The Laundry Series: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|"Magic is applied mathematics. The many-angled ones live at the bottom of the Mandelbrot set. Demonology is right after debugging in the dictionary."|'''Bob Howard''', in ''PIMPF''}}
A series of [[Cosmic Horror Story]] novels and novellas by author [[Charles Stross]]. According to [[Word of God]], the series originated with his realization that Lovecraftian horror and the [[Cold War]] ''are actually pretty darn similar'', and if there really ''were'' Cthuloid horror lurking around the edges of reality, the government ''would'' get involved, and the departments they'd set up to do so would look very much like [[Trenchcoat Brigade|Stale Beer flavour]] [[Spy Fiction]].
The main protagonist, Bob Howard, is a [[Desk Jockey]] who was forcibly recruited into [[The Men in Black|the Laundry]] after his graduate computer science work nearly summoned Nyarlathotep. Now he's charged with protecting the Earth from incursions by the many-angled ones, who can be summoned all too easily with modern computer technology. Most of the job is attending meetings and filling out paperwork; but every so often there's a major incident that results in Laundry agents trying to fight off Cthulhu and his cronies with their palm pilots, wards and the occasional briefcase nuke, while Bob has the misfortune to land right in the middle of it.
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The series consists of both novels and short stories:
* ''The Atrocity Archive''
* "The Concrete Jungle" (published together with ''Archive'' as ''Archives'', and [https://web.archive.org/web/20090529061309/http://www.goldengryphon.com/Stross-Concrete.html available online])
* ''The Jennifer Morgue''
* "Pimpf" (included in ''Morgue'')
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* ''The Apocalypse Codex'' (July 2012 release)
A [[Tabletop RPG]] adaptation has been published, using the [[Universal System|Basic Roleplaying]] game system -- the very same system used by ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]''.
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** It has a sticker on the back that reads "[[Shout-Out|THIS MACHINE KILLS]] DEMONS".
** They'd like to make more like it, but rules are rules, and "just owning the necessary supplies probably puts you in breach of the Human Tissues Act of 2004, not to mention a raft of other legislation." {{spoiler|In fact, Mo tries to go out of her way to prove to her superiors that CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN won't require the production of more violins.}}
* [[Apocalypse How]]:
** The Infovore is a high Class X-5, failing to enter Class Z primarily due to the difficulties inherent in consuming itself.
** CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN {{spoiler|could be anywhere between a high Class 1 and a Class X-4, depending on how nasty what comes through turns out to be.}}
* [[Asshole Victim]]: {{spoiler|Harriet and Bridget, at the very least.}} If you wind up on Angleton's desk, chances are you deserved it.
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** [[It Got Worse|Worse yet]], in about a decade there is supposed to be a period when just about ''anything'' [[Cosmic Horror Story|can walk right in]] [[The End of the World as We Know It|to our universe]] as long as people believe in it. Like, say, ''high-school witchcraft clubs''. {{spoiler|Worse worse yet, the latest novel suggests that this period has already begun.}}
** ''Overtime'' shows exactly how this sort of thing can and will happen. {{spoiler|Belief in Santa Claus allows a cosmic horror that Bob snarkily names "The Bringer of Gifts" to enter the world at the focus of greatest belief in foreign-reality entities: The Laundry. Bob has to "complete the ritual" by mimicking the usual Santa Claus traditions; snack and milk in exchange for a gift and then leaving. If he failed to get the critter it's snacks in time, the entity would be no longer bound to obey the ritual and can do as it pleases. Which does not involve leaving or not eating Bob.}}
* [[Colonel Badass]]: Captain Alan Barnes of the Artists' Rifles.
* [[Cool Car]]: [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] in ''The Jennifer Morgue'', where Bob is stuck with a Smart car. He's not very happy about this, mainly because he has to drive down the Autobahn to a conference and keeps getting blitzed by Audis. On the other hand, once Pinky and Brains jam the obligatory load of James Bond-esque gadgets in it...
** While not exactly a car, the [[wikipedia:SdKfz 2|Kettenkrad]] is cool enough to be salvaged from a bleak, airless alternate dimension where Axis has won WWII (And promptly caused an apocalypse), and lovingly restored by Pinky and Brains to working condition.
