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Laundry Files #14
The Regicide Report
An occult assassin, an elderly royal and a living god face off in The Regicide Report, the thrilling final novel in Charles Stross' epic, Hugo Award-winning Laundry Files series.
When the Elder God recently installed as Prime Minister identifies the monarchy as a threat to his growing power, Bob Howard and Mo O'Brien - recently of the supernatural espionage service known as the Laundry Files - are reluctantly pressed into service.
Fighting vampirism, scheming American agents and their own better instincts, Bob and Mo will join their allies for the very last time. God save the Queen― because someone has to.
When the Elder God recently installed as Prime Minister identifies the monarchy as a threat to his growing power, Bob Howard and Mo O'Brien - recently of the supernatural espionage service known as the Laundry Files - are reluctantly pressed into service.
Fighting vampirism, scheming American agents and their own better instincts, Bob and Mo will join their allies for the very last time. God save the Queen― because someone has to.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 27, 2026
294 people are currently reading
4333 people want to read
About the author
Charles Stross
161 books5,862 followersCharles David George "Charlie" Stross is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His works range from science fiction and Lovecraftian horror to fantasy.
Stross is sometimes regarded as being part of a new generation of British science fiction writers who specialise in hard science fiction and space opera. His contemporaries include Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod, Liz Williams and Richard Morgan.
SF Encyclopedia: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_...
Tor: http://us.macmillan.com/author/charle...
Stross is sometimes regarded as being part of a new generation of British science fiction writers who specialise in hard science fiction and space opera. His contemporaries include Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod, Liz Williams and Richard Morgan.
SF Encyclopedia: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_...
Tor: http://us.macmillan.com/author/charle...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
December 5, 2025
Faced with the weight of 20+ years of accreted lore, some *ahem* variable quality in recent books, an aging reader base, and above all the exponentially-increasing weirdness of the real world, Charles Stross has done his incantations, drawn his grid, and somehow summoned up a reasonably satisfying ending to the Laundry Files. Mind you, there are serious pacing issues, insufficient editing, and occasional drifts into Marvel movie territory. But like the Crown itself, The Regicide Report shambles on in the face of all reason and criticism, improbably victorious, occasionally glorious. 3.5/5, rounded up for goodwill and entertainment value.
—————————
So first and perhaps most importantly, Bob (or, given his maybe-actually-dead status since Book 3, “Bob”) is back. This isn’t an unambiguous win — Bob’s snarky manchild routine can wear thin, and Stross has done well to broaden the range of perspectives he writes in — but I’ve missed the distinctiveness of his voice and the levity it brings to a setting that is, after all, Any% speedrunning an eldritch apocalypse. Bob’s return also signals a return to the “main quest” of the Laundry Files after a long string of side adventures (arguably everything in the last eight years) that provided ambience and background but not much in the way of stakes. Fortunately, The Regicide Report has its stakes baked right into the title, and Stross keeps himself (mostly) focused on the prize, with Bob, Mo, and the rest of the gang scrambling to outrace Queen Elizabeth’s prospective assassination.
I say mostly because Stross, like his narrator, really can’t help derailing to crack a joke or drop some knowledge. Many of these authorial asides are a delight, from a potted history of Buckingham Palace to evocative reminders of the buried rivers of London. But for every page given to historical context, Stross spends at least five riffing on the life and loves of Dr. Phibes, the antihero of cult 1970s British B-movies in our world and the Queen’s new physician in the Laundry Files. Phibes isn’t a bad fit for the Files, a setting that lives for oddities like his murderous mechanical jazz bands and trips down the River of Life. But it’s still a questionably deep cut reference, especially when Phibes sucks up acres of page space in the middle of an otherwise-taut series finale. And while Stross does an acceptable job of finding things for the members of the Phibes household to do that organically fit the story, seeing them on the page is like watching Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish in the last season of the X-Files: maybe there's nothing wrong with them, but you can't escape the fact they're not Mulder and Scully. I half suspect Stross started a spinoff starring the Phibes and just couldn’t let them go when the time came to write this instead, as they’d be a much better fit to the skeezy, pop-referential world of the New Management series.
Bad Phibes aren’t the only downsides of Regicide, which periodically falls into the bad habits of Stross’ other recent works. There’s a jarring lack of editing (all too common nowadays), with odd repetitions or continuity errors popping up just when you’re starting to get into the flow of a scene. And while the novel’s big assassination set piece is as tight and propulsive as anything Stross has done since Bob raised a zombie horde in Highgate Cemetery, the demands of the plot force Stross to go bigger and bigger and Bigger from there in a way that converges on the CGI-tastic conclusions of modern blockbusters, lots of demigods weightlessly blasting each other with lasers/mana/whatever while the final MacGuffin looms. It’s well-written enough to be exciting, but not as subversive or surprising as the table-flipping conclusion of The Delirium Brief.
That all said, Stross still ties off the series capably, clearly if bluntly addressing What Happens to Everyone and even wrapping up a few threads that I thought had been lost. I personally would have loved to see some of those resolved differently — justice for Spooky’s random opposable thumb! — but the conclusions largely ring true, even when they are sometimes only provisional. Better still, Regicide’s focus on the Crown gives Stross room to resurface the early book’s Len Deighton-inspired ruminations on the state, service, and loyalty, particularly when he forces a choice between modernity’s bloodless horrors and the red-mawed insatiability of the past. There's also a weary middle-aged clarity to the realisation that Bob, Mo and most of their allies have become monsters defending the monstrous, even if their grudging obedience to the Black Pharaoh might be the best of the bad outcomes available. It’s a sinking feeling we’ll probably have to get used to in Britain given where our electorate and Government are heading, just without the excuse of our stars having finally come right.
—————————
So first and perhaps most importantly, Bob (or, given his maybe-actually-dead status since Book 3, “Bob”) is back. This isn’t an unambiguous win — Bob’s snarky manchild routine can wear thin, and Stross has done well to broaden the range of perspectives he writes in — but I’ve missed the distinctiveness of his voice and the levity it brings to a setting that is, after all, Any% speedrunning an eldritch apocalypse. Bob’s return also signals a return to the “main quest” of the Laundry Files after a long string of side adventures (arguably everything in the last eight years) that provided ambience and background but not much in the way of stakes. Fortunately, The Regicide Report has its stakes baked right into the title, and Stross keeps himself (mostly) focused on the prize, with Bob, Mo, and the rest of the gang scrambling to outrace Queen Elizabeth’s prospective assassination.
I say mostly because Stross, like his narrator, really can’t help derailing to crack a joke or drop some knowledge. Many of these authorial asides are a delight, from a potted history of Buckingham Palace to evocative reminders of the buried rivers of London. But for every page given to historical context, Stross spends at least five riffing on the life and loves of Dr. Phibes, the antihero of cult 1970s British B-movies in our world and the Queen’s new physician in the Laundry Files. Phibes isn’t a bad fit for the Files, a setting that lives for oddities like his murderous mechanical jazz bands and trips down the River of Life. But it’s still a questionably deep cut reference, especially when Phibes sucks up acres of page space in the middle of an otherwise-taut series finale. And while Stross does an acceptable job of finding things for the members of the Phibes household to do that organically fit the story, seeing them on the page is like watching Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish in the last season of the X-Files: maybe there's nothing wrong with them, but you can't escape the fact they're not Mulder and Scully. I half suspect Stross started a spinoff starring the Phibes and just couldn’t let them go when the time came to write this instead, as they’d be a much better fit to the skeezy, pop-referential world of the New Management series.
