Many of the Laundry Files protagonists up to this point have been institutionalists, and they're just not prepared for their institution to have failed them.īit of a digression. I'm not sure Bob does either, or Mhari, or Mo, or Alex. I don't think Armstrong has the vision for that. The only way to beat Nyarlathotep is to flip the board at a critical point and stab him in the neck.
He's already fifty moves ahead of you and has not only already won, he's beat you at the best-of-three backgammon match you challenged him to afterwards. He's trying to play shadow games against Nyarlathotep, and that's a game you won't win. Can't wait to see THAT thing fired.) Mike's clearly got some sort of plan regarding what the novel refers to as "Extended Continuity Operations" and "the Resistance." (Sidebar: BOY, the Tzompantli is the Chekoviest Chekov's Gun that ever Chekoved. He clearly does have some kind of plan regarding Nyarlathotep and is not simply resigned to being some kind of microscopic cog in his catastrophic as the Black Pharaoh raises his ghoulish trophy-case in the heart of the United Kingdom. Speaking of which, I take back some of the nasty shit I've said about Mike Armstrong in this space. but the context they want to succeed in is a context where they're Nyarlathotep's underlings and are trying to undermine and defeat Cthulhu's underlings, because Nyarlathotep and Cthulhu disagree on the precise nature of how humanity's enslavement is to be conducted. If previous Laundry Novels were like reading Good Guy spy novels mixed with Lovecraft, this one is like reading a BAD Guy spy novel mixed with Lovecraft we are predisposed to like Mhari, to like her team members, to want them to succeed. Mhari tries her best to hide it behind bravado, cynicism, and self-loathing in her journal, but she is clearly and obviously pants-shittingly scared of her boss, his High Priestess, the world around her, and ultimately of herself all the time. And that lends an entirely new twist to things. And that'd be fine, but nothing we hadn't read before.īut the New Management is in fact in place. If it weren't for the presence of the New Management, this would be a fairly standard Laundry Files novel, simply with Mhari in the place of Bob.
The Labyrinth Index (along with it's immediate prior volume) goes a long way towards upping the stakes and revitalizing a series that, while incredibly engrossing on any individual outing, had started to grow a bit stale. I was deeply privileged to have received a signed copy of this when Charlie stopped by Bakka-Phoenix in Toronto I drove up from the states for it. Paperbacks: not 'til next year! Sorry!)Īnd if you want a signed copy, Transreal Fiction and Blackwell's Bookshop (Edinburgh) will be happy to ship signed copies locally or internationally. ( Audiobooks: they're out now, from Audible! (First time I've had a simultaneous release in audio.) If they show up any time soon I'll put links here. Order the Kindle ebook here (for the US edition) and here (in the UK/EU)-they're published by different companies even though the launch is simultaneous.
If you're in Edinburgh, I'm doing a launch event (a reading and signing) at Blackwell's Bookshop on South Bridge at 6:30pm on Tuesday the 30th (tomorrow!) you can reserve a free ticket here.Īlternatively, you can buy the book in all good bookshops. Her reporting chain: direct to the Prime Minister, his Dread Majesty N'yar Lat-Hotep, the Black Pharaoh-also known as Fabian Everyman MP, leader of the British emergency government of national unity known as the New Management. The person: Dame Mhari Murphy, BSc (hons), MBA, FIC, DBE, styled Baroness Karnstein, member of the House of Lords and Chair of the House Select Committee on Sanguinary Affairs (ahem: vampires). The place: The Palace of Westminster, London, and parts further west (a long way west). The year: 2015, in an even worse time line than this one. The Labyrinth Index is here in time for Halloween, because 2018 just hasn't been scary enough!