Nyarly's arrival. But awakening the Sleeper is still part of God Game Black. Adding in the existence of God Game Rainbow suggests, to me at least, that the individual colours refer to summoning/awakenings that summon various entities associated with that particular colour, directly or as part of a chain of Summon Bigger Fish

I finally got started on the series a couple of months ago, after a friend noticed a few similar plot elements in my story-in-progress and pointed me toward a secondhand store that supplied the books. Never would I have guessed that "Dilbert vs Cthulhu" was such an apt description.

Right now I've got Codex, Chart and Score in ebook form to read over the summer break, and I'm looking forward to seeing if our favourite computational demonologist could top the last time he dropped an undead apocalypse on top of his own sacrifice. :D

Excellent. Fetch us the warrant cards, we got some deputizing to do.

Yeah, I just finished Equoid, perhaps the most fucked up take on unicorns ever conceived. Loved it.

Yeah, it's the right kind of messed up. Given the story of it's origin if I ever meet John Scalzi, I plan on asking him if he's ever read it.

Some venerative art for you deluded worshippers.

Oh, now I know why it's called The Annihilation Score! It's about a score that annihilates people.

The working title was Armageddon Score, until it was realized that Google searches for it would be crowded out by the soundtrack to the movie Armageddon.

Honestly, the insights Stross develops into the nexus of policing and superpowers are fascinating.

Also, hilariously, fate went out of its way to screw Charlie for this book: the ACPO changed functions midway through the writing process.

edited 2nd Aug '15 8:33:02 PM by SabresEdge

By this point, it's par for the course.