When writing about The Atrocity Archives, I mentioned that the friend who first recommended The Laundry Files to me didn’t do me the grace of recommending the first book, but rather a later one. That book was The Fuller Memorandum, and I suspect because it was the first book I read, it’ll always be the quintessential Laundry Files book for me.
After their Caribbean jaunt in The Jennifer Morgue, both Bob and his now wife, Mo, are back in London, working in the Laundry’s offices. You wouldn’t think the streets and offices of London would make for a more tense and oppressive atmosphere than the previous book, but you would be wrong. This is the first novel in the series that really starts pushing the idea that doom is just around the corner; while CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN has been mentioned previously, it hadn’t given us the feeling of impending doom that it does now. The world may be coming to an end—and that end may be sooner than we imagined
Things do not get off to a great start: Bob gets put on administrative leave after an assignment at an RAF airbase goes disastrously wrong. This is not the first time Bob has seen an innocent bystander get killed at work, but this is the first time he feels it was entirely his own fault. The incident also leaves a lot of hanging questions: why was there a haunted airframe at the base in the first place, and why was it that the staff already have a field exorcism kit on hand? What on earth are these people doing with these planes? But there are no immediate answers here: Bob returns to the office only to find that his boss, Angleton wants him to deal with a different case instead: BLOODY BARON. (Yes, he is still meant to be on leave!)
Sadly, in the aftermath of the disastrous exorcism, Bob can’t really take refuge at home. Mo has been going through at lot and Bob has to be given special clearance from his higher ups just so she can open up about what happened during her last assignment. We were introduced to Mo’s musical talents in The Jennifer Morgue, but now we really go into what it means for her to be both an Epistemological Warfare Specialist and the wielder of an Erich Zahn original violin. And PTSD is just the start. Whatever they are paying her? It’s not enough.
Mo has been dealing with CLUB ZERO, which involves a cult that goes by the name of the Free Church of the Universal Kingdom*, who now may be making in-roads in the UK. Not only are they fans of CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, they’re somehow linked to both Russian occultists—and BLOODY BARON. What do these people want? To track down the Fuller Memorandum and unleash the power of something code-named TEAPOT. Which was apparently last in the custody of The Laundry.
“The teapot is missing . . . You were its last keepers. Please, I implore you, find it? For all our sakes, find it before the wrong people get their hands on it and make tea”
Doesn’t sound like they’re dealing with something short and stout with a handle and spout here, does it?
I can’t say much about what happens from this point forward, except that things absolutely snowball. It also gets really weird. But despite the almost random codenames thrown at the reader—which you can see for yourself here in this review—everything comes together at the end. Stross’ novel craft by this point had improved considerably since the The Atrocity Archive.
But one thing that hasn’t changed is the geeky, nerdy side. Like The Jennifer Morgue, there are real like influences for The Fuller Memorandum: J. F. C. Fuller himself was a British military strategist and associate of Aleister Crowley. And a Hitler supporter to boot. And yes, our fictional Fuller was also balls-deep in the occult during the 1920s and 30’s. He wasn’t a pleasant guy. And he was not doing pleasant things. Additionally, The Fuller Memorandum is also chock full of spy tropes, but until last time, they are far more subtle. Think a more muted le Carré than sharp jabs at Bond.
While this is an excellent continuation of The Laundry Files, I feel it actually works well as a stand alone? I can’t believe I’m going to make the same recommendation that a mate of mine did nearly 15 years ago, but if you have any reservations about starting the series, maybe start here? (Sorry Jin, but I see where you were coming from now.)