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* [[Demonic Possession]]: A common plot element. In particular, a botched summoning at the climax of ''The Fuller Memorandum'' causes {{spoiler|Bob to get possessed by ''himself''.}}
* [[Depleted Phlebotinum Shells]]: standard ammunition for the Laundry takes the form of "banishment rounds"--silver-plated bullets with spells engraved onto them in 90-nanometer scale. Takes care of certain nasties being [[Immune to Bullets]] very nicely, and it still works on other targets as well.
* [[
** [[Justified Trope]]: Angleton [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|isn't stupid]], and there's a perfectly good reason why he uses a machine so outdated that it shouldn't ''exist'': there's this procedure called [[wikipedia:Van Eck phreaking|Van Eck phreaking]] that you can use to eavesdrop in a CRT or LCD monitor and gain access to classified information. The memex uses microfiche readers, and is not vulnerable to this method. It also cleanly averts [[Everything Is Online]] and the myriad of Laundry network problems that Bob always complains about.
* [[Disaster Dominoes]]: Bob notes early in ''Memorandum'' that no disaster is a single event; instead, they're the result of a whole chain of small missteps that all add up in a spectacularly wrong fashion. This comes back as a [[Brick Joke]] {{spoiler|when Iris and the rest of the Brotherhood of the Black Pharoah try to sacrifice him to summon up the Eater of Souls. Unfortunately for them, they've made a chain of missteps and misunderstandings: nothing disastrous individually, but ''in toto...''}}
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* [[Everything Sensor]]: Bob's palmtop.
* [[The Fettered]]: {{spoiler|Angleton}}
* [[Fish People]]: {{smallcaps|Blue Hades}} are an extremely advanced species, living on and below the deep sea floor, that have been around for millions of years. The various occult spy agencies stay in semiregular contact with them via [[Half-Human Hybrid]] go-betweens. To their credit, they aren't hostile towards humanity, which is just as well considering that they could wipe out much of us surface-dwellers via volcanoes and tsunamis. Angleton speculates that they have even more advanced weapons that humans cannot comprehend, comparing it to a soldier pointing a bayonet-tipped assault rifle towards a headhunter (who would only see a [[Blade on a Stick]].)
* [[For the Evulz]]: Not all of the [[Eldritch Abomination|eldritch abominations]] in the series, are driven by simple [[Horror Hunger]]. And this will be really ''unfortunate'' for humanity if one of them breaks into out universe. Cultists of the Black Pharaoh have shades of this as well.
* [[Gambit Pileup]]: The Jennifer Morgue -- Billington, the Black Chamber and the Laundry are all counting on each others plotting to achieve their own goals.
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* [[Geometric Magic]]: all magic in this series is based on "Dho-Nha" curves, easily derived by proving Turing's last theorem. These curves amplify through space-time, tearing through reality and causing magic to happen.
* [[Ghostapo]]: ''The Atrocity Archives'' deals with the consequences of Nazi attempts to harness an [[Eldritch Abomination]] ...[[Blood Magic|via the Holocaust]].
* [[Glowing Eyelights of
* [[Godzilla Threshold]]: "The Concrete Jungle" shows that SCORPION STARE is supposed to be {{spoiler|fed over every CCTV camera in Britain, regardless of the potential body count}} when CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN comes about.
** Angleton mentions in ''The Jennifer Morgue'' that one of the support vessels for the operation, open for a "direct line of credit", is ''[[Ultimate Defence of the Realm|HMS Vanguard.]]'' Considering that the Blofeldian supervillain {{spoiler|wants to resurrect an ancient Cthonian war god}}, having a sub full of ICBMs on standby suddenly looks like a reasonable precaution.
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* [[Horror Hunger]]: Why most of the [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] appearing in the series are [[To Serve Man|interested in humanity]]. Lots of them feed by increasing entropy (including destruction of information), so killing intelligent beings and (for more powerful ones) sucking out their souls gives them excellent nutrition.
* [[Humanoid Abomination]]: {{spoiler|Angleton.}}
* [[Humans Are Special]]: Unfortunately, only in terms of danger the humanity unwittingly poses to itself, the Earth and the Universe. Other races don't seem to have quite the same potential for summoning malevolent soul-sucking [[Physical God|Physical Gods]] by accident or stupidity, as evidenced by the world not being reduced to a toy of said gods yet.