Bad Phibes aren’t the only downsides of Regicide, which periodically falls into the bad habits of Stross’ other recent works. There’s a jarring lack of editing (all too common nowadays), with odd repetitions or continuity errors popping up just when you’re starting to get into the flow of a scene. And while the novel’s big assassination set piece is as tight and propulsive as anything Stross has done since Bob raised a zombie horde in Highgate Cemetery, the demands of the plot force Stross to go bigger and bigger and Bigger from there in a way that converges on the CGI-tastic conclusions of modern blockbusters, lots of demigods weightlessly blasting each other with lasers/mana/whatever while the final MacGuffin looms. It’s well-written enough to be exciting, but not as subversive or surprising as the table-flipping conclusion of The Delirium Brief.
That all said, Stross still ties off the series capably, clearly if bluntly addressing What Happens to Everyone and even wrapping up a few threads that I thought had been lost. I personally would have loved to see some of those resolved differently — justice for Spooky’s random opposable thumb! — but the conclusions largely ring true, even when they are sometimes only provisional. Better still, Regicide’s focus on the Crown gives Stross room to resurface the early book’s Len Deighton-inspired ruminations on the state, service, and loyalty, particularly when he forces a choice between modernity’s bloodless horrors and the red-mawed insatiability of the past. There's also a weary middle-aged clarity to the realisation that Bob, Mo and most of their allies have become monsters defending the monstrous, even if their grudging obedience to the Black Pharaoh might be the best of the bad outcomes available. It’s a sinking feeling we’ll probably have to get used to in Britain given where our electorate and Government are heading, just without the excuse of our stars having finally come right.
January 31, 2026
More in fulfilment of an obligation than a labor of love
The Regicide Report is the grand finale* of my very favorite science fiction series, Charles Stross's Laundry Files. (You could also call it Urban Fantasy, but the feel is, to my mind, much more science fiction.) Stross leaves no doubt that this is the end. In his acknowledgments he writes, "This book marks the end of a twenty-five-year-long project." Hardcore Stross fans (by which, I mean those who follow his blog) have long known this was coming, and we mostly knew how it was going to end.
The Regicide Report's main jobs are two. First, it has to finish the story of Bob Howard and his wife Dominique O'Brien, who are, at this point in the series, powerful sorcerers. Second it completes (more or less) the story of Senior Auditor Michael Armstrong's plot to save Britain from the onslaught of elder gods known as CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN. In The Delirium Brief Armstrong betrayed England into the grip of Fabian Everyman, who is an avatar of The Black Pharaoh. He had a plan to wrest it away, and in The Regicide Report we see the culmination of that plan. It goes something like this
It all starts when someone poisons the queen with a slow-acting poison. Stross, who has a degree in Pharmacy, makes this part convincing. (The Regicide Report is set in 2015 in an alternative timeline, so Elizabeth II is still alive and queen.) The queen, being the focus of attention and belief of hundreds of millions of humans, is a powerful source of mana (magical oomph).
Stross took his job here seriously, and the result makes a good, rousing story. Still, it seems fairly clear that the joy has gone out of the series for him. It feels like Sisyphus finishing that job that he was never supposed to be able to finish. It is a triumph when he finally places that giant stone atop the unclimbable hill. But one still feels the effort.
Let's be real: if you've read the previous nine novels of the Laundry Files, you're going to read this one. I have and I did, and I was not disappointed. I am sorry, of course, that my all-time favorite science fiction series has reached its end. But I understand why Stross would want his freedom.
I look forward to seeing what he does with it. Since he has also concluded his other major series, the Merchant Princes Universe series, ... Well, who knows where he goes next?
Blog review.
*Just to get this out of the way: Stross has had an ongoing misunderstanding with his American publishers about the Laundry Files series and how to number it. There are ten full-length novels in Laundry Files proper. They are the ones numbered 1-9 and 14 in the Goodreads listing of the series. They all have titles of the form "The [noun] [document]." Thus The Regicide Report is a formula Laundry Files title.
There is also a separate derivative series, the New Management. It currently consists of three short novels, which are numbers 1-3 in the Goodreads listing. These take place after the events of The Regicide Report.
A Conventional Boy, which GR counts both as #13 in the Laundry Files and #4 in the New Management, is actually a novella in the Laundry Files, perhaps #9.5, and doesn't belong in the New Management at all.
This is all based on my understanding from keeping up with Stross's blog. Here is his post for The Regicide Report. (Be patient -- it's a very slow web server.)
The Regicide Report is the grand finale* of my very favorite science fiction series, Charles Stross's Laundry Files. (You could also call it Urban Fantasy, but the feel is, to my mind, much more science fiction.) Stross leaves no doubt that this is the end. In his acknowledgments he writes, "This book marks the end of a twenty-five-year-long project." Hardcore Stross fans (by which, I mean those who follow his blog) have long known this was coming, and we mostly knew how it was going to end.
The Regicide Report's main jobs are two. First, it has to finish the story of Bob Howard and his wife Dominique O'Brien, who are, at this point in the series, powerful sorcerers. Second it completes (more or less) the story of Senior Auditor Michael Armstrong's plot to save Britain from the onslaught of elder gods known as CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN. In The Delirium Brief Armstrong betrayed England into the grip of Fabian Everyman, who is an avatar of The Black Pharaoh. He had a plan to wrest it away, and in The Regicide Report we see the culmination of that plan. It goes something like this
There is just no foreseeable route by which the United States and the Soviet Union could become engaged in a major nuclear war. This does not mean that a major nuclear war cannot occur. It only means that if it occurs it will result from a process that is not entirely foreseen, from reactions that are not fully predictable, from decisions that are not wholly deliberate, from events that are not fully under control....except that the Armageddon in question is of an entirely different flavor than the one Schelling was exercised by.
--TC Schelling
It all starts when someone poisons the queen with a slow-acting poison. Stross, who has a degree in Pharmacy, makes this part convincing. (The Regicide Report is set in 2015 in an alternative timeline, so Elizabeth II is still alive and queen.) The queen, being the focus of attention and belief of hundreds of millions of humans, is a powerful source of mana (magical oomph).
Stross took his job here seriously, and the result makes a good, rousing story. Still, it seems fairly clear that the joy has gone out of the series for him. It feels like Sisyphus finishing that job that he was never supposed to be able to finish. It is a triumph when he finally places that giant stone atop the unclimbable hill. But one still feels the effort.
Let's be real: if you've read the previous nine novels of the Laundry Files, you're going to read this one. I have and I did, and I was not disappointed. I am sorry, of course, that my all-time favorite science fiction series has reached its end. But I understand why Stross would want his freedom.
I look forward to seeing what he does with it. Since he has also concluded his other major series, the Merchant Princes Universe series, ... Well, who knows where he goes next?
Blog review.
*Just to get this out of the way: Stross has had an ongoing misunderstanding with his American publishers about the Laundry Files series and how to number it. There are ten full-length novels in Laundry Files proper. They are the ones numbered 1-9 and 14 in the Goodreads listing of the series. They all have titles of the form "The [noun] [document]." Thus The Regicide Report is a formula Laundry Files title.
There is also a separate derivative series, the New Management. It currently consists of three short novels, which are numbers 1-3 in the Goodreads listing. These take place after the events of The Regicide Report.
A Conventional Boy, which GR counts both as #13 in the Laundry Files and #4 in the New Management, is actually a novella in the Laundry Files, perhaps #9.5, and doesn't belong in the New Management at all.
This is all based on my understanding from keeping up with Stross's blog. Here is his post for The Regicide Report. (Be patient -- it's a very slow web server.)
January 29, 2026
Has Stross stuck the landing? Well, he's definitely stuck *a* landing, albeit a fairly horrifying one.
This is perhaps the final transformed form of the Laundry novels, with their iconic elements made absolutely didactic, and the authorial voice manifesting like a director's commentary track. But if you've read a dozen or so of these, you were expecting that, right?
(Elements including - arewethebaddies.gif as central theme, various intriguing historical or literary characters dredged up to serve the plot, mordant (or Mordaunt) political commentary, plots (both in-fiction and authorial) crafted towards spectacular set-piece scenes, characters acting as unwitting pawns yet-a-flippin-gain (seriously, they ought to realise they're in a story by now), and a tone veering from cynicism to the blackest of comedy.)
It's been a very meandering path through the central story, with a sequel trilogy published prior to this finale, and various side quests that nevertheless all pull together at the end. It's a series that's been determined not to be about one thing, or even ten things, and to definitely not just give readers what they think they want. I'm not convinced that anyone involved in reading or writing this series has gotten exactly what they wanted, but it's been a journey.
This is perhaps the final transformed form of the Laundry novels, with their iconic elements made absolutely didactic, and the authorial voice manifesting like a director's commentary track. But if you've read a dozen or so of these, you were expecting that, right?
(Elements including - arewethebaddies.gif as central theme, various intriguing historical or literary characters dredged up to serve the plot, mordant (or Mordaunt) political commentary, plots (both in-fiction and authorial) crafted towards spectacular set-piece scenes, characters acting as unwitting pawns yet-a-flippin-gain (seriously, they ought to realise they're in a story by now), and a tone veering from cynicism to the blackest of comedy.)
It's been a very meandering path through the central story, with a sequel trilogy published prior to this finale, and various side quests that nevertheless all pull together at the end. It's a series that's been determined not to be about one thing, or even ten things, and to definitely not just give readers what they think they want. I'm not convinced that anyone involved in reading or writing this series has gotten exactly what they wanted, but it's been a journey.
January 31, 2026
In the end I'm glad the series got ostensibly finished. Was it a successful and satisfying conclusion? Not to me. It felt like an end but with an option to continue and a resolution that didn't really feel satisfying or earned.
Read
November 29, 2025Stross' Laundry Files finally reach their conclusion, a book which sometimes felt like it would never come – not least because writing a satirical horror series that intersects with British politics has been tricky across a decade where reality kept making the fictional version look too sane by comparison. The good news is that none of the many plates set spinning in previous books have been forgotten; the situation has been escalating for a while now, the Laundry moving from a covert organisation keeping the lid on eldritch horrors (and having lots of meetings) to a repository of assorted half-tamed monsters on the front line of an increasingly dangerous and undeniable breakdown of reality's boundaries (with even more meetings). This also means that original narrator Bob Howard, who some books previously became too powerful to work as a regular protagonist, can take the lead again, and not that I haven't mostly enjoyed his colleagues too, but it's great to have him back. Well, I say 'him'; there's a possibility that he's just been the Eater of Souls thinking he's Bob for a while now. But don't all promotions to management feel a bit that way?
The bad news, alas, is that in a book which already had plenty of threads and characters to juggle, there's a section in the middle where it gets ridiculously distracted by some of its supporting characters, specifically royal physician Professor Phibes and his associates. Yes, that Phibes. Who is suitably entertaining in small doses, but then starts overshadowing everything else, culminating in a section where Bob and his wife Mo end up watching the film versions of Phibes' life, and getting angry at the inaccuracies... except these aren't even quite the Phibes films we know. And OK, yes, on one level making up someone to get mad at is how fiction operates, but creating two divergent versions of a character from what aren't even Vincent Price's best films, and then having the main characters get cross that they don't match up? That feels like a dead end.
Not that Phibes is the only borrowing. I don't just mean the assorted Elder Gods, who've been de facto public domain for decades, though Stross sometimes tweaks their spelling and punctuation. Or even the various real politicians and, yes, as the title suggests, royals, who in some cases have pretty key roles. A bunch of other fictional characters pop up, including an early scene featuring some very familiar figures who are named rather than implied, despite my understanding them to be quite a carefully protected piece of IP. I'm wondering if that might change before publication, as with a previous Laundry book which, like this one, I read as a Netgalley ARC. That adventure, set in Sanrio's theme park, was called Escape From Puroland when I read it, but not when it hit shelves.
That wasn't the only time I wondered if I had a finished text. At least as I read it, The Regicide Report is littered with awkward repetitions. I'm not talking deliberate callbacks, or the recurring use of 'Are we the baddies?', which works beautifully as a memetic drumbeat, at once calling back to the referential humour which always animated the series and reminding us how dark things have since become. I mean the exposition that's in Bob's opening story-so-far chapter, then dropped in again in much the same wording not long after; the two different things compared to three racoons in a trenchcoat within a few pages; the way that one particular dead body seems to lurch back into action twice, without that coming across as an intentional Dracula Has Risen From The Grave so much as a false start that should have been revised out and wasn't. Nor does it help that said body also made a not dissimilar appearance in another recent series that used dark fantasy to prod at Britain's uneasy relationship with its past grandeur and present decay*.
Still, for all that I would have liked it to get another edit, with chunks of the Phibes material left on the cutting room floor, mostly The Regicide Report comes across as a worthy finale to a quarter-century of wry adventures in occult bureaucracy – which is a particular relief after the slog of the misbegotten New Management spin-off trilogy. Hell, there's even the deployment of something I remember Stross blogging about the best part of 20 years ago, which has given me occasional shudders ever since, and which he's clearly been keeping in his back pocket the whole time (though not literally, or he definitely wouldn't have been around to finish the series). There are thrills, spills, chills, explosions, a neurospicy elf I've always had a crush on, and laughs – some of them incredibly abstruse, as when Bob explains the British constitution, and does so with a level of detail that evades many supposedly more serious political thinkers, even while he's suggesting that it's "obviously the product of strong hallucinogens, or maybe barristers trolling each other on Reddit". The novel is built around a plot to off Brenda which, if it might have felt more urgent had it come out while she was still with us, inevitably benefits in other ways by being able to riff on the real, recent, and very strange spectacle of monarchy on parade. And underneath it all, besides being a farewell to beloved characters, it's considering that most relevant of topics, the human ability to carry on as normal even in blatantly abnormal times.
*SPOILER: Gillen and Mora's Once & Future.
The bad news, alas, is that in a book which already had plenty of threads and characters to juggle, there's a section in the middle where it gets ridiculously distracted by some of its supporting characters, specifically royal physician Professor Phibes and his associates. Yes, that Phibes. Who is suitably entertaining in small doses, but then starts overshadowing everything else, culminating in a section where Bob and his wife Mo end up watching the film versions of Phibes' life, and getting angry at the inaccuracies... except these aren't even quite the Phibes films we know. And OK, yes, on one level making up someone to get mad at is how fiction operates, but creating two divergent versions of a character from what aren't even Vincent Price's best films, and then having the main characters get cross that they don't match up? That feels like a dead end.
Not that Phibes is the only borrowing. I don't just mean the assorted Elder Gods, who've been de facto public domain for decades, though Stross sometimes tweaks their spelling and punctuation. Or even the various real politicians and, yes, as the title suggests, royals, who in some cases have pretty key roles. A bunch of other fictional characters pop up, including an early scene featuring some very familiar figures who are named rather than implied, despite my understanding them to be quite a carefully protected piece of IP. I'm wondering if that might change before publication, as with a previous Laundry book which, like this one, I read as a Netgalley ARC. That adventure, set in Sanrio's theme park, was called Escape From Puroland when I read it, but not when it hit shelves.
