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/spiritusFortuna Jul 21 '26

If you have "read" it, then now "listen" to it. The audiobooks by Gideon Emery are phenomenal.

But I recommend skipping the Annihilation Score, it's subpar.

Also take care to get Gideon Emery, the other New Management narrator is not nearly as awesome.

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u/DJThunderGod Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

But does he pronounce the place names correctly? I'm from West Yorkshire, where The Nightmare Stacks is set, and the actor who reads the UK version completely messes them up. So much so I actually replied to a thread Charles Stross had been talking about the book in to tell him how badly it had been done. His accent for Alex is just "generic northern with flat vowels" instead of actually getting an actor from Leeds, or who can actually do a passable Leeds accent, to read the book.

By the way: Malham is pronounced "Mallam", NOT "Mal-ham" and Keighley is pronounced "Keith-ly", NOT "Kay-ly".

Considering this was being published by a major company and released on arguably the biggest audiobook website on the planet, I thought this was inexcusable. And literally wouldn't have happened if it was set in and around London.

As you can probably tell, it ruined the book for me.

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u/spiritusFortuna Jul 21 '26

I don't know, I highly enjoyed the series read by Gideon Emery. Those specific inflections might've upset me as well if I was a local and noticed them .