New Releases by Charles Stross

In this new Laundry Files adventure the fate of the world will literally depend on the roll of dice... twenty-sided dice, that is. In 1984, Derek Reilly was just another spotty teenage dungeon master growing up in middle England. But then a secret government agency tasked with suppressing magical intrusions received a tip-off – and one midnight raid later, his life was turned upside down by the Satanic D&D Panic. Decades later Derek, now middle-aged and institutionalized, is a long-term inmate at Camp Sunshine, a center for deprogramming captured Elder God cultists. He’s considered safe enough to edit the camp newsletter, and he even has postal privileges – which he uses to run a play-by-mail game. After 25 years, Derek finally has reason to escape: a nearby D&D convention. While Derek’s D&D games were full of fictional elder gods and world-ending threats, a LARP game at the con is a dread ritual designed to summon a great evil into our world, and it’s up to Derek and his players to stop them. The fate of the world may depend on the contents of Derek’s magic dice bag. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Season of Skulls continues Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross''s Lovecraftian Laundry Files series. Welcome to the sunlit uplands of the 21st century! Britain''s avuncular Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much. Hyperorganized and formidable, Eve Starkey defeated her boss, the louche magical adept and billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge, in a supernatural duel to the death. At least, she has reason to hope he''s dead. But though she''s now in charge of the Bigge Corporation, she''s not free of him yet. Through the fecklessness of her brother Imp, combined with the intricate feudal law of a tiny Channel Island, it would appear that unbeknownst to her, she was married to Bigge--and that proving his death and releasing herself from his arcane bindings will take years and cost millions. Then an emissary of the Prime Minister arrives with an offer that she absolutely can''t...well, you know. This is the final novel in the trilogy that began with Dead Lies Dreaming and continued with Quantum of Nightmares. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Regular readers of Charles Stross''s Laundry Files might have noticed Bob Howard''s absence from the events of The Nightmare Stacks, and his subsequent return from Tokyo at the start of The Delirium Brief. Escape from Yokai Land explains what he was doing there. Bob''s been assigned to work with the Miyamoto Group, checking the wards that lock down Japan''s warded sites—a task previously handled by his predecessor Dr. Angleton, the Eater of Souls. This mostly involves policing yokai: traditional magical beings, increasingly grown more annoying and energetic. But then Bob''s simple trip turns into a deadly confrontation with the ultimate yokai. It''s massively powerful. It''s pink. And it says "Hello." At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A unique blend of espionage thrills and Lovecraftian horror, Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross''s Laundry Files continues with Quantum of Nightmares. It’s a brave new Britain under the New Management. The avuncular Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much. Hyperorganized and formidable, Eve Starkey defeated her boss, the louche magical adept and billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge, in a supernatural duel to the death. Now she’s in charge of the Bigge Corporation—just in time to discover the lethal trap Rupert set for her long ago. Wendy Deere’s transhuman abilities have gotten her through many a scrape. Now she’s gainfully employed investigating unauthorized supernatural shenanigans. She swore to herself she wouldn’t again get entangled with Eve Starkey’s bohemian brother Imp and his crew of transhuman misfits. Yeah, right. Mary Macandless has powers of her own. Right now she’s pretending to be a nanny in order to kidnap the children of a pair of famous, Government-authorized superheroes. These children have powers of their own, and Mary Macandless is in way over her head. Amanda Sullivan is the HR manager of a minor grocery chain, much oppressed by her glossy blonde boss—who is cooking up an appalling, extralegal scheme literally involving human flesh. All of these stories will come together, with world-bending results... "For all of Stross''s genuine ability to spook and dismay, The Laundry Files are some of the most tremendously humane books I''ve ever read." —Tamsyn Muir, author of Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The alternate timelines of Charles Stross'' Empire Games trilogy have never been so entangled than in Invisible Sun—the techno-thriller follow up to Dark State—as stakes escalate in a conflict that could spell extermination for humanity across all known timelines. An inter-timeline coup d''état gone awry. A renegade British monarch on the run through the streets of Berlin. And robotic alien invaders from a distant timeline flood through a wormhole, wreaking havoc in the USA. Can disgraced worldwalker Rita and her intertemporal extraordaire agent of a mother neutralize the livewire contention before it''s too late? At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

