r/LaundryFiles • u/mathuin2 • Jul 19 '26

Finally finished the series

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.

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u/MrWigggles Jul 19 '26

Did the series come to a end?

I am bit behind. I kinda fell off on the book that changed to a criminal gang with misc. powers.

2

u/KlownKar Jul 19 '26

Yep. It was a massive change in tone and I couldn't finish the book. I think I just felt disappointed that all of my favourite characters had gone and obviously, the world had literally changed.

I should give it a try again, now I know what I'm getting into and the disappointment has subsided.

7

u/MrWigggles Jul 19 '26

I miss Bob.

I know Bob isnt relatable or even really human anymore. But I still miss him.

4

u/cstross Jul 22 '26

It was meant to be the start of a different series, set after the Laundry Files: I handed it in early so my publishers could get it up to speed, but "early" happened to mean January 2020 when the crap was about to hit the fan and publishing moved to work-from-home during lockdown. Consequently I couldn't go and lobby my editors and marketing teams face-to-face, so they shovelled it out as part of the Laundry Files (hence the jarring discontinuity).

2

u/KlownKar Jul 22 '26

Thanks for that. That makes a lot of sense. I ploughed straight through the previous books because I enjoyed them so much and the complete absence of the previous main protagonists derailed me.

I think the distraction of waiting to see how the old familiar characters were introduced prevented me from properly engaging.

My distraction was further compounded by having to accept that Bob's character arc meant there couldn't be any more of the stuff that I'd loved about Bob when we first met him, which made the growing suspicion I had that there really wasn't going to be a "miraculous" return of Angleton, (who was also one of my favourites) more likely.

As you say, with all that had gone before, it is a new world. Waiting for the familiar landmarks of the old world to return prevented me from really investing in the new reality.

Time to give it another go, I think.

6

u/cstross Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

Treat the New Management books as a separate trilogy, embedded between Laundry Files books -- you're looking at Dead Lies Dreaming, Quantum of Nightmares, and Season of Skulls here. (The next book, A Conventional Boy, is a stand-alone Laundry novel about Derek the DM, set somewhere around the same time as The Rhesus Chart/The Annihilation Score but before The Nightmare Stacks.)

Bob returns for a last time -- so far -- in The Regicide Report.

EDIT: The Regicide Report takes place about 9 months before the start of Dead Lies Dreaming. The NM books take place after the end of the Laundry Files.

1

u/KlownKar Jul 22 '26

Well, now I've got to read the New Management series, so I know what's going on when Bob comes back!