From: bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com   
      
   Hi fellow denizens,   
   	   
   	"A Conventional Boy" is the first optimistic story I have read in the   
   Laundry Files. It is the first story in the Volume of the same name.   
   	The Boy is Derek Rielly who has been imprisoned since he   
   was 14 in Sunshine Camp which is about 40 years away from   
   society.  The Laundry thought he was summing demons and   
   other aspects of the Eldritch when he was only running a Dungeon   
   and Dragons game for 3 friends.  They were all taken into but   
   because of his high thaumaturgic index they decided to keep   
   Derek in Camp Sunshine which is warded in a bubble of an alternate   
   Universe.  The others got new id. because a boating accident had   
   been arranged to account for their disappearances.  Derek has   
   been a trustee working at producing newsletters for the morale of   
   Camp Sunshine(where it is generally raining). He learns that the   
   buildings of Sunshine are to be torn down and that he and other   
   trustees will be accommodate nearby while others will be shipped   
   to other location and also that there will be a gamers convention   
   not too far away... He already has a perfect escape plan and it   
   works.  Also he has learned that the threats the Laundry protects   
   from are real from the initiates of various cults, like the Cult   
   of the Black Pharaoh or the Eater of Souls or the Mute Poet who   
   sits at the knee of the Smoking Mirror...   
   	Advise reading ASAP!   
      
   	  It is a slim volume with a additional story in first person   
   from Bob Howard. the protagonist of so-many Laundry Files stories and   
   books.  Mr.Kringle from forecasting has told the Christmas Eve staff that   
   this will be the last Christmas Party the Laundry will ever host.   
   	Will they be forced to non-organized religion or ???   
      
   	This volume of two stories and a lot of afterword which I have   
   yet to peruse is from Tor Publishing 211 pages © in 2024 at $28.99 US.   
   and    
      
   	bliss   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)