Minireview: The Fuller Memorandum, by Charles Stross

The Fuller Memorandum is the third novel in the “Laundry” series, detailing the travails of Bob Howard, an emlpoyee in the U.K.’s top-secret “Laundry” unit, charged with countering supernatural threats to the country (and the world, in general). It’s been characterized as “Dilbert meets Cthulhu”, which is quite apt; while not totally a humor series, it dips heavily into (black) humor territory, especially when detailing the bureaucratic and under-staffed life within the Laundry. Filing the proper paperwork, in triplicate, is at least as critical as killing the latest Cthulhuoid horror.

This is the darkest installment in the series to date. While there is humor sprinkled throughout (“NecronomiPod”, for example), the back story is bleak and approaches the Laundry’s CODE NIGHTMARE GREEN scenario: the end of the world, when horrors from Outside invade Earth and eat everyone’s brains. Or suchlike fun. Things start off with Bob’s mysterious and cadaverous boss, Angleton, going missing. This escalates to Russian spooks tailing and approaching Bob out of the blue, a (presumed) cult trying to kill/kidnap him, and his wife Mo needing a recovery after a nasty assignment in Amsterdam (which may be related to events). Somehow, a mysterious Fuller Memorandum is also missing, and multiple parties assume Bob knows where it is. Problem is, Bob doesn’t even know what it is, let alone where, and he finds himself on an urgent timetable to trace it down before Very Bad Things happen.

It’s a good fun, and a fun one (like the two previous ones). Sure, it’s firmly in the “light entertainment” territory, but it’s good light entertainment. There are lots of pop culture jokes and references sprinkled all over, and the main plot is interesting (with a few nice twists). Well worth a read – but do read the previous two books first.

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