The Delirium Brief: A Laundry Files Novel

Excellent addition to the Laundry files, tying up recent forays into other POV characters with Bob Howard. I have mild complaints about too many characters and not enough Bob even here, but it is nothing that should keep someone from reading this entry in the series!

I instantly grabbed my Kindle when I received the notification that the book was released, and devoured it in one go. It is another excellent addition to the series, but it is the darkest one yet - the world writhes and changes under the incursion of alien universes, and the Laundry writhes and changes with it.

One note, however: If you haven't read the other novels recently, it may be worth re-reading them before tackling this one - it ties together a _lot_ of threads from previous works, and you might miss some details if they are no longer fresh in your memory. I certainly wouldn't recommend it as an entry point for the series.

While I very much enjoy th Laundry Novels, I think they illustrate the problems with series for authors. Often they feel trapped, and so they write other stuff around the series or in some cases, in a totally different genre. Stross has a stellar empire piece along with the Laundry Files and some other stuff as well. I don't click with them; I like the higher mathematics =s Cthulhu ethos here, and the characters as they progress are interesting. This one skipped over a lot that we probably should have been present for, and frankly, wasn't as good as most of them are. Start early, and catch up...and hope he gets on track.

The novel is an unremarkable addition to Stross's corpus, marred by what appears to be a production error that made it physically hard to read. As you can see in the screenshot, the kindle edition does not support advanced typography.

I couldn't finish it! Cyberpunk vampires, soul eaters, witches and the like are just not my preference in science fiction. Also, the dialog was rather trite or it tended toward soliloquy. However, I'm sure my local library will appreciate it as a donation.

Yeah, I'm really loving all the governmental paper-shuffling. Really. Has my nipples so hard they could cut glass.

I'm within about 20 pages of the end of this book, and I'm not sure I'll be bothered to finish it. It's a further slide into the boring that began with that "Mo Does Bureaucracy" book.

Ruined series.

As you know, Bob, the combination of neoliberalist economics and fundamentalist religion is an existentialist threat to civilization. The first domino to drop might well be the “privatization” of the US Post Office, for reasons more nefarious than the general public knows.

For the general public knows not of the fact that Lovecraft was right, there are occult threats in other dimensions eager to eat our brains. And the governmental agencies charged with protecting us are hidden away in obscure places within larger agencies that are ripe for neoliberal attack by politicians who either don’t know or don’t care what they are destroying for profit.

You don’t really need to read “The Apocalypse Codex” first, but you’ll get the major horror much better if you do. In that novel, a slick televangelist is gets much too cosy with the Prime Minister, and the Laundry—as a civil service agency—is forbidden from investigating. The televangelist is back in “The Delirium Brief.”

You likewise don’t really need to read “The Nightmare Stacks” first, but if you don’t you won’t have any clue why there is a major infestation of elves who have applied for asylum in the UK after being driven out of their universe by a major power that ... well, that’s a spoiler, isn’t it?

The reason I developed PTSD halfway through “The Delirium Brief” is that Stross based it on what I’ve been following in the news and applied it rigorously through a fantasy lens. Neoliberal philosophy combined with religious end-times mania is a major menace in US politics. The philosophy is that “greed is good” and governmental agencies that interfere in any way with greed must be abolished. And when you combine it with the idea that “The Handmaid’s Tale” is a model of government, you have a way civilization dies of a thousand cuts.

They do, indeed, want to abolish the US Post Office and let private business run its functions for profit. They also want to have private debt collectors profit from what has been the collection function of the IRS, and have private mercenaries profit from running security functions the way Blackpool did in Iraq–a Pentagon, Inc. They also want to abolish the public’s protections against poisoned air and water and disease. Pay attention; they don’t have to eat your brain to kill you. That's the real message of this brilliant novel.

As a necromancer working for the government’s occult secret service, Bob “Eater of Souls” Howard is not a happy guy. His agency is no longer a secret. He’s been given a new title — Departmental Public Relations Officer — and his first assignment is an interview on Newsnight. His objective is to make the Laundry sound boring. As series readers know, Bob’s job is far from boring. But much to Bob’s consternation, the Laundry is about to be disbanded in order to pave the way for an evil alien takeover, disguised a privatization.

The American Postal Service has been privatized in a conspiracy orchestrated by Nazgûl (a/k/a the Black Chamber a/k/a the Operational Phenomenology Agency) to shut down the Postal Inspector’s Occult Texts Division. The scheme calls for the Laundry to be the next victim of privatization, a plan that is embraced by the Prime Minister, who blames the Laundry for bringing ridicule upon his administration. Of course, it isn’t entirely Howard’s fault that the fight against occult horrors, once largely hidden from public view, gained public attention in The Nightmare Stacks.

After an attempted snatch-and-grab by the entity who calls himself Raymond Schiller — whose mind is now occupied by the sleeping god he awakened — Bob realizes he’s in more danger than usual. Bob’s new mission is to find out what Schiller is up to and to stop him, all without the official help of the Laundry, which on paper no longer exists.

