In Stross's world, the greatest magicians are the scientists who closely study the phenomena it features a secret history of historical thinkers who also dabbled in or stumbled upon occult uses of their work. Lovecraft and others, they are not set in Lovecraft's universe. While the stories are partially inspired by the Cthulhu mythos universe created by H. There are also elements of dry humour and satirisation of bureaucracy. These occult struggles happen largely out of view of the public, as the Laundry seeks to keep the methods for contacting such powers under wraps. ' Magic' is described as being a branch of applied computation (mathematics), therefore computers and equations are just as useful, and perhaps more potent, than classic spellbooks, pentagrams, and sigils for the purpose of influencing ancient powers and opening gates to other dimensions. Howard is recruited to work for the Q-Division of SOE, otherwise known as 'the Laundry', the British government agency which deals with occult threats.

Their main character for the first five novels is 'Bob Howard' (a pseudonym taken for security purposes), a one-time I.T.

They mix the genres of Lovecraftian horror, spy thriller, science fiction, and workplace humour. (Dec.The Laundry Files is a series of novels by British writer Charles Stross. Stross has a marvelous time making eldritch horror appear commonplace in the face of bureaucracy. It's up to Bob and a collection of British eccentrics even Monty Python would consider odd to stop the bad guy and save the world, while getting receipts for all expenditures or else face the most dreaded menace of all: the Laundry's own auditors. Now a ruthless billionaire intends to try again, even if by doing so he awakens the Great Old Ones, who thwarted the earlier expedition. In a bungled attempt to raise a sunken Soviet submarine in order to access the Jennifer Morgue, an occult device that allows communication with the dead.

In 1975, the CIA used Howard Hughes's Glomar Explorer (2004) from Hugo-winner Stross, Bob Howard is a computer übergeek employed by the Laundry, a secret British agency assigned to clean up incursions from other realities caused by the inadvertent manipulation of complex mathematical equations: in other words, magic. In this alternately chilling and hilarious sequel to The Atrocity Archives

The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross