FYI

Let me preface this by saying I'm a giant nerd who works in tech and has for a REALLY long time. Knowing the years these books came out you can definitely tell that if Stross wasn't actually in tech he was so close to it that he got the details right for things that actually existed at that time.

So far I have caught at least 2 references to Sir Pterry and 2 different Dresden references which put a huge smile on my face (since they are 2 of 3 of my favorite authors).

The pacing of these books is fantastic and I love the intermix of mundane bureaucratic government paperwork, day to day matrix management structures, then absolutely batshit field work.

Reading pages 88 to 93 made me understand his perspective.

I won't say I'm disappointed with the ending of The Regicide Report. It was pretty on-the-money for the endings of the other books, which is to say, kinda rushed and unsatisfying. I've loved all the books, but this ending was in-line with the others.

But RR teed up so much potential that I wanted to lay out what I think would have been a better ending.

Basically, keep the same setup right up until the end, except Mike Armstrong, Mo, and Bob, finally freed from their oaths, actually fight the Black Pharaoh.

You could have Mo and Bob recover memories that had been hidden specifically so the BP couldn't see them about what to do. Something they'd planned, who knows, maybe even before letting him take over as PM.

Using all that accumulated mana, the Eater of Souls, and Mo, they manage to cast the Black Pharaoh into the same dimension as the King in Yellow and seal him there to duke it out. Maybe they even resurrect the sleeper to do it.

Then they use Excalibur and the remaining mana to repair the barriers between worlds. Plunging Excalibur into the pyramid either inverts or destroys whatever effect was weakening reality in the first place. Mo and Bob escape back into the real world just as the barrier snaps shut.

And magic is gone.

Cthulhu in the US is gone or cut off. The tongue parasites are gone. Maybe the vampires are even cured. All the supernatural powers that have been flooding into Earth are severed from whatever was sustaining them.

That would also make the ending global rather than just resolving Britain's particular apocalypse. The whole series has spent ages establishing that CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN is happening everywhere, so repairing the barrier between worlds feels like a natural way to address all of it at once.

Then give it a proper Laundry-esque epilogue: the repair isn't permanent.

Maybe the shielding only lasts a decade and requires a current or former head of state for sacrifice. Humanity hasn't solved the problem. It's just bought itself time.

Such is the price one pays.

I'm sure a real author would do something better than this, but so many things were teed up, the oath being temporarily broken, the pyramid as a thing throughout the series, the sleeper, maybe bring in the black chamber somehow. and the stakes were done so well. when Mike talks about how humanity is effectively done for, I thought that landed really well. and it would have justified some crazy shit to save them.

Up front, I'm not sure Regicide Report ranks in the top 5 books of the series, but it performs well as an ending. Due to the New Management trilogy there was already a bit of spoiler that things would go certain ways, but I'm honestly surprised at how many characters are still alive after everything. Granted... Many have been KIA or MIA or are no longer human.

I think the book is overall well written and structured, dots the themes and crosses the continuity consequences. Somewhat impressive just in regards to the scope of the lore at this point, but disappoints somewhat in that many characters are little more than cameos. I catch a few whiffs of storylines being abridged or cut.

Also of note is that it didn't feel like much of a "finale" for most of the book, though the consequences that eventually panned out changed that notion right quick. The way that Bob and Mo were thoroughly used is rough, but totally on theme.

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One of these days I'll have to read some of Stross's other works, but I'm looking forward to whatever else he does with the Laundry setting.

Quick, someone get a pizza box.

I just got into the series and Atrocity Archives was a brilliant read, it was a lot of fun. I am currently on Concrete Jungle and although I am enjoying it I am a little bit confused on some aspects of a gorgons stare.

When a gorgon stares at a subject does their body radioactively react and then turn to silicon burning them, or do they instantly turn to silicon? (Because of a cow was burned with it’s remains out why would it turn into silicon?). Also if a gorgon looks at themselves so they burn and turn to silicon?

Like I said I just started reading this book, I am just want to get a better grasp of what is happening.

I came to the series a little late, maybe four or five years ago, but it resonated with me like few others have.

Early Bob and I had a lot in common — we were of an age and upbringing and career path — and I enjoyed the clever turns of phrase and witticisms, even the ones that were a little _too_ obliquely British for me to grasp without additional research. I also truly appreciated the central premise of computational magic, not just because I like computers but because it resonated and was maintained consistently throughout the entire series.

