The Labyrinth Index

Will review at www.fantasyliterature.com.

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I have always been a big fan of Charles Stross's Laundry series. The combination of spy tropes/Human Resources bureaucracy/IT Nerdism/Occult tropes blended with droll British humor means that when I pick up the next volume in the series, I know I'm guaranteed a good time.

The Labyrinth Index is no exception.

An interesting feature of the Labyrinth Index is where we are in the development of Stross's universe. We started the series with the premise that (a) occult powers exist, (b) computers were able to invoke those powers, and (c) the governments of the world were bottling up this problem. The assumed world of the series was that occult entities and magic were part of the Secret Histories that explain the world.

In this book, we have manifestly moved into a parallel universe. At the close of the last installment, the British government had surrended to Nyarlhoteph, the Black Pharoah, in the guise of a very charismatic Member of Parliament. In the book before that, England had been invaded by an Elven army. In this book, all of America has forgotten the existence of the Presidency.

We are clearly in a parallel universe, at this point.

The narrator of this book is Mhari Murphy, who we first met in the Rhesus Chart when she was transformed into a vampire, or “PHANG,” and brought into the Laundry as an employee with disabilities. Other PHANG's have played important roles in previous books. In this book, Murphy is tasked by the PM with leading an SOE task force to locate the missing President, while avoiding the American “Nazguls”, agents of the American Operational Phenomenology Agence, who have decided to throw their lot in with Cthulhu. Since the Nazgul's plot involves dismantling the Earth, the new British management is very concerned.

Bob makes a cameo in this novel, but the story runs quite well without Bob. As the Eater of Souls, we have to question whether Bob can bring the fish out of water element that makes these stories work. The common theme of most of these books is that the main characters are amateurs and know that they are in over their heads. I'm not sure that Bob can pull that off anymore.

Readers should embrace the evolution of the series. Each of the stories has worked with a variety of genres, from James Bond to LeCarre to Superheroes to horror. Stross has been a virtuoso in not replowing the same ground and keeping his series alive.

The series is fun. Check it out, but remember to start from the beginning.

This review is based on an ARC given to me for free by the publisher via Netgalley. This does not in any way affect my review. This book is slated for release on October 30, 2018.

...there are still aspects of this book that readers will find enjoyable ??? in particular, the characters. I am glad that the author has started writing about the female characters of his series, and was especially pleased with his portrayal of Mo O???Brien in The Annihilation Score. When I found out that The Labyrinth Index would be narrated by Mhari, I was doubly excited because it would be a chance for readers to really get to know her, as opposed to knowing about her from Bob and Mo who are, it must be admitted, not exactly unbiased when it comes to their opinions about her. The Labyrinth Index reveals that, while there is a reason Bob and Mhari did not get along, and why Mo???s reservations about her are somewhat justified, there is more to her than what Bob and Mo have said about her. I would not say that she is a very good person, but she is an interesting character, flawed and broken but ??? and this is the important bit ??? capable of overcoming her weaknesses for the greater good (and the survival of herself and those she values, of course). I do not like her as much as I like Mo, but at the very least she is interesting and entirely human.