The story turns Bob’s world upside down, forcing him to join forces with the sort of people he usually locks up, including a vampire and the Mandate. When he isn’t preoccupied by evil, he’s preoccupied by love, trying to find a way to stay married to Mo without inadvertently eating her soul. Which, I think, is pretty much a metaphor for marriage.

Eventually the story turns into a furious occult action novel, as various entities wield their various powers while trying to ward off the powers of other entities, all in an effort (depending on the entity’s perspective) to take over the British government or to prevent that from happening. The scheme involves an orgy (the evil worms that take control of Cabinet members are sexually impregnated in their victims), adding some extra chuckles to the novel’s dark humor. But darkness reigns in a world that is very different at the novel’s end, setting up a new and unpleasant reality with which Bob will need to contend in the next installment.

Charles Stross’ tongue-in-cheek Laundry Files novels are always fun. Stross is always mocking bureaucrats, and The Delirium Brief pokes fun at politicians who supposedly oversee government agencies while doing as little as possible to provide actual oversight. There is more complexity to Laundry novels than is typical of the action-fantasy-horror genre, and Stross’ prose is well above the genre’s standard. The Delirium Brief is another strong entry in an entertaining series.

Another clever, witty novel from this talented writer. After a couple of books featuring other characters as central figures, Stross returns to Bob Howard as the protagonist of this book. Quite a few characters from prior books in this series make appearances. There is a fairly complex plot with several parallel story lines, all handled well. Stross continues his mordant satire of British life. This book is somewhat darker than earlier books in this series and has an element of allegory, probably reflecting Stross' disgust with recent political events. Venal upper class British politicians feature in the plot and there is a powerful, malignant force coming from the USA.

Overall, this was a well written book.
The bad:
This book was a little grosser than the earlier books and was a little slow in spots.
The good:
Charles Stross has found that point of Eldritch horror where you actually felt the horrific powerlessness of the protagonists. With all their power, they are nothing next to the hungry monsters that oppose them. At the end, you feel numb. Powerful people have given up their souls to evil for the greater good.

I finished this book and felt depressed and vaguely nauseated. (Though that may be because I woke up at 4:30am and decided to finish this novel.) So take that for what it is worth.

What is more terrifying: a malevolent god or an overly empowered bureaucrat? The author fails to capitalize on the comic possibilities here, which is a shame. On the positive side, I did enjoy the intricate scenario development; unfortunately, it culminates in a rather banal Hollywood-style conflagration.

Fun wonderful story! I strongly recommend this series and this most recent book in the series. SF/Fantasy/Horror/Spy/Geek Humor/more! Well worth you time to read.

I got the Audible edition and it is well produced. 5*'s for both versions.

A great novel. Stross is a master at politically relevant satire, and that's on display through the novel -- though this time it's much darker, perhaps to suit the politics it's satirising. This novel again focuses on Bob, and spends a lot of time developing his character with an internal look at how he's changed since he was last our hero.

This novel references other novels of the Laundry Files series constantly and probably is not a great starting point -- read from the beginning, or at least the Rhesus Chart.

So churned through this in no time. Charlie Stross's writing skills remain as evidenced throughout the Laundry Series, this is a worthy addition.
However, if you were charmed into thinking good guys/bad guys happy endings in the first few books, well you were missing the impending Clusterf that this novel brings. So if you are fine with a novelist advancing narrative that was always implied and inevitable, this book is for you.

Great update on the laundry files stories. Our new characters get to show some cool capabilities and we get to revisit some old villians and see them in a new light. CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN seems to be well on the way! And a new monster MUCH grosser than the tongue eaters... Great listen on audible

Great update on the laundry files stories. Our new characters get to show some cool capabilities and we get to revisit some old villians and see them in a new light. CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN seems to be well on the way! And a new monster MUCH grosser than the tongue eaters... Great listen on audible

Excellent entry into the Laundry series. Bob's return didn't dissapoint. Not that I had any particular issues with the previous entry (which this is a direct sequel) but I was anxious for Bob's point of view.

I also had a love/hate feeling for the cliffhanger!

.. and already this is one of those books where life inconveniently gets in the way of my being able to spend all my waking hours finishing it.

A wonderful read so far, and the Laundry series keeps getting better! If you haven't read any of the series, block out a few weeks of your schedule, start at book 1 and enjoy.

Another really entertaining addition to this series. A welcome return of Bob Howard as the main character. The same wry humor and razor sharp insights into modern culture. This book is so good it makes other books in the series better. I really enjoyed it.

This book pulls in threads from the entire series, performs some artful non-Euclidian magic, and produces a multi-tentacled creature of humour, terror, surprise, and revelation. I've enjoyed all of the books in the Laundry series, but I think this one is the finest yet. Heartily recommended!

This latest novel in the laundry files series returns to the viewpoint of Bob Howard and takes places 3 weeks after the events in Nightmare Stacks, the previous work in the series. It is a fast paced and darkly humorous tale of things going to hell.

Once again Stross does it with the Laundry. Things are spinning out of control again for Bob and Mo both personally and professionally. This is a very good addition to the series and well worth the time to read it.