Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Delirium Brief

Author: Charles Stross

Narrator: Jack Hawkins

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-13-17

Publisher: Hachette Audio UK

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 23 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Bob Howard's career in the Laundry, the secret British government agency dedicated to protecting the world from the supernatural, has involved brilliant hacking, ancient magic and combat with creatures of pure evil. Now the Laundry's existence has become public, and Bob is being trotted out on TV to answer pointed questions about elven asylum seekers. What neither Bob nor his managers have foreseen is that their organisation has earned the attention of a horror far more terrifying than any demon: a government looking for public services to privatise. There are things in the Laundry's assets that big business would simply love to get its hands on....

Inch by inch, Bob Howard and his managers are forced to consider the truly unthinkable: a coup against the British government itself.

Critic Reviews:

"Brilliantly disturbing and funny at the same time." (Ben Aaronovitch)

Members Reviews:

Engaging

A very good entry in strosss bouquet. If I had to pick a flaw its that the ending is a bit abrupt

Decent story let down by the narrator

Would you listen to The Delirium Brief again? Why?

I've listened to it twice, the second time my heart wasn't in it. The narrator just isn't up to the job.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Bob. He's the hero and principle character.

How could the performance have been better?

Could have been read by someone else. All of the other Laundry Files books that I've listened to were narrated by Gideon Emery. Jack Hawkins sounds like he is reading aloud to himself and a few times he'd changed characters without me noticing. He just doesn't have as many different voices or accents as Emery. I would need to be really desperate to listen to this again, unless I can find a version narrated by Emery.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I hate questions like this. I wasn't watching War Horse, I was listening to an urban fantasy book.

Any additional comments?

A decent story in the Laundry Files line. Nice to see the band back together as well as some old 'friends'. A few strands left over, so it will be interesting to see where Charlie takes us in the next installment.

This drags

A shame. There is far too much waffle about the Civil Service politics of the Laundry. I wanted action like the previous instalments but this was thin on the ground.

Is Mr Stross running out of new ideas? I hope not but the first of this book was just plain boring

Well-paced, good characters, insanity.

Any additional comments?

I was nearing the end of my first reading of Iain Banks brilliant The Bridge when I came down with pneumonia. The Bridge is a complex novel, with many layers running together. Pneumonia destroyed my ability to concentrate. I suspended my reading, intending to switch to something simpler, at least until my head was fixed.

I chose Charlie Strosss brand new The Delirium Brief, the latest in The Laundry Files series.

This was a mistake. Thats not because its a bad bookits a good bookbut because its set in a world of braineating monsters, and I have pneumonia, which is eating my brain (well, ruining my concentration).