A Conventional Boy

Laundry Files, Book 13

De: Charles Stross

Narrado por: Gideon Emery

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.

©2024 Charles Stross (P)2025 Recorded Books

loved the introspective talk of sources and inspiration at the end!

book was solid, but honestly the candid talk of matters at the end was probably my favorite of the book

But what if D&D was a path to dark magic?

Another banger by Mr. Stross. Our protagonist was a humble teen wrongly, yet also not, imprisoned for the crime of loving AD&D. Only drawback to this book is not a single mention of THAC0.

Excellent Entry in the Series

I really enjoyed this entry to the Laundry Files Universe. The afterward is particularly interesting as well.

Excellent fantasy story. Another one I would never pick for myself but enjoyed the entire story.

Excellent fantasy story. Another one I would never pick for myself but enjoyed the entire story.

Solid story + bonus Bob content

Probably one of the better Laundry books in recent years. Shorter story, but flowed well and was well developed. Bonus Bob short stories at the end that really made me miss the earlier books in the series.