That wasn't the only time I wondered if I had a finished text. At least as I read it, The Regicide Report is littered with awkward repetitions. I'm not talking deliberate callbacks, or the recurring use of 'Are we the baddies?', which works beautifully as a memetic drumbeat, at once calling back to the referential humour which always animated the series and reminding us how dark things have since become. I mean the exposition that's in Bob's opening story-so-far chapter, then dropped in again in much the same wording not long after; the two different things compared to three racoons in a trenchcoat within a few pages; the way that one particular dead body seems to lurch back into action twice, without that coming across as an intentional Dracula Has Risen From The Grave so much as a false start that should have been revised out and wasn't. Nor does it help that said body also made a not dissimilar appearance in another recent series that used dark fantasy to prod at Britain's uneasy relationship with its past grandeur and present decay*.
Still, for all that I would have liked it to get another edit, with chunks of the Phibes material left on the cutting room floor, mostly The Regicide Report comes across as a worthy finale to a quarter-century of wry adventures in occult bureaucracy – which is a particular relief after the slog of the misbegotten New Management spin-off trilogy. Hell, there's even the deployment of something I remember Stross blogging about the best part of 20 years ago, which has given me occasional shudders ever since, and which he's clearly been keeping in his back pocket the whole time (though not literally, or he definitely wouldn't have been around to finish the series). There are thrills, spills, chills, explosions, a neurospicy elf I've always had a crush on, and laughs – some of them incredibly abstruse, as when Bob explains the British constitution, and does so with a level of detail that evades many supposedly more serious political thinkers, even while he's suggesting that it's "obviously the product of strong hallucinogens, or maybe barristers trolling each other on Reddit". The novel is built around a plot to off Brenda which, if it might have felt more urgent had it come out while she was still with us, inevitably benefits in other ways by being able to riff on the real, recent, and very strange spectacle of monarchy on parade. And underneath it all, besides being a farewell to beloved characters, it's considering that most relevant of topics, the human ability to carry on as normal even in blatantly abnormal times.
*SPOILER: Gillen and Mora's Once & Future.
February 10, 2026
Rubbish ending. Sadly.
I've had a feeling for a while the author had lost a handle on the series. When your enemy is literal godlike monsters who will inflict the heat death of the universe upon you, you're limiting yourself. You either keep the story small scale (early in the series) or you make something horribly contrived. Sadly the author went contrived. He lacked the confidence to hit the logical loss button, but also the confidence to kill his characters (more on that later) so you end with a damp squib which felt very much like a hedging of bets and trying not to upset anyone.
The plot... it was terribly contrived whilst being achingly obvious what was coming. Yes there are some "surprises" but they're even more contrived than most elements of this so I kind of must "meh'ed" out the ending.
The authors recent trend of being extremely cack handed and overt in his sexual politics was here as well. It's offensively bad, I'm not at all interested in his opinions, believe what you want, but when you derail multiple parts of your own story to play gender politics it's cringe inducing.
The fact that multiple popular characters are ignored and not given an ending is laughable. I mean it was never going to cycle through all characters but ignoring series mainstays is poor form.
Him essentially "killing" his main characters off page (they've been dead for books now) and they're just puppets for his Nibs was just baffling. You've been able to tell for aaaages he's lost interest in the series, especially in Bob, but it feels like a huge disservice to the character to do what he did with him.
Finally, his "hedge" ending made no sense, or at least I've no interest in reading between the lines to understand it, that this ending stops the end of the world... it makes no sense by his own logic. I'm sure there is some contrived logic as to why the ending makes sense but from how Bob describes it, it doesn't, it just feels like a fake out.
In general the series meandering through 3 or 4 different "main characters" towards its end. How long it all took. The growing disdain he had for characters he built up, I'd rather he just never bothered finishing the series and abandoned it after he wrote himself into a mess at the end of Delirium Brief where the stakes got too high for his characters to reasonably deal with.
It's went from a series I've forever recommended to people, that I was going to collect in hardback (having read it through in epub) when done to one I'm now going to cast from my mind. Game of Thrones TV series ending killed it.
I've had a feeling for a while the author had lost a handle on the series. When your enemy is literal godlike monsters who will inflict the heat death of the universe upon you, you're limiting yourself. You either keep the story small scale (early in the series) or you make something horribly contrived. Sadly the author went contrived. He lacked the confidence to hit the logical loss button, but also the confidence to kill his characters (more on that later) so you end with a damp squib which felt very much like a hedging of bets and trying not to upset anyone.
The plot... it was terribly contrived whilst being achingly obvious what was coming. Yes there are some "surprises" but they're even more contrived than most elements of this so I kind of must "meh'ed" out the ending.
The authors recent trend of being extremely cack handed and overt in his sexual politics was here as well. It's offensively bad, I'm not at all interested in his opinions, believe what you want, but when you derail multiple parts of your own story to play gender politics it's cringe inducing.
The fact that multiple popular characters are ignored and not given an ending is laughable. I mean it was never going to cycle through all characters but ignoring series mainstays is poor form.
Him essentially "killing" his main characters off page (they've been dead for books now) and they're just puppets for his Nibs was just baffling. You've been able to tell for aaaages he's lost interest in the series, especially in Bob, but it feels like a huge disservice to the character to do what he did with him.
Finally, his "hedge" ending made no sense, or at least I've no interest in reading between the lines to understand it, that this ending stops the end of the world... it makes no sense by his own logic. I'm sure there is some contrived logic as to why the ending makes sense but from how Bob describes it, it doesn't, it just feels like a fake out.
In general the series meandering through 3 or 4 different "main characters" towards its end. How long it all took. The growing disdain he had for characters he built up, I'd rather he just never bothered finishing the series and abandoned it after he wrote himself into a mess at the end of Delirium Brief where the stakes got too high for his characters to reasonably deal with.
It's went from a series I've forever recommended to people, that I was going to collect in hardback (having read it through in epub) when done to one I'm now going to cast from my mind. Game of Thrones TV series ending killed it.
February 2, 2026
The 14th and last book in The Laundry Files. The end of a 25-year run after a short story started it off.
An avatar of an elder god is the Prime Minister of the UK, but Queen Elizabeth is still on the throne (the story is set about ten years ago). Although frail, she is still the technical head of government. This galls the god who is determined to do something about it. Bob Howard and his wife Mo O'Brien are caught up in the machinations.
It's interesting to see how this is an alternate history of the UK. Stross brings in characters like Dr. Phibes, who is a character played by Vincent Price in the movies but is a real person here.
The set piece at the end may have been inspired by Stross watching the funeral of the Queen and the coronation of Charles. It is clear he is not a royalist, but also is a skeptic of British bureaucracy. The battle royale at the end is not a metaphor; it's literally a Battle Royale, with the ultimate British Royal.
In an eerie juxtaposition of events, today I saw the movie KPop Demon Hunters, where the final crowd scene had similar stakes to this one. I won't say more lest I spoil it, but if you've seen the movie you'll know what I mean when you read this book.
An avatar of an elder god is the Prime Minister of the UK, but Queen Elizabeth is still on the throne (the story is set about ten years ago). Although frail, she is still the technical head of government. This galls the god who is determined to do something about it. Bob Howard and his wife Mo O'Brien are caught up in the machinations.
It's interesting to see how this is an alternate history of the UK. Stross brings in characters like Dr. Phibes, who is a character played by Vincent Price in the movies but is a real person here.
