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The Labyrinth Index

Laundry Files, Book 9

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The Labyrinth Index

By: Charles Stross
Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard
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Britain is under New Management. The disbanding of the Laundry - the British espionage agency that deals with supernatural threats - has culminated in the unthinkable: an elder god in residence in 10 Downing Street.

But in true 'the enemy of my enemy' fashion, Mhari Murphy finds herself working with His Excellency Nylarlathotep on foreign policy - there are worse things, it seems, than an elder god in power, and they lie in deepest, darkest America.

A thousand-mile-wide storm system has blanketed the Midwest, and the president is nowhere to be found. Mhari must lead a task force of disgraced Laundry personnel into the storm front to discover the truth. But working for an elder god is never easy, and as the stakes rise, Mhari will soon question exactly where her loyalties really lie.

2019, Hugo Award for Best Series, Short-listed

©2018 Charles Stross Adventure Science Fiction Fiction Scary
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Critic reviews

Brilliantly disturbing and funny at the same time (Ben Aaronovitch, author of RIVERS OF LONDON)
Charles Stross owns this field, and his vast, cool intellect has launched yet another mad, sly entertainment that will strangle the hell out of anything else on offer right now (Warren Ellis, author of Transmetropolitan)
Stross at the top of his game - which is to say, few do it better (KIRKUS)
Alternately chilling and hilarious (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY)
Ferociously enjoyable (SFX)
All stars
Most relevant
The story is brilliant. It's a shame that neither Jack Hawkins or Caroline Guthrie were approached.
The constant pronunciation of Mhari as Ma-ha-ri is grating. Also Bob and Brains don't sound right.
Did we get the American edition by mistake?

Experience does not improve on a second listen. Hope the publisher can afford to redub. Not sure whether to hold on or spend the credit on something more palatable.

Mhari Murphy, the h is meant to be silent

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Yet another fun book in the series. As much as I miss the characters from the previous volumes, and I'm desperate to learn what have become of them it was still a page-turner.
But I found the accents and voices put on by the reader a bit hard to bear, very much over the top and occasionally really destroying the seriousness of the scenes for me. I would rather have it read plainly than like this. It's only a second time I've ever found the voice to be so disruptive to the story. That was really bad.

Fun read but...

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I’ve enjoyed the previous books in the series but this book has been spoilt for me by the horrendous reading by an amateur narrator.

She fails on so many levels to deliver a listenable rendition of the book and has little ability to deliver the lines or even convince the listener that she has even encountered the accents of the people she has been portraying from the book.

A good book spoilt by a poor rendition.

The labyrinth Index

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If you’ve been following so far then this is a great addition to the overall story. All the key things are there and you’ll genuinely worry for some of the regulars while seeing frightening similarities to national politics in the world.
The problem is the narration - up until now we have been blessed with two incredible performances bringing the books to life - the new narrator is ok as a stand alone but compared to what we have had the subtle differences make this a jarring experience to start with - but if you can get past the incorrect pronunciations of key people’s names and the change in how key characters come across vocally then it is a reasonable performance. Please though bring back the wonderful Jack Hawkins or Carolina Guthrie for future instalments.

Great story

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Great story. Only slightly let down by some very obvious mispronounced words when the narrator was speaking in a British accent. For example : Moscow does NOT rhyme with cow and you do NOT pronounce the h in Mhairi. These and other mistakes do tend to jolt a listener out of the narrative flow.

Excellent book.

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