A Conventional Boy

Charles Stross

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Hardback

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English

Orbit Books
08 April 2025

Science fiction; Science Fiction

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In A Conventional Boy, the fate of the world will depend on a roll of the dice... twenty-sided dice, that is.

In 1984, Derek Reilly was just another teenage nerd growing up in middle England. But his love of D&D caused him to fall afoul of the Laundry, a government agency tasked with suppressing supernatural threats. It turns out that sometimes ninth level wizard spells drawn on the back of your maths textbook can look suspiciously like actual magic...

Decades later, Derek is a long-term inmate at Camp Sunshine, a centre for deprogramming captured cultists. But Derek finally has reason to escape, and an escape plan to out into action: he wants to attend his first gaming convention. While Derek's D&D games were fictional, a game at the con really 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 dice bag.

The Laundry Files series follows an agency of British spies who deal with supernatural threats; they also have to deal with chronic underfunding, government ministers, rival agencies and worst of all, each other. Think Slow Horses crossed with the monsters from Stranger Things, this series is funny, nerdy, and a cult classic.
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*Publishing just ahead of the final Laundry Files novel (The Regicide Report), this new collection includes the never before published Laundry Files novel A Conventional Boy - inspired by the 1980s Satanic Panic - and two other short stories in this joyous celebration of all things Laundry Files.
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In this collection:
*A CONVENTIONAL BOY (53.3k words)
*DOWN ON THE FARM (12.7k words)
*OVERTIME (8.7k words)

also includes exclusive afterword from Charles Stross

By: Charles Stross
Imprint: Orbit Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 218mm, Width: 138mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 320g
ISBN: 9780356524641
ISBN 10: 0356524647
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 08 April 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Charles Stross is a full-time science fiction writer and resident of Edinburgh, Scotland. The author of seven Hugo-nominated novels and winner of three Hugo awards for best novella, he has won numerous other awards and been translated into at least twelve other languages.