When magic and superpowers emerge in the masses, Wendy Deere is contracted by the government to bag and snag supervillains in Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross'' Dead Lies Dreaming: A Laundry Files Novel. As Wendy hunts down Imp—the cyberpunk head of a band calling themselves “The Lost Boys”— she is dragged into the schemes of louche billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge. Rupert has discovered that the sole surviving copy of the long-lost concordance to the one true Necronomicon is up for underground auction in London. He hires Imp’s sister, Eve, to procure it by any means necessary, and in the process, he encounters Wendy Deere. In a tale of corruption, assassination, thievery, and magic, Wendy Deere must navigate rotting mansions that lead to distant pasts, evil tycoons, corrupt government officials, lethal curses, and her own moral qualms in order to make it out of this chase alive. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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, Mhairi 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.

A brilliant collaboartion from Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross, two defining personalities of post-cyberpunk SF—now repackaged with a new cover! Welcome to the fractured future, at the dusk of the twenty-first century. Earth has a population of roughly a billion hominids. For the most part, they are happy with their lot, living in a preserve at the bottom of a gravity well. Those who are unhappy have emigrated, joining one or another of the swarming densethinker clades that fog the inner solar system with a dust of molecular machinery so thick that it obscures the sun. The splintery metaconsciousness of the solar-system has largely sworn off its pre-post-human cousins dirtside, but its minds sometimes wander...and when that happens, it casually spams Earth''s networks with plans for cataclysmically disruptive technologies that emulsify whole industries, cultures, and spiritual systems. A sane species would ignore these get-evolved-quick schemes, but there''s always someone who''ll take a bite from the forbidden apple. So until the overminds bore of stirring Earth''s anthill, there''s Tech Jury Service: random humans, selected arbitrarily, charged with assessing dozens of new inventions and ruling on whether to let them loose. Young Huw, a technophobic, misanthropic Welshman, has been selected for the latest jury, a task he does his best to perform despite an itchy technovirus, the apathy of the proletariat, and a couple of truly awful moments on bathroom floors.

Fantascienza - racconto lungo (33 pagine) - Neppure a Natale ci si può rilassare quando si fa parte dell''organizzazione segreta chiamata La Lavanderia Straordinari. È un aggettivo adatto per descrivere gli agenti della Lavanderia, l''organizzazione governativa britannica (segreta, naturalmente) nata per difendere il Regno (e il mondo) dalle minacce aliene e occulte. Ma, ahimè,“straordinari” sono anche le ore di lavoro che tocca svolgere quando si sarebbe dovuti essere a casa, tranquilli, a rilassarsi davanti a un cenone natalizio. E questo capita ovviamente con inquietante regolarità. Perché quale momento è migliore, per mettere in pericolo il mondo, del Natale stesso? Charles Stross, nato a Leeds nel 1964 ma da tempo residente in Scozia, si è laureato in farmacia, poi ha preso una specializzazione in informatica e ha lavorato come consulente e sviluppatore, per dedicarsi a tempo pieno alla scrittura dal 2000. Tra le sue opere più famose Accelerando (premio Locus), una delle opere più interessanti sul tema della Singolarità tecnologica; Palinsesto, vincitore del Premio Hugo nel 2012; e la serie della «Lavanderia», un''organizzazione segreta che si occupa di occulto, alla quale ha dedicato diversi romanzi e numerose novelle, tra le quali Rapporto sulle atrocità (Urania), Giungla di cemento (Premio Hugo 2005, Delos Books) e Equinoide (Premio Hugo 2014, Delos Digital e Elara).

Fantascienza - racconto lungo (34 pagine) - Essere catturati in una versione moddata di un famoso gioco di ruolo? Fatto. Una nuova storia dell’acclamato ciclo della Lavanderia C''è un posto di lavoro in cui si viene ripresi perché si gioca nelle ore di lavoro troppo poco. Anche se giocare forse non è il termine esatto: diciamo utilizzare giochi di ruolo online per cercare e distruggere entità demoniache, più esattamente. Non noiosissimo, ma neanche esaltante. Per Bob Howard però le cose diventano più complicate quando il suo nuovo stagista fa tutto quello che gli era stato detto di non fare e finisce catturato all''interno di una versione modificata di Neverwinter Nights. E c''è di peggio: il ragazzo è il figlio della tizia delle Risorse Umane che da tempo gli sta sul collo. Ed è sua responsabilità, ora, andarlo a recuperare. Charles Stross, nato a Leeds nel 1964 ma da tempo residente in Scozia, si è laureato in farmacia, poi ha preso una specializzazione in informatica e ha lavorato come consulente e sviluppatore, per dedicarsi a tempo pieno alla scrittura dal 2000. Tra le sue opere più famose Accelerando (premio Locus), una delle opere più interessanti sul tema della Singolarità tecnologica; Palinsesto, vincitore del Premio Hugo nel 2012; e la serie della «Lavanderia», un''organizzazione segreta che si occupa di occulto, alla quale ha dedicato diversi romanzi e numerose novelle, tra le quali Rapporto sulle atrocità (Urania), Giungla di cemento (Premio Hugo 2005, Delos Books) e Equinoide (Premio Hugo 2014, Delos Digital e Elara).

