★★★★★ Persons of Hemophagia

The Rhesus Chart

Charles Stross, Gideon Emery (narrator)

Book five of my all-time favorite Science Fiction series, Charles Stross' Laundry Files, The Rhesus Chart, begins with these words. “Don't be silly, Bob,” Said Mo. “Everybody knows vampires don’t exist.” You are not an idiot, dear reader. What do you think The Rhesus Chart is about? Right, vampires, got it in one. These are not canonical Bram Stoker vampires, of course, because those folks have a bunch of weird hang-ups that make no sense at all. Stross loses much of the arbitrary weirdness, but what remains are "unusual symptoms such as super-strength and -speed, an uncanny talent for mind control, an extreme allergic reaction to sunlight, and an unquenchable thirst for blood". So, they may not be vampires, exactly, but they're close enough for government work.

However, it might give the wrong impression to say that The Rhesus Chart is a vampire story. It *IS* a vampire story, but it's much more than that. The vampires are just the vehicle for a big pay-off. Or, to be more precise, the start of a big pay-off that will play out in the upcoming novels. Case Nightmare Green is on the horizon -- soon enough the reality we think we know is going to come unglued. Mahogany Row finds itself under assault in The Rhesus Chart -- the Laundry will never be the same again. By the end of the novel Bob Howard is changed forever. Soon Mo will be, too.

Like previous Laundry Files novels, The Rhesus Chart is narrated in the first person by Bob. That's about to change, though. The next novels and narrators are

Novel 6: The Annihilation Score, Mo.
Novel 7: The Nightmare Stacks, Alex Schwartz
Novel 8: The Delirium Brief, Bob is back!
Novel 9: The Labyrinth Index, Mhari Murphy

Thus, aside from the novella Escape from Yokai Land, Bob has only one turn left in the Laundry Files as it stands on 28-Dec-2023. You know who Mo is, of course. Alex is introduced in The Rhesus Chart. You could be forgiven for having forgotten Mhari -- she was introduced briefly in The Atrocity Archives, where she played the role of Bob's psycho ex. She is reintroduced in The Rhesus Chart. It's been more than ten years, and both she and Bob have done some growing up.

There are, additionally, three novels set in the world of the Laundry Files subsequent to The Labyrinth Index. Stross has made it clear that he considers these novels to be the start of a new series called the New Management. There will be a novella in the Laundry Files proper and a final full-fledged novel to wrap up the Laundry, but at the moment those exist only in Stross's imagination.

The Rhesus Chart is the biggest story that has been told so far in the Laundry Files. It's the essential link to the subsequent novels, which will see the world changed forever.

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