The Delirium Brief

By: Charles Stross

Narrated by: Gideon Emery

The eighth case in Charles Stross' Laundry Files, the Hugo Award-winning series described by Kirkus Reviews as "a weirdly alluring blend of super-spy thriller, deadpan comic fantasy, and Lovecraftian horror".

Bob Howard's career in the Laundry, the secret British government agency dedicated to protecting the world from unspeakable horrors from beyond spacetime, has entailed high combat, brilliant hacking, ancient magic, and combat with indescribably repellent 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 British government looking for public services to privatize.

There's a lot of potential shareholder value in the Laundry's "knowledge assets". Inch by inch, Bob Howard and his managers are forced to consider the truly unthinkable: a coup against the British government itself.

©2017 Charles Stross (P)2017 Recorded Books

laundry?

read the older laundry books. other than sex and language this was kinda like twilight.

more political maneuvering than preferred

In general, this entry was more political than the previous entries in the series which was a bit of a turn-off for me as I simply don't enjoy that kind of fiction. as usual, Gideon Emery was a joy to listen to. without spoilers a few of the returning characters had significant changes that felt a bit forced and weren't hinted at in previous installments.

Classic Laundry story

You will laugh. You will cry. You will be on the edge of your chair.

A rollercoaster ride from beginning to end!

Every book in the laundry files outdoes the books that came before. This one takes a quantum leap forward, leaving me aching for more.

Excellent story

This is a return to form for the series. This is a standard spy story wrapped in the horror tropes. Good story and good reading.