Fantascienza - racconto lungo (46 pagine) - Il programma nucleare americano durante la Guerra Fredda poteva opporsi alle magie oscure e ai mostri degli abissi evocati dai loro nemici? Al termine della Seconda guerra mondiale la Russia ebbe accesso alle scoperte scientifiche tedesche sul nucleare, e anche su quelle basi poté sviluppare il proprio programma atomico. Ma i nazisti avevano molti interessi: tra gli altri, è noto, anche quello per alcuni ambiti piuttosto oscuri. E se anche queste nozioni fossero finite in mano ai Russi? E se invece di bombe atomiche i russi avessero sfruttato la magia nera, l''evocazione di demoni e di mostri lovecraftiani? Il programma nucleare americano sarebbe stato sufficiente a contrastare questa minaccia? Da questo lungo racconto Charles Stross ha poi sviluppato il ciclo di grande successo della Lavanderia, col quale ha vinto due premi Hugo. Charles Stross, nato a Leeds nel 1964 ma da tempo residente in Scozia, si è laureato in farmacia, poi ha preso una specializzazione in informatica e ha lavorato come consulente e sviluppatore, per dedicarsi a tempo pieno alla scrittura dal 2000. Tra le sue opere più famose Accelerando (premio Locus), una delle opere più interessanti sul tema della Singolarità tecnologica; Palinsesto, vincitore del Premio Hugo nel 2012; e la serie della «Lavanderia», un''organizzazione segreta che si occupa di occulto, alla quale ha dedicato diversi romanzi e numerose novelle, tra le quali Rapporto sulle atrocità (Urania), Giungla di cemento (Premio Hugo 2005, Delos Books) e Equinoide (Premio Hugo 2014, Delos Digital e Elara).

The eighth case in Charles Stross'' Laundry Files, the Hugo Award–winning series described by Kirkus Reviews as “a weirdly alluring blend of super-spy thriller, deadpan comic fantasy, and Lovecraftian horror.”

The Traders'' War by Charles Stross includes The Clan Corporate and The Merchants'' War, the third and fourth instalments in the spellbinding The Merchant Princes series combined into one volume.The journalistic instinct runs deep - and comes with a fatality warning.Miriam was an ambitious business journalist in Boston. Until she was fired - then discovered, to her shock, that her lost family comes from an alternate reality. And although some of them are trying to kill her, she won''t stop digging up secrets. Now that she knows she''s inherited the family ability to walk between worlds, there''s a new culture to explore. Her alternate home seems located around the Middle Ages, making her world-hopping relatives top dogs when it comes to ''importing'' guns and other gadgets from modern-day America. Payment flows from their services to US drug rings - after all, world-skipping drug runners make great traffickers. In a land where women are property, she struggles to remain independent. Yet her outsider ways won''t be tolerated, and a highly political arranged marriage is being brokered behind her back. If she can stay alive for long enough to protest. The Traders'' War is preceded by The Bloodline Feud omnibus, and followed with the final volume, The Revolution Trade.

