Escape From Yokai Land

A Laundry Files Novella

By: Charles Stross

Narrated by: Gideon Emery

Regular readers and listeners 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."

©2021 Charles Stross (P)2021 Recorded Books

Confusing if you haven’t read the series before

I usually like Charles Stross, but have not read this series before and so I found the story puzzling. Too many world-specific terms about the magic system I didn’t understand. Better to start with one of the novels, where there is time for explanations, rather than a short story.

Sweater vested sci-fi humor

“Never call someone a Nazgûl if they can hear you”
A cute combo of middle-aged Brit’s wry humor and anime level monster-mystery set in an alternate age of both magic and tech.

“Crap crapity crap and a side order of Exlax.”
Occasional F bombs, quirky exclamations, beasties like Yokai and Kaiju.
I liked this enough to wishlist book 1.

A good old-fashioned laundry field trip story again

While I certainly enjoyed and appreciated the Mo and Mhari books, it was really good to see good old geek-master bad-ass-when-you-force-me Bob again.
A good short entry, although I think I remember from the previous books that he spends a lot more time in Japan than this little story would seem to indicate. So perhaps there is more to happen here.
The cat lady theme was a little too much on display, and too coincidental that the secondary hero and primary villain operated in that motif. Also there were some dangling threads—though maybe they will be picked up in some future installment—such as Angleton’s unread notes.
And why can’t Bob’s phone generate a pseudo ward, like I believe some of the other laundry phones do?

Squee Fun

I really liked the narrator. He gives an engaging performance. The story, though short, was a lot of fun and gave me a different perspective of kawaii characters. Princess Kitty (Hello) is forever changed fir me. Now, if only he could do something with Pepper Pig. I know, I know. Trademarks...

good but short

I love the return of the classic character. Good story. It is a bit short.