Escape from Yokai Land

June 7, 2021
Ghostbusters meets H.P. Lovecraft—with some Japanese horror tropes and Hello Kitty kitsch thrown in—in Stross’s fun, bite-size 11th installment to his Laundry Files series (after Dead Lies Dreaming). In an alternate England where magic coexists with modern technology, Bob Howard is employed by the Laundry, a super-secret agency dedicated to stopping supernatural incursions from ruining the days of ordinary citizens. Over his protests, Bob is sent to Japan to keep minor demons called yokai in their place. Partnered with Dr. Yoko Suzuki of the Miyamoto Group, Bob gets a shock when he’s informed of the real reason he’s been brought to Japan: to confront an existential threat in the form of a hellmouth located beneath Puroland theme park, a “Disneyworld knock-off.” While staying mindful of all the innocent children visiting the park, Bob is forced to confront the ultimate horror—a terrifying version of the Princess Kitty cartoon character. With Yoko thrown into peril, can Bob save both her and the park before being destroyed himself? Once again, Stross exhibits a range of imagination that borders on the supernatural, using language to dizzying effect to create scientific rationales for otherworldly phenomena. This might be a minor addition to the Laundry Files canon, but the entertaining case and Bob’s sidesplitting asides make it a must for series fans.

May 21, 2021
Another novella in the best-selling Laundry Files series (after Dead Lies Dreaming, 2020), Escape from Puroland is what Bob Howard did before returning from Kansai at the start of The Delirium Brief (2017). Bob has taken over carrying the Eater of Souls from his deceased mentor and finds himself flying to Japan to jump through some elementary hoops before being tasked with handling a surge of energies that could summon a Kaiju of Pink proportions. Apparently his old boss left a mess the last time he was in Tokyo, so Bob is on a short leash. The hauntings, which, much to his consternation, occur in pairs, have to be to rebound. This work is below his abilities, but if the bindings are not taken care of, they will build up and release the Kaiju, whose epicenter is a Disneylandesque park devoted to Princess Kitty. Stross is the master of witty turns of phrase and combining the absurd with the mundane in deadly situations, providing an entertaining opportunity to explore how Japan's unique culture plays through his cybermagical, bureaucratic filters.

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