* [[If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten]]: If you're really a [[Humanoid Abomination]], eat this baby. {{spoiler|Bob manages to pass as an Eater of Souls.}}
* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: The cultists in ''The Fuller Memorandum''. Nom nom nom!
* [[Incompetence, Inc.]]: The Laundry finds it easiest to deal with people who can't be let go by simply giving them a pointless paper-pushing job until they can retire with a pension. It's cheaper in some ways, and it avoids a ''lot'' of nasty legal and PR issues.
* [[Instrument of Murder]]: ''The Jennifer Morgue'' plays on this; Bob's girlfriend, Mo, carries a Zann-model violin that she wields like a weapon. In an amusing [[Shout-Out]] to Woody Guthrie, the violin has "THIS MACHINE KILLS DEMONS" written on it.
* [[Invoked Trope]]: The destiny trap in ''The Jennifer Morgue''.
* [[It Came From the Fridge]]: [[Noodle Incident|the reason temporal multiplexers are no longer allowed in the Howard residence.]] Cricket bats are involved.
* [[It Got Worse]]: ''The Fuller Memorandum'' has this in spades. It starts with an utterly bleak prologue, then lightens a bit in the first chapter, but things go rapidly downhill from there. ({{spoiler|That said, the ending turns out to be not quite as bleak as the prologue implied.}})
* [[Killed to Uphold the Masquerade]]: Deconstructed; the predecessors to the Laundry did this to Alan Turing. Since he was, you know, Alan Turing, this merely meant that they lost a potentially really useful resource when they could have achieved the same basic effect ''and'' made use of his skills and intelligence by simply drafting him into the service and making him sign the Official Secrets Act. After kicking themselves thoroughly, the Laundry went on to make averting this a matter of policy.
* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Compared to Stross's two earlier [[Cosmic Horror]] [[Cold War]] short stories "A Colder War" and "Missile Gap", in which {{spoiler|humanity is brought to extinction by an all-out war and in one case, the remnants escape only to die of cold and starvation in an alternate dimension}}, the Laundryverse is downright optimistic about humanity's chances.
* [[Lovecraft Lite]]: For the most part, as long as CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN isn't involved.
* [[Mad Lib Thriller Title]]: All three of the novels.
* [[The Magic Comes Back]]: {{spoiler|CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN}}.
* [[Magic From Technology]]: oh ''yes''.
* [[The Men in Black]]: Most major powers in the setting maintain their own occult intelligence services. So far, we've seen the Laundry for the British, the Black Chamber for America, the Faust Force for Germany, and the Thirteenth Directorate for Russia.
* [[The Mole]]: {{spoiler|Iris Carpenter}} in ''The Fuller Memorandum''.
* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Ramona Random in ''The Jennifer Morgue''.
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* [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]]: Averted. When Dr. Kringle prophesies that there will be no Christmas party next year, everyone assumes that it's because the Laundry will be overrun by gibbering squamous horrors by then. When Bob asks if they couldn't avert that by just canceling the party themselves, Andy derides the idea as ridiculous.
* [[Senseless Violins]]: Mo's ''actual'' violin in ''The Jennifer Morgue'' is a [[Double Subversion]] into necromantic [[Musical Assassin]] territory.
* [[Shout-Out]]: ''Lots'', ranging from [[H.P. Lovecraft]] to ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]''. ''The Jennifer Morgue'' is a [[Whole-Plot Reference]] to [[James Bond]].
** Bob Howard, named after [[Robert E. Howard]], collaborator and friend of [[H.P. Lovecraft]] and [[Clark Ashton Smith]].
*** Bob also has a pair of middle names, Oliver & Francis, making his initials [[Bastard Operator From Hell|BOFH]].
** In ''The Fuller Memorandum'', known [[Discworld]] fan Stross equips Bob with a thaumometer.
*** He already had one on his palmtop in ''The Atrocity Archives'', and there's another joke there about being locked in the library by an orangutan if Mo stayed too late.
*** Dungeon Dimensions also are mentioned.
** ''Pimpf'' features a reference to Delta Green.
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* [[Stealth Pun]]: Bob is eventually revealed to have the middle names Oliver Francis, at the same time as he is reluctantly given an apprentice; Peter-Fred Young. So that's [[Bastard Operator From Hell|BOFH]] and PFY...