The set piece at the end may have been inspired by Stross watching the funeral of the Queen and the coronation of Charles. It is clear he is not a royalist, but also is a skeptic of British bureaucracy. The battle royale at the end is not a metaphor; it's literally a Battle Royale, with the ultimate British Royal.
In an eerie juxtaposition of events, today I saw the movie KPop Demon Hunters, where the final crowd scene had similar stakes to this one. I won't say more lest I spoil it, but if you've seen the movie you'll know what I mean when you read this book.
February 7, 2026
Only because I can’t give it a six
Wonderful conclusion to this series. Well done, Mr. Stross. The Easter eggs have Easter eggs in them. The IT stuff - and I started with punch cards in 1975 - is amazing. The references are hilarious - my father and I loved the two Phibes movies. Or was it ten? I forget. The science is legit. Well, maybe except for the sentient violins. I’m agnostic on that. Great read.
Wonderful conclusion to this series. Well done, Mr. Stross. The Easter eggs have Easter eggs in them. The IT stuff - and I started with punch cards in 1975 - is amazing. The references are hilarious - my father and I loved the two Phibes movies. Or was it ten? I forget. The science is legit. Well, maybe except for the sentient violins. I’m agnostic on that. Great read.
February 1, 2026
More of a 3.5 because Stross had a big plane to land, ending the “Laundry Files” series, in “The Regicide Report” and he gets the plane on the ground. Is it the destination expected? For me, no.
The book is well written and it’s a treat to see Bob and Mo again. There’s a lot of cleverness packed in with some great action sequences. Most of the favorites and least favorite characters are here. I guess as a wrap up….I wanted more.
The book is well written and it’s a treat to see Bob and Mo again. There’s a lot of cleverness packed in with some great action sequences. Most of the favorites and least favorite characters are here. I guess as a wrap up….I wanted more.
February 13, 2026
Didn't care for it much, all the elements were there, but it felt like a corpse of book reanimated to its job, which is explained by the problem the author had with the series which required writing several sidequels about completely different characters.
Two plot points that disappointed is that it was once again confirmed that Laundry is not a big sprawling organization but rather like a dozen people. General inconsistency is sizes bothered me for a while, but that fact that adding a new group in Rhesus Chart meant doubling the head count. Why have a big Mahogany Row when there are like 2 auditors and 3 people in External Assets?
Another is the way Case Nightmare Green is "resolved": feels like a retcon of a non-solution in light of inability to produce satisfying explanation of how to solve a problem, which also contradicts what happened in US mission.
And there were sections of the books like those stupid movie descriptions that felt like the author either padded the word count or wanted to write anything but this book.
Overall I didn't much care to read the last book of Laundry Files because of previous ones about other characters, felt like we know the ending anyway - nothing changes, things are stable, so the process of reading didn't add anything either. Just a fulfillment of a plan for me and for the author.
Two plot points that disappointed is that it was once again confirmed that Laundry is not a big sprawling organization but rather like a dozen people. General inconsistency is sizes bothered me for a while, but that fact that adding a new group in Rhesus Chart meant doubling the head count. Why have a big Mahogany Row when there are like 2 auditors and 3 people in External Assets?
Another is the way Case Nightmare Green is "resolved": feels like a retcon of a non-solution in light of inability to produce satisfying explanation of how to solve a problem, which also contradicts what happened in US mission.
And there were sections of the books like those stupid movie descriptions that felt like the author either padded the word count or wanted to write anything but this book.
Overall I didn't much care to read the last book of Laundry Files because of previous ones about other characters, felt like we know the ending anyway - nothing changes, things are stable, so the process of reading didn't add anything either. Just a fulfillment of a plan for me and for the author.
February 17, 2026
Bob and Mo’s final mission. The last of the Laundry Files. I was really pleased that Stross leaned into the technicalities of how the UK civil service and government works in this one and he satirises the dilemmas of working for a bad boss with glee.
I wasn’t expecting so much of the novel to be fanfic for Dr Phibes but this is nerd work and nerds have to nerd.
The conclusion is as close to the epic Armageddon you could want. The lore of the Laundry and other lore is all on display and as digestible as a thousand miserable souls.
I wasn’t expecting so much of the novel to be fanfic for Dr Phibes but this is nerd work and nerds have to nerd.
The conclusion is as close to the epic Armageddon you could want. The lore of the Laundry and other lore is all on display and as digestible as a thousand miserable souls.
February 23, 2026
Great wrap-up to the series. Really great to see Bob and Mo back again! Loved the Phibes references too.
February 4, 2026
The Laundry Files Ends
Stross has a great deal of fun using horror movies as a plot prop. And he gets full scope to wield his dislike of the whole idea of royalty. In the end “What I can say is that this is how SOE Q-Division ended: not with a bang but a crisis followed by a reorg and too many committee meetings.”
Stross has a great deal of fun using horror movies as a plot prop. And he gets full scope to wield his dislike of the whole idea of royalty. In the end “What I can say is that this is how SOE Q-Division ended: not with a bang but a crisis followed by a reorg and too many committee meetings.”
February 10, 2026
Whew - last Laundry Files book, maybe. I think often when it's clear where the ending of a story goes, sometimes the path to it is less interesting. This story was full of Stross's usual wit and was fun, with bringing up old characters.
February 2, 2026
The Closing chapter on the Laundry Files stands up to the test of time.
Bob starts out giving us an after action report of the final Case of the Laundry Files.
This is the best of the best.
Bob starts out giving us an after action report of the final Case of the Laundry Files.
This is the best of the best.
February 2, 2026
Nice to finally catch up with Bob and his wife. Seems like this will be the last Laundry book though, which is a bit bittersweet. Clearly tries to wrap up as much as possible and de-escalate the whole too many brains/computers problem. New status quo has been achieved.
January 30, 2026
Fantastic Finale
Sad that we’ll never get another book from The Laundry Files, but, as Bob says, “Never say never”.
Got a compulsion to go back to The Atrocity Archives and start again.
Sad that we’ll never get another book from The Laundry Files, but, as Bob says, “Never say never”.
Got a compulsion to go back to The Atrocity Archives and start again.
February 16, 2026
Technically a 4.5, but it's the last book, and I love Bob. So 4.5 for the book, 5 for Bob ♥️
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
My thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this novel about a world where magic, monsters and malignant creatures are real, the government ministry that is in charge of monitoring and dealing with these beings, and what happens when the wheels come off, the government in compromised, and the Elder Gods decide to return.
Growing up I became a big fan of books dealing with monsters, creatures of the night and conspiracies. To this second I am not sure how much I believed about either the Loch Ness Monster or Black Helicopters. I think what I enjoyed was the world building that both Bigfoot and the Kennedy assassination developed to make their truth real. As time has gone on, much of what was feared has come to pass. We live in a surveillance state, our rights are disappearing, and the monsters that we thought bumped in the night, are bumping around our government, scaring many, and creating nightmares that will never go away. Which is why this series seems more real than most modern thrillers. A series about a government agency, working for a creature of evil, carrying out orders uncertain if they are the good people or the baddies, while things get darker and meaner. Sounds like last week. Only these government agents, though less than human in many ways, seem to have kept their humanity. The Regicide Report is the fourteenth entry in the long running series the Laundry Files written by Charles Stross, and is about monarchy, elder gods, immortal murderers, bureaucracy, treason, and working for the darkest of evil, while still having to attend zoom meetings.