Fantascienza - romanzo (126 pagine) - Gli unicorni sono reali. E sono famelici predatori venuti dallo spazio profonto. Una nuova storia della Lavanderia - PREMIO HUGO 2014 Dimenticate le creature fatate, simbolo di pace e purezza. Gli unicorni che sono sbarcati nella quieta campagna dell''Inghilterra sono bestie feroci, fameliche, aliene. E chi deve occuparsene se non Bob Howard, ex consulente di informatica, ora agente della segretissima «Lavanderia», l''agenzia britannica che, come Scotland Yard si occupa dei crimini comuni e Torchwood di quelli alieni, è specializzata in problematiche "occulte". In un''ambientazione a metà tra il cyberpunk e H.P. Lovecraft tornano i personaggi di Giungla di cemento e di Rapporto sulle atrocità, con un nuovo romanzo breve vincitore del Premio Hugo 2014. Charles Stross, nato a Leeds nel 1964 ma da tempo residente in Scozia, si è laureato in farmacia, poi ha preso una specializzazione in informatica e ha lavorato come consulente e sviluppatore, per dedicarsi a tempo pieno alla scrittura dal 2000. Tra le sue opere più famose Accelerando (premio Locus), una delle opere più interessanti sul tema della Singolarità tecnologica; Palinsesto, vincitore del Premio Hugo nel 2012; e la serie della «Lavanderia», un''organizzazione segreta che si occupa di occulto, alla quale ha dedicato diversi romanzi e numerose novelle, tra le quali Rapporto sulle atrocità (Urania), Giungla di cemento (Premio Hugo 2005, Delos Books) e Equinoide (Premio Hugo 2014, Delos Digital e Elara).

A tale set in an alternate world of the immediate future follows the efforts of the head of a paratime espionage agency to prepare for an upcoming drone war at the same time her estranged spy daughter attempts to protect national security during an ominous succession crisis.

Drame écologique, guerre nucléaire, catastrophe naturelle... A plus ou moins long terme, toute civilisation est vouée à disparaître. Cela s''est d''ailleurs produit des millions de fois depuis la formation de notre planète. Pour préserver l''humanité de ces inévitables apocalypses, des agents venus d''un lointain futur voyagent tout au long de l''histoire de la Terre : à chaque fin du monde, ils sauvent ce qui peut l''être, permettant à notre espèce de redémarrer. Mais toute intervention sur l''histoire peut avoir des conséquences graves : la vie de Pierce, l''un de ces agents, bascule le jour où sa famille est "effacée" par une nouvelle version de l''histoire, tel un palimpseste. Son seul espoir réside à la fin des temps, où sont archivés tous les événements non advenus. Dans l''infini des possibles, retrouvera-t-il les siens ?

Accidental vampire Alex Schwartz is busy assessing the cost of renovating a Cold War bunker to be used as the new HQ for Britain s secret counter-occult agency, where he attracts the attentions of a local Goth drama student.

"Mo''s latest assignment is to assist the police in containing an unusual outbreak: ordinary citizens suddenly imbued with extraordinary abilities of the superpowered kind. Unfortunately these people prefer playing super-pranks instead of performing super-heroics"--

"Some stories are more explicitly Lovecraftian than others, but all demonstrate how Lovecraft''s dark mythology continues to inspire outstanding tales of modern horror." - Publisher''s Weekly Many of the best weird fiction writers (and creators in most other media) have been profoundly influenced by the genre and the mythos H.P. Lovecraft created eight decades ago. Lovecraft''s themes of cosmic indifference, minds invaded by the alien, and the horrors of history - written with a pervasive atmosphere of unexplainable dread - are more relevant than ever as we explore the mysteries of a universe in which our planet is infinitesimal and climatic change is overwhelming it. A few years ago, New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird presented some of the best of this new Lovecraftian fiction from the first decade of the twenty-first century. Now, New Cthulhu 2: More Recent Weird brings you more eldritch tales and even fresher fiction inspired by Lovecraft.

Der Verschwörung auf der Spur Nach der Singularität haben sich die Menschen über die Galaxis verstreut – nicht ganz freiwillig, und nicht ohne Konflikte. Als die noch junge Zivilisation auf dem Planeten Moskau von einer Supernova bedroht wird, werden die Bewohner eilig evakuiert, darunter auch die junge Wednesday. Der neugierige Teenager erkundet das Transportschiff, das sie in Sicherheit bringen soll, auf eigene Faust – und entdeckt zuerst geheime Dokumente und dann eine Leiche. Noch ahnt sie nicht, wie brisant ihre Entdeckung ist, doch schon bald wird ihre Familie getötet und sie selbst gnadenlos verfolgt. Zeitgleich nimmt die Agentin Rachel Mansour ihre Ermittlungen auf, denn es scheint, als wäre Moskaus Sonne mittels einer geächteten Waffe zur Explosion gebracht worden. Die Hauptverdächtige ist die Regierung Neu-Dresdens, und nur Wednesdays Dokumente könnten Licht in diesen verworrenen Fall bringen...

Einmalig in Raum und Zeit 21. Jahrhundert: Bahnbrechende Erkenntnisse der Quantenphysik lassen Zeitreisen möglich werden. Während die Wissenschaft noch diskutiert, nimmt eine haushoch überlegene Intelligenz Kontakt auf: Das Eschaton kommt aus der Zukunft und untersagt den Menschen jede Verletzung der Kausalität. Wer sie bedroht, wird vernichtet. 24. Jahrhundert: Fern der Erde leben die Menschen der Neuen Republik unter der Knute eines technikfeinden Systems, als es plötzlich technische Geräte regnet. Das Festival, einst Teil der menschlichen Zivilisation, jetzt mobiler Informationsdienst, reist durch die Sphäre bewohnter Welten und verteilt seine Gaben. Die Admiralität ersinnt einen verwegenen Plan: Bis an die Zähne bewaffnet wird ein Schiff in die Vergangenheit geschickt, um das Festival zu zerstören ...

Enjoy two short stories and a novella from the Laundry Files. Originally published on Tor.com, these stories by Charles Stross continue the adventures of the Laundry, a secret division of the British government dedicated to tracking down and containing breaches of reality by occult and otherworldly threats. "An entertaining mash-up of Lovecraftian mythology and an extremely twisted take on a fantasy trope."--Publishers Weekly (on Equoid: A Laundry Novella) At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Revolution Trade: an omnibus edition of the fifth and sixth novels--The Revolution Business and Trade of Queens--in Charles Stross''s Merchant Princes series. Miriam Beckstein has said good-bye to her comfort zone. The transition from journalist to captive in an alternative timeline was challenging to say the least, she discovered that her long-lost family, the Clan, were world-skipping assassins. Now, while civil war rages in her adopted home, she''s pregnant with the heir to their throne and a splinter group want her on their side of a desperate power struggle. But as a leader or figurehead? Meanwhile, unknown to the Clan, the US government is on to them and preparing to exploit this knowledge. But it hadn''t foreseen a dissident Clan faction carrying nuclear devices between worlds—with the US president in their sights. The War on Terror is about to go transdimensional. But Mike Fleming, CIA agent, knows the most terrifying secret of all: His government''s true intentions. "These books are immense fun."--Locus At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Bloodline Feud: an omnibus edition of the first two novels in Charles Stross''s The Merchant Princes series The six families of the Clan rule the kingdom of Gruinmarkt from behind the scenes. They are a mixture of nobility and criminal conspirators whose power to walk between their world and ours makes them rich in both. Miriam, a hip tech journalist from Boston, discovers her alternate-world relatives with explosive results that shake three worlds. Now, as the prodigal Countess Helge Thorold-Hjorth, she finds herself ensnared in schemes and plots centuries in the making. She is surrounded by unlikely allies, lethal contraband, and—most dangerous of all—her family. To avoid a slippery slope down to an unmarked grave, Miriam must build a power base of her own—with unexpected consequences for three different time lines, including the quasi-Victorian one exploited by the hidden family. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

"As a newly appointed junior manager within the Laundry--the clandestine organization responsible for protecting Britain against supernatural threats--Bob Howard is expected to show some initiative to help the agency battle the forces of darkness. But shining a light on things best left in the shadows is the last thing Bob wants to do--especially when those shadows hide an occult parasite spreading a deadly virus. Traders employed by a merchant bank in London are showing signs of infection--an array of unusual symptoms such as superstrength and -speed, an uncanny talent for mind control, an extreme allergic reaction to sunlight, and an unquenchable thirst for blood. While his department is tangled up in bureaucratic red tape (and Buffy reruns), debating how to stop the rash of vampirism, Bob digs deeper into the bank''s history--only to uncover a bloodcurdling conspiracy between men and monsters.."--

Charles Stross''s "Equoid" is a dark fantasy tale from the Hugo-winning author of Rule 34, Halting State, The Atrocity Archives, and many others. The "Laundry" is Britain''s super-secret agency devoted to protecting the realm from the supernatural horrors that menace it. Now Bob Howard, Laundry agent, must travel to the quiet English countryside to deal with an outbreak of one of the worst horrors imaginable. For, as it turns out, unicorns are real. They''re also ravenous killers from beyond spacetime... At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.