* [[Succubus]]: The demon riding Ramona Random.
* [[Sunglasses
* [[Taken for Granite]]: The basilisk effect, which converts carbon to silicon via spooky observer-effect magic. Then blows it apart thanks to the wildly unstable atomic configurations that result. SCORPION STARE is the result of the Laundry producing a chip that can duplicate the effect with a camera, allowing its use as a weapon. Any camera with the chip can be activated through an Internet connection, and this includes just about [[Paranoia Fuel|every CCTV, webcam, and digital camera in Great Britain.]] And you know those DRM chips Hollywood wants installed in all new cameras? Guess what those are.
* [[Theory of Narrative Causality]]: Powers Billington's Hero-trap geas. He casts himself as the villain in a James Bond plot, limiting his opposition to one hero archetype, and at the critical moment plans to destroy the geas, leaving himself ascendant and unopposed. {{spoiler|Of course, that would only work if he captured the true Bond figure, instead of the designated [[Bond Girl|love interest]] -- at which time, [[Wrong Genre Savvy|the plot becomes one of the variations.]]}}
** He also failed to consider {{spoiler|that [[Bond Villain Stupidity]] inflicted on him by the geas will also influence his attempts to shut down the geas.}}
* [[This Page Will Self-Destruct]]: happens to Bob's Powerpoint briefing in ''The Jennifer Morgue'' when he takes too long and doesn't get to finish it. Angleton is less than pleased, and resorts to sending him future briefings in his dreams.
* [[Those Wacky Nazis|Those Really Messed Up Nazis]]: Creators of the titular Atrocity Archives.
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Fred the Accountant.
* [[Took a Level
* [[Trauma Conga Line]]: ''The Fuller Memorandum'' is a type E, made clear from the onset (in the prologue). (Warning: major plot spoilers ahead, obviously). In order, {{spoiler|Bob performs an exorcism that goes bad and ends up killing a civilian. The next day, Mo gets an even more traumatizing job and returns on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Then Bob gets attacked by a zombie, shot, attacked by Cthulhu cultists and narrowly escapes, his office is broken in, he gets an internal investigation set on him, gets suspended, attacked by the cultists again, kidnapped, gets part of his right arm carved up ''and eaten'' while he's fully conscious, and is very nearly possessed by the [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Eater of Souls]]. The latter ritual involving, among other things, the cultists killing a baby and making Bob drink its blood.}} Mind that the whole ordeal happens within a two-week period. At the end of it, {{spoiler|Bob is a wreck both physically and psychically, as alluded to by both the prologue and epilogue. Though ''Overtime'' suggests that he does recover eventually.}}
* [[Tuckerization]]: Dr Mike Ford, the Laundry researcher with the implausible eyebrows who appears in ''The Fuller Memorandum'', is a tuckerization of author and fan personality [[John M. Ford]], to whom the novel is dedicated.
* [[Ultimate Job Security]]: Everyone in the Laundry has it. They can get themselves killed through treason, failed coups or their own innocent stupidity, but no one is ever fired. This is because Laundry policy is to avert [[Killed to Uphold the Masquerade]] and [[Revealing Coverup]]. To keep people quiet, in most cases they are given jobs in the Laundry (and [[Mind Control]] to make them incapable of discussing it with people without the proper clearance).
* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: For one thing, his name isn't "Bob Howard", for [[I Know Your True Name]] reasons. Also, the characters sound slightly different when he's narrating in first person compared to the independent/"reconstruction"/speculation third-person bits.
** Details of Bob's past, like what exactly disaster he almost caused unwittingly before The Laundry found him also may vary.
* [[Vast Bureaucracy]]: The Laundry. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in-story because the Laundry has a policy of offering everyone who [[He Knows Too Much|knows too much]] a job (killing them is too conspicuous and messy). As a result, they're completely overstaffed by incompetent (or at least untrained) drones with [[Ultimate Job Security]]. All the bureaucracy is just a way of keeping them busy.
** Too many are uninformed of what the Laundry does beyond the tiny piece they tripped over, and others are career-minded assholes that are waging office warfare over the more senior positions. "Office warfare" is not always a metaphor, either.
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[[Category:Horror Literature]]
[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]
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