The world is a different place. Vampires, elder gods, elves, supervillains, magicians, and bureaucrats walk the Earth, some just trying to get by. Others looking to watch it all burn. Watching these is the Laundry, a group of the British Government tasked to keep an eye on the weird, the strange, the unholy, and well to make a note of it. Things are not going well in England. An elder god has take the seat of Prime Minister and the Laundry has found that instead of fighting the evil, they are now working for it. Bob Howard and Mo O'Brien has seen much, lost much, including their humanity, and are doing their best not to get sucked in or sucked down. Things are not doing well, as clairvoyants have found a threat. An ultimate threat to the monarchy. Someone or something is planning an assassination. One that could change the ruling status of England in many ways. The more Bob and Mo investigate the more threats they find. And many of these threats are coming from inside the house, the House of Lords, and 10 Downing Street.
A series that I have enjoyed, though I seem to keep reading it out of order. Which is great in that Stross is such a good writer one can start anywhere and be caught up quite quickly. Stross has mastered the way of saying what has gone before without it being annoying or obvious, something I wish more books had. The books are funny, with plenty of in-jokes, references and sly asides. I am sure I missed stuff, but I really had a blast reading. Not that this book doesn't have stakes, it does, and could in many ways be an ending to the series, though Stross leaves himself an opening. Reading a book about a dark elder god willing to destroy everything for his own edification hits very close to home. Watching a government agency continuing to do their job, not knowing the stakes, well really speaks to the way the world is. One could say in many ways this is satire, and maybe it is. This is always a really well written story, that once things starts rolling makes it very hard to put down.
I enjoyed this quite a bit. I love the world building and I really enjoyed the relationship between Bob and Mo, who are married, and seem to like each other, without having to be all cloying about it. The story is well written, and fun. Dark, but fun. A really enjoyable series and one worth reading from the beginning. I look forward to reading more by Stross.
Growing up I became a big fan of books dealing with monsters, creatures of the night and conspiracies. To this second I am not sure how much I believed about either the Loch Ness Monster or Black Helicopters. I think what I enjoyed was the world building that both Bigfoot and the Kennedy assassination developed to make their truth real. As time has gone on, much of what was feared has come to pass. We live in a surveillance state, our rights are disappearing, and the monsters that we thought bumped in the night, are bumping around our government, scaring many, and creating nightmares that will never go away. Which is why this series seems more real than most modern thrillers. A series about a government agency, working for a creature of evil, carrying out orders uncertain if they are the good people or the baddies, while things get darker and meaner. Sounds like last week. Only these government agents, though less than human in many ways, seem to have kept their humanity. The Regicide Report is the fourteenth entry in the long running series the Laundry Files written by Charles Stross, and is about monarchy, elder gods, immortal murderers, bureaucracy, treason, and working for the darkest of evil, while still having to attend zoom meetings.
The world is a different place. Vampires, elder gods, elves, supervillains, magicians, and bureaucrats walk the Earth, some just trying to get by. Others looking to watch it all burn. Watching these is the Laundry, a group of the British Government tasked to keep an eye on the weird, the strange, the unholy, and well to make a note of it. Things are not going well in England. An elder god has take the seat of Prime Minister and the Laundry has found that instead of fighting the evil, they are now working for it. Bob Howard and Mo O'Brien has seen much, lost much, including their humanity, and are doing their best not to get sucked in or sucked down. Things are not doing well, as clairvoyants have found a threat. An ultimate threat to the monarchy. Someone or something is planning an assassination. One that could change the ruling status of England in many ways. The more Bob and Mo investigate the more threats they find. And many of these threats are coming from inside the house, the House of Lords, and 10 Downing Street.
A series that I have enjoyed, though I seem to keep reading it out of order. Which is great in that Stross is such a good writer one can start anywhere and be caught up quite quickly. Stross has mastered the way of saying what has gone before without it being annoying or obvious, something I wish more books had. The books are funny, with plenty of in-jokes, references and sly asides. I am sure I missed stuff, but I really had a blast reading. Not that this book doesn't have stakes, it does, and could in many ways be an ending to the series, though Stross leaves himself an opening. Reading a book about a dark elder god willing to destroy everything for his own edification hits very close to home. Watching a government agency continuing to do their job, not knowing the stakes, well really speaks to the way the world is. One could say in many ways this is satire, and maybe it is. This is always a really well written story, that once things starts rolling makes it very hard to put down.
I enjoyed this quite a bit. I love the world building and I really enjoyed the relationship between Bob and Mo, who are married, and seem to like each other, without having to be all cloying about it. The story is well written, and fun. Dark, but fun. A really enjoyable series and one worth reading from the beginning. I look forward to reading more by Stross.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The final book in the Laundry Files and wow does this one go large, with a dramatic conclusion that at times feels less like an end and more a pause.
It is crammed with references to previous books, so much so that at times it seems to struggle with its own history and threatens to topple over with the weight of it. I've only read a couple of the books, enough to get an idea of most of what was going on but this is not friendly to those newer to the series or who might have forgotten details - there are call backs all the way back to the first book, which came out over twenty years ago. That's a lot of lore to remember, and when characters are introduced with little more than a one line 'here's someone you know' and you're left scrabbling for context the book simply assumes you have, that can be a problem. and then there is stuff that is never explained - just what is happening in America right now in this world? I'm sure its explained in a previous book, but I haven't read that so while I know the outcome of a specific thing, I don't know what is going on now.
There was a lot to love about this book despite that however, you just have to go in ideally having read them more recently so you understand all the references for maximum enjoyment.
I really enjoyed all the references to the English political system - although there were moments when reading this I found it almost too tame for the insanity that has beset our country at times. And hey, who hasn't secretly thought one politician or another might actually be some demon/vampire/soulless monster in a skin suit?
I did wonder at times, what side Mo and Bob were on. I think that is part of the point of the book, the fact that the civil service is less a side and more red tape than anything else, designed to drag you down.
Pete is, ironically, the beating heart of the book, the humanity that is missing from some of the other characters. He was in an impossible dilemma, the type that cosmic horror is known for, and you couldn't help but really feel for him throughout the book.
The finale was great, both at the English location and then the Mythos location (kept vague to avoid spoilers.) I've always had a sneaky love for the Elder gods that get top billing in this book. Yes, they have become increasingly well known as the years have gone by, but still respect to him for only name dropping the big guy and not having him show up just for the sake of it.
But what happened after felt almost safe, with character arcs being finished up in a single line or two, hand waved away and at times denied the explanation or conclusion that you do feel you've deserved after the amount of time spent in this world.
All in in all, it was a decent book that delivered in its promise of a regicide report but could have done with a little less history to burden it.
~Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review~
It is crammed with references to previous books, so much so that at times it seems to struggle with its own history and threatens to topple over with the weight of it. I've only read a couple of the books, enough to get an idea of most of what was going on but this is not friendly to those newer to the series or who might have forgotten details - there are call backs all the way back to the first book, which came out over twenty years ago. That's a lot of lore to remember, and when characters are introduced with little more than a one line 'here's someone you know' and you're left scrabbling for context the book simply assumes you have, that can be a problem. and then there is stuff that is never explained - just what is happening in America right now in this world? I'm sure its explained in a previous book, but I haven't read that so while I know the outcome of a specific thing, I don't know what is going on now.
There was a lot to love about this book despite that however, you just have to go in ideally having read them more recently so you understand all the references for maximum enjoyment.
I really enjoyed all the references to the English political system - although there were moments when reading this I found it almost too tame for the insanity that has beset our country at times. And hey, who hasn't secretly thought one politician or another might actually be some demon/vampire/soulless monster in a skin suit?
I did wonder at times, what side Mo and Bob were on. I think that is part of the point of the book, the fact that the civil service is less a side and more red tape than anything else, designed to drag you down.
