In modern organizations – be they corporate or governmental – the people at the top of the org charts, the ones who earn the most and enjoy time in the spotlight, rarely know what most people’s day-to-day jobs are. Often, they don’t care. As long as the work gets done and the organization is making progress, the assumption is that everything is going well. But what happens when an event disrupts the organization’s narrative? Often, the people at the top seek to deflect blame down to the lower tiers of the org chart, they seek to reassure the public, and, ultimately, will attempt to show they’re ‘doing something’ by reorganizing. Graduates from Business School love reorganizing businesses. It’s the ultimate meaningless gesture; there’s a lot of motion resulting in little progress, and yet it looks good on year-end evaluations. If the event is disastrous enough, then outside consultants must be called in to tell executives exactly what they want to hear. If the organization is governmental, then the reorganization could be privatized. If the politicians happen to benefit from that privatization, well, that’s just realpolitik and not at all the corruption of democracy. That’s where we find Britain’s secretive, occult bureau in the eighth book of the Laundry Files series. After the events of the Nightmare Stacks, the British government is rocked by confrontation with a reality that should not exist. Since the government doesn’t know what to do and after a little lobbying by an American security company, they decide to privatize the Laundry. The Delirium Brief starts off with the Bob Howard and crew adjusting to the aftermath of the Nightmare Stacks to learn of their employers turning on them.
Spoilers follow. Stop here if you haven’t read up to book eight of the Laundry Files.
TL;DR
Charles Stross’s The Delirium Brief delivers everything I expect from a Laundry Files book. This is one of the best series around, and The Delirium Brief changes the course of the series. Recommended.
From the Publisher
Someone is dead set to air the spy agency’s dirty laundry in The Delirium Brief, the next installment to Charles Stross’ Hugo Award-winning comedic dark fantasy Laundry Files series!
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.
Inch by inch, Bob Howard and his managers are forced to consider the truly unthinkable: a coup against the British government itself.
Final Spoiler Warning!!!
Story
Marriage troubles, metaphysical responsibilities, and an invasion weigh heavily on Bob Howard’s mind. Thus, he is wholly unprepared when tasked to meet with a counterpart from one of the U.S.’s occult agency, who lays out that, not only has a past enemy risen, but is attempting a hostile takeover of the Laundry itself. Raymond Schiller, who first appeared in The Apocalypse Codex, schmoozes the British ruling elite in attempt to privatize Great Britain’s occult protection services. Since the Laundry operated behind the scenes for so long without scrutiny from the government, the politicians fume. After all, how dare any governmental institution work without the all-important oversight of bureaucrats, right? [Does anything make a politician madder than knowing an agency isn’t under their thumb?] Little do these politicians know that it won’t be Schiller taking over. The Sleeper actually runs things, and this entity takes over more than just institutions.
Bob Howard returns as the main character after a couple of novels with different Laundry-verse personnel taking over the main role. Howard’s weighed down with responsibility from his promotion to Angleton’s position and abilities while at a necessary but painful remove from his wife, Mo, who has been promoted into an auditor position. Bob’s aged from the first book; his worries were less organizational than middle-aged, middle-manager personal demons. The transformation from the first books is wonderful, especially now that Bob is a scary individual in his own right. Those abilities that make him scarier weigh heavily on his soul.
The Laundry Files
In the world of Urban Fantasy, the Laundry Files have created their own niche. They are distinctly British, yet, accessible. The mix of governmental bureaucracy with abstract mathematics and computer engineering fit right into the Lovecraftian mythos. The series is up to nine books and seems to be building towards a finale with case NIGHTMARE GREEN. Bob Howard acts as the protagonist for most of the novels but not all. Three of the novels feature other characters from Capital Laundry Services, but Bob is the only repeating main character, so far. The early novels feature a very Cold War spy aesthetic while adding Lovecraft and horror monsters with Charles Stross’s unique and creative spin. It is one of my favorite fantasy series.
The Delirium Brief builds upon all that comes before to deliver an unexpected yet appropriate finale. The story, despite its resolution, ends quite darkly. One of the problems that series have is that each new villain has to be bigger and badder than the last. This book sees the return of a previous baddie who’s leveled up, and while the characters have leveled up as well, it felt as if they were failing the whole time. Stross builds and maintains the tension masterfully throughout the novel.
Series and Character Development
Character development is important to me as a reader. Often in long series, character development comes in smaller and smaller doses in service to story. However, The Delirium Brief gets into the characters. Most of the detailed character growth takes places with Bob, but important story lines advance with Mo and others. There’s a lot of characters in this novel, and character growth falls short of the changing storyline. But that growth still happens here. The novel ends in an unexpected and drastic way. I have no idea what’s going to go on in The Labyrinth Index, but I’m here for it. The fallout from The Delirium Brief could be catastrophic for the characters, and I’m interested in how they recover.
Special Note: 2019 Hugo Consideration
The Laundry Files are in contention for the 2019 Best Series Hugo Award. This series has definitely earned the honor. It faces excellent competition this year, and no matter which series wins, they’re all worth checking out.
Conclusion
Charles Stross’s The Delirium Brief is a series-changing novel that signals the end game of the Laundry Files, at the very least, on its way. This addition to one of my favorite series delivers everything I want from a Laundry Files book. The Delirium Brief .