From: bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com
On 1/28/26 22:25, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
> 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 ???
Well the prediction is a red herring but Bob saves the day.
>
> 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
>
There is a second Bob Howard story included and is is titled Down on
the Farm
about Bob's visit to St.Hilda's Lunatical Asylum where the people driven
mad or somewhat mad by their work in the Laundry are held.
The Afterword is quite readable. It discusses Dungeons and Dragons
and the ridiculous outcry that was made over the young people playing this
game back in the day, witch-hunters and other madness.
Altogether and despite what we know happens to the Laundry universe it is
quite an optimistic collection.
bliss
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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