Pete is, ironically, the beating heart of the book, the humanity that is missing from some of the other characters. He was in an impossible dilemma, the type that cosmic horror is known for, and you couldn't help but really feel for him throughout the book.
The finale was great, both at the English location and then the Mythos location (kept vague to avoid spoilers.) I've always had a sneaky love for the Elder gods that get top billing in this book. Yes, they have become increasingly well known as the years have gone by, but still respect to him for only name dropping the big guy and not having him show up just for the sake of it.
But what happened after felt almost safe, with character arcs being finished up in a single line or two, hand waved away and at times denied the explanation or conclusion that you do feel you've deserved after the amount of time spent in this world.
All in in all, it was a decent book that delivered in its promise of a regicide report but could have done with a little less history to burden it.
~Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review~
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
And so the Laundry Files comes to an end. For the first half dozen or so books this was a favourite series of mine, but along the way something in them seems to have curdled. What were once highly enjoyable occult spy thrillers sank into despair and snark and cynicism. I mean, looking at the state of the world it’s not an unreasonable response, but it’s not what I wanted from them. The previous novel however showed some signs of emerging from this, and being actually, you know, fun, so I was cautiously hopeful for this one. It turned out I was right on both counts. Familiar flaws remain…I’m never sure that Stross really thinks through his plots and doublecrosses and instead just writes up a blizzard to convince us that he knows what is really going on, which works in the moment but when you think back after finishing there are a lot of “hang on…” moments. Another long standing bugbear is that the main way these characters express themselves is by showing off their technical knowledge over and over again, and it gets a bit wearying. This book specifically isn’t helped by a couple of story decisions either. The homage to the Dr Phibes movies is overdone, a nice joke that outstays it’s welcome, and the concept of the big fight at the end is painfully similar (coincidentally, I’m sure) to a recent set of graphic novels which it would be spoilerish to name.
But it’s not all bad! It’s good to have Bob and Mo back at the centre, and the book also draws in other characters from throughout the series which helps cap it off. There are some exciting passages, and it is a pacy read, carried along on waves of enthusiasm and gonzo ideas (and blood, quite a lot of blood as well). To say that I didn’t have fun with it would be a lie, but it is qualified fun. Overall, I’m glad that the Laundry Files pulled themselves out of what looked like a terminal death spiral before the end, but truth be told I’m also glad that they’re over.
But it’s not all bad! It’s good to have Bob and Mo back at the centre, and the book also draws in other characters from throughout the series which helps cap it off. There are some exciting passages, and it is a pacy read, carried along on waves of enthusiasm and gonzo ideas (and blood, quite a lot of blood as well). To say that I didn’t have fun with it would be a lie, but it is qualified fun. Overall, I’m glad that the Laundry Files pulled themselves out of what looked like a terminal death spiral before the end, but truth be told I’m also glad that they’re over.
February 3, 2026
Has it really been 25 years since this series began? Bob and Mo have gone from young, green operatives to middle management folks who very much understand the devil's bargains that must be made to keep the worst from happening. They know that to many, they are the baddies. But they aren't the worst.
This book takes place in an alternate 2015, with a still-living Queen Elizabeth, pre-COVID but post New Management (demonic Elder Beings have really taken over much of the world and things are Bad). There are often no good choices, but the England that Bob and Mo exist in is steered by the Black Pharaoh, who isn't the very scariest of the entities that covertly rule the world, so they end up sticking by Him.
There's a lot going on here. The Queen is a big source of mana because of the adoration of her subjects, and this makes her vulnerable to exploitation. Again, bad things happen, and Bob and Mo's job is just to keep things from becoming even worse. There are nigh-immortal enemies with obscure agendas of their own, a possible mole in the Laundry, and a dog poisoning, among other things.
Sometimes by the end of these books I find that I've been reading them too quickly to really get what's been happening. There's so much going on and so many details that by the end I'm almost relieved to be done, much as I enjoy the conceit of the Laundry. I have a feeling that the author feels the same way as he winds up the series.
This book takes place in an alternate 2015, with a still-living Queen Elizabeth, pre-COVID but post New Management (demonic Elder Beings have really taken over much of the world and things are Bad). There are often no good choices, but the England that Bob and Mo exist in is steered by the Black Pharaoh, who isn't the very scariest of the entities that covertly rule the world, so they end up sticking by Him.
There's a lot going on here. The Queen is a big source of mana because of the adoration of her subjects, and this makes her vulnerable to exploitation. Again, bad things happen, and Bob and Mo's job is just to keep things from becoming even worse. There are nigh-immortal enemies with obscure agendas of their own, a possible mole in the Laundry, and a dog poisoning, among other things.
Sometimes by the end of these books I find that I've been reading them too quickly to really get what's been happening. There's so much going on and so many details that by the end I'm almost relieved to be done, much as I enjoy the conceit of the Laundry. I have a feeling that the author feels the same way as he winds up the series.
February 16, 2026
This one is a tough one to rate, given that it involves the machinations of characters with unfathomed powers in a world we barely can recognize, vying against entities with incomprehensible capabilities and goals. And then tries to wrap this up into an ending we can understand and empathize with.
One of the strengths of this series, however, was that the author was completely unafraid to break the status quo and ratchet things up in book after book, however, and from that point of view, there would be no possibility of wrapping everything up in a pretty bow and providing a happy ending in a world we could comprehend. We've gone too far into Case Nightmare Green for that to be possible. The end thus lacks some impact for that very reason. It is unknown how the future of that world will transpire from here and thus no satisfying denouement.
Did I enjoy the plot of this one? Yes. Was it good getting back into the head of some characters we've been following for decades? Yes. My rating is scored accordingly.
I'm in the midst of any number of series' where once I finish them, the books will be shelved and never looked at again. This is certainly *not* one of those. I will revisit the world of the Laundry Files again, and continue to read any ancillary works that Stross puts out associated with it. Thus my rating here also reflects my thoughts on the series as a whole.
One of the strengths of this series, however, was that the author was completely unafraid to break the status quo and ratchet things up in book after book, however, and from that point of view, there would be no possibility of wrapping everything up in a pretty bow and providing a happy ending in a world we could comprehend. We've gone too far into Case Nightmare Green for that to be possible. The end thus lacks some impact for that very reason. It is unknown how the future of that world will transpire from here and thus no satisfying denouement.
Did I enjoy the plot of this one? Yes. Was it good getting back into the head of some characters we've been following for decades? Yes. My rating is scored accordingly.
I'm in the midst of any number of series' where once I finish them, the books will be shelved and never looked at again. This is certainly *not* one of those. I will revisit the world of the Laundry Files again, and continue to read any ancillary works that Stross puts out associated with it. Thus my rating here also reflects my thoughts on the series as a whole.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
You have to be mad to enjoy the Laundry files. I’m definitely mad. But at least as far as I know I’ve not got any brain or soul eating entities inside me making me do so. But then again, how would I even know if that is true or not.
Anyway.
Another deep, chaotic, dive into the world of Bob, Mo and the other characters of the Laundry files. This is book 14 (the author suggests the last in the series). Read the others in order if you want to know how we got here and make - some - sense of what’s going on.
Otherwise just dive right in * and enjoy the mayhem cluster() bomb that is released in these, probably fictional, pages of the behind the scenes world of Parliament, the Civil Service and Royalty, nee the Queen. No wonder the world, and in particular, the British parliamentary system is the way it currently is.
This is a report that is sure to be recalled and buried deep in red tape as soon as it’s released. So jump in really quickly and get your copy before that happens!
