This is very interesting. Also, cool. Lemme make that clear.
The Laundry Files is basically occult espionage meets Cthulhu meets computer math meets bureaucratic red tape. I’ts great fun as a series (although some people report finding said series uneven, at times), and if I was scared by the same things as Charlie Stross is I’d probably find the books more horrific. Or at least more cosmically horrific.
As it stands, however, I’m mostly wondering how they’re going to handle the entire apocalypse thing. One of Stross’s stated goals for the Laundry books was to not write an apocalyptic series where the End Times were always approaching, but never actually showing up; and the current state of affairs in those books suggest that he’s on track to whatever the ultimate end is. Which is itself cool, but I just don’t know how a television studio will handle that sort of thing.
Assuming that it gets off the ground: guess we’ll see, hey?
The Laundry Files was fine for the first 4-5 books. And then Stross got Woke(tm) and the quality went to hell.
Personally, I found the fourth book to be the worst of the series so far (note that the last book I read was the elf invasion book; so I can’t compare it with the two(?) since).
The quality did improve, but .. in that fourth book, Stross wrote himself into a corner .. and had another problem.
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The corner is .. Bob Howard, the protagonist had clearly grown into a fairly powerful middle-management wizard .. and therefore wasn’t the guy who’d get sent out to deal with minor stuff (that leads to bigger stuff) .. he was the guy doing the sending-out ..
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The problem is money .. several of Stross’ other series weren’t selling, but this one .. one I’m pretty convinced he started as a joke .. was quite popular.
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The last several books have been, I think, a combination of Stross paying his mortgage (the one about Mo) and scrambling to find another low-level interesting character who can be sent out .. the elf invasion one hits it about right.
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Whether he can keep going becomes moot *IF* a successful reimagining of Bob Howard as a modern day university student with a penchant for mathematics (and necromancy) works ..
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Mew
Stross should’ve taken Larry Correia’s advice on writing. Even though he has been writing for a living for much much longer. Correia treat his writing as business. He writes what his audience wants. He’s not out to convert or browbeat his ideological opponents. He’s primary aim is to entertain.
He’s also building his new house with indoor rifle range (Utah can be rather cold in the winter).