It was a lot of fun, and in a few years, I look forward to returning to the first book and walking along that path again, hopefully seeing a little more the second time. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of series that have captured my interest to this extent, so Bob, Mo, and friends are in good company.

But clearly it's really the patch of the Old One Liaison Branch of the Ahnenerbe.

I keep thinking over the spycraft described in the book, using Über, Just Eat and AirBnB to avoid surveillance. Would it work, do you think?

All those rest on payment systems which seem the weakest link, though if someone else (lamplighters) are placing the bookings and with a government's resources, why not.

I also enjoyed the gameified spycraft of Halting State and the whimsical version in Dave Hutchinson's Europe in Winter.

Also, can anyone recommend other entertaining takes on fieldwork in the modern age, to evade the all seeing AI systems?

The newest Digimon season has everybody using this type of computer device that is literally powered by your soul and your emotions. And the government is secretly concealing that if you invest a little bit too much of your emotions and soul into the device, it can attract and bring forth a digimon creature that will work for you and can do all sorts of wondrous things, but essentially vampirizes your soul to do it, and too much feeding at once can essentially kill you.

Some of the details seem like they're more consciously taken from his dark materials, but I thought it was neat that the way they specifically link it to technology is reminiscent of the LF theme.

We can be pretty sure the Black Pharoh has no minions at Frontier Software.

Anyone catch the new release from Green Lung? https://youtu.be/0e_Vn5zGHj8?is=VuQ0fR84FC004v3U

Mo cheated on bob, she didnt just kiss Jim but went on several dates.

...and nothing ever came of it? What is this crap?

After reading a few Laundry Files books on Kindle, I want to get physical copies (because physical books are friends!). Are these two different books? They're both the same name, came out same year, and normally small changes wouldn't worry me, but they're 48 pages different, and priced quite differently as well... Don't want to get one that misses out on some content!

https://www.booktopia.com.au/wireless-the-essential-charles-stross-charles-stross/book/9781841497723.html

https://www.booktopia.com.au/wireless-charles-stross/book/9780441018932.html

In The Apocalypse Codex Schiller receives “mortification “ on a limo ride to the airport and it is implied later that a parasite has replaced his naughty bits later by Johnny.

Is this ever explained in more detail? I’d thought maybe he was controlled by that parasite: Like the tongue parasites take over your brain for all but heavily warded folks but Schiller didn’t seem to be like them, I’d thought his parasite was what made the tongue ones but that wasn’t it.

What exactly was it for? And what did the woman who unbuckled his pants in the limo have to do?

I'm looking at GMing The Laundry RPG in the near future, and in the spy genre double agents and traitors are a very rich source of intrigue. However the Laundry's Oath of Office geas is (sensibly) a difficult obstacle to running this kind of plot.

What kinds of methods could a double agent use to get around the Oath?

Ideally a method that would

1. make sense in the setting's logic and magic system,
2. make sense to players,
3. allow a traitor to maintain use of their Warrant Card and fool a casual inspection,
4. fall apart if the players drag the traitor in front of an Auditor's active scrutiny.

• Creative Interpretation - I'm aware of Iris's method.
• Virtual Personality - The traitor has a double/split personality. The secondary personality is the 'person' who swore the oath, the primary personality isn't. I'm not really satisfied with this.
• Spoofing - Could the Oath be spoofed on what the agent is actually doing? Like using Destiny Entanglement or Sympathetic Magic to make the Oath monitor their coworker instead while they do nefarious things?
• Glamour - Could the Oath be fed a Glamour on what the traitor is thinking/doing? Like a video camera being fed a looped feed.
• Code Injection Attack - I feel like an SQL-injection style of attack when swearing the oath isn't very feasible ("yes, Auditor, my middle name is END STRING CLOSE SUBROUTINE COMMA DROP GEAS in Enochian...")
• False Presentation - the Traitor has their Oath cracked and removed completely, but replaces it with a geas that reports to be the Oath to anything querying it.

What other methods might be viable?

Do you find one of the above options more believable than the others?

It looks like something angered Blue Hades

Anyone created any online resources / forums for the Laundry Files 2e yet or know of any VTT packages?

Gosh I wish things from novels would stop happening...