Footnote*: Please be advised to put on your gold-plated demon/space entity/God protecting armour before you do, dive in. The consequences of NOT following this instruction is entirely at the risk of any (soon to be not) human reader.
You have been warned. Enjoy the ride.
Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.
Anyway.
Another deep, chaotic, dive into the world of Bob, Mo and the other characters of the Laundry files. This is book 14 (the author suggests the last in the series). Read the others in order if you want to know how we got here and make - some - sense of what’s going on.
Otherwise just dive right in * and enjoy the mayhem cluster() bomb that is released in these, probably fictional, pages of the behind the scenes world of Parliament, the Civil Service and Royalty, nee the Queen. No wonder the world, and in particular, the British parliamentary system is the way it currently is.
This is a report that is sure to be recalled and buried deep in red tape as soon as it’s released. So jump in really quickly and get your copy before that happens!
Footnote*: Please be advised to put on your gold-plated demon/space entity/God protecting armour before you do, dive in. The consequences of NOT following this instruction is entirely at the risk of any (soon to be not) human reader.
You have been warned. Enjoy the ride.
Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.
February 11, 2026
A disappointing finale to a beloved series, more of an obligatory ending than an inspired tale. Both main characters have a total lack of agency, and are completely at the whim of the greater forces acting around them... which might be realistic, but isn't fun to read? Bob and Mo spend a majority of the book dealing with govt bureaucracy, with no real motivation other than 'eh, it's my assignment, so I'll work on it'. Time passes in chunks of days or weeks because our main characters... aren't really doing much. Instead of learning information through investigation, or adventure, Bob and Mo get info by... watching four biographical movies on their couch. The ending picks up the pace a bit, at least? But the rules around their magic obedience oath of office are a bit contradictory, and the whole ending feels very hand-wavy. Some fun references. Overall, I feel like I would have been ok if the series had ended at book 12 or 13.
February 11, 2026
The final (for now) Laundry book.
Any book series that manages to get 4 or 5 deep is impressive, demanding an exhausting supply of creative energy from the author and a continuous appetite from the audience to match the output. Getting to 14 published books is a testament to the endless creativity of Stross within (the relatively narrow) confines of the Laundry framework.
The narrative arc that was planted, watered, nurtured, and cared for over 22 years has finally reached a crescendo and, while there are chinks in the narrative that might be exploited for new stories, it feels that we have a conclusion for the stories that have taken Bob Howard from fixing IT problems with his trusty PDA to (basically) one of the top level (monster) bosses of the dungeon.
Definitely don't start here tho', as it will all be bamboozling. I envy you if you've not yet started your journey with Bob, Pinky, Brains, Mo, Angleton, Iris and all the ensemble cast of characters rotating around the British equivalent of the Ministry of Magic (this, and many other tropes are deftly and wittily handled). Get on the fun train and enjoy the ride!
Any book series that manages to get 4 or 5 deep is impressive, demanding an exhausting supply of creative energy from the author and a continuous appetite from the audience to match the output. Getting to 14 published books is a testament to the endless creativity of Stross within (the relatively narrow) confines of the Laundry framework.
The narrative arc that was planted, watered, nurtured, and cared for over 22 years has finally reached a crescendo and, while there are chinks in the narrative that might be exploited for new stories, it feels that we have a conclusion for the stories that have taken Bob Howard from fixing IT problems with his trusty PDA to (basically) one of the top level (monster) bosses of the dungeon.
Definitely don't start here tho', as it will all be bamboozling. I envy you if you've not yet started your journey with Bob, Pinky, Brains, Mo, Angleton, Iris and all the ensemble cast of characters rotating around the British equivalent of the Ministry of Magic (this, and many other tropes are deftly and wittily handled). Get on the fun train and enjoy the ride!
February 26, 2026
I give Strauss credit for finishing the series (unlike some, ahem!) when he’d clearly grown tired of it. He’d written himself into corner by making his main characters and villains overpowered. Also his cynicism and despair over actual world events seemingly took the fun out of writing about a world-ending apocalypse; in his mind it’s currently happening. This book wraps up the series, but in a lifeless way, and could have used some editing. When it wasn’t explaining the plot over & over, it was off on some strange tangents, like describing in detail cult classic movies that had no bearing on events in the book. Although I did enjoy the deep dive into the British system of government.
The book had some interesting things to say about the banality of evil and how humans will adapt to every situation, but it was buried under a lot of droning bureaucratic talk and a very pat ending
The book had some interesting things to say about the banality of evil and how humans will adapt to every situation, but it was buried under a lot of droning bureaucratic talk and a very pat ending
February 26, 2026
So the 15th and final-ish book in The Laundry Files series of novels which began in 2004 with The Atrocity Archives and ends with The Regicide Report. If you have read the other 14 novels I think you will find this one an as wonderful/horrorful/aweful as the earlier works, with the benefit of well-developed cast of characters who we have grown to love even if they are, as remarked in the story, now more monstrous than human. I enjoyed the called backs to earlier characters such as the British Constable who Bob Howard got trapped in a broom closet surrounded by zombies. The books like most of these appeals to a certain type of nerd, like me. If you read the phrase 'Truck-kun could banish him to Isekai heaven…" and know what this means and if your taste runs to the trashtastic 1970s movies The Abominable Dr. Phibes and sequel then you will get the most out of this final outing. All in all an excellent conclusion CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN it could only ever end one way in someone "work of history assembled from firsthand accounts".
January 29, 2026
As a fan of Charles Stross’s Laundry Files series, I was delighted with “The Regicide Report”, the latest book in the series. This incredibly humorous series chronicles the civil servants at a secret agency in London that protects humanity from Lovecraftian Eldritch horrors. Starting with the very first page, I was pleased that this book was written as Bob Howard’s diary, complete with the Bob’s dry and totally irreverent humor as he, his wife, and their coworkers do their very best to save humanity, even though their own humanity is under question. First timers can quickly come up to speed as the first chapter or two recaps that which must be known. Sounds like a dry beginning? No way! Even the intro is amusing and interesting enough to pull jaded old-timers deep into the flow. After all, this is Bob!
I am very thankful to Tor Books and Charles Stross for kindly providing an electronic review copy of this wonderful work.
I am very thankful to Tor Books and Charles Stross for kindly providing an electronic review copy of this wonderful work.
January 29, 2026
Another good entry in the series of Laundry novels. The Acknowledgements, however, seem to imply this is the last which would be sad.
A good amount of cultural and technological winks which are fun. Some of the “humor” grated on me a little.
The weak point in this novel as with a few of the previous ones is the depiction of battle scenes, or what might be called the thriller elements. Although they read well enough and are understandable, they just do not give the frisson that a really well written example gives. Perhaps it is my inability to suspend disbelief in the fact that the major character(s) might die; the same issue I have with James Bond novels and films. Or it could be that in novels about secretive organizations what I am really looking for is exquisite tangles of interwoven cross and double-cross with plans within plans rather than extremely large shoot-them-ups with massive collateral deaths and damage.
A good amount of cultural and technological winks which are fun. Some of the “humor” grated on me a little.
The weak point in this novel as with a few of the previous ones is the depiction of battle scenes, or what might be called the thriller elements. Although they read well enough and are understandable, they just do not give the frisson that a really well written example gives. Perhaps it is my inability to suspend disbelief in the fact that the major character(s) might die; the same issue I have with James Bond novels and films. Or it could be that in novels about secretive organizations what I am really looking for is exquisite tangles of interwoven cross and double-cross with plans within plans rather than extremely large shoot-them-ups with massive collateral deaths and damage.
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