A Conventional Boy: A Laundry Files Novel

By Charles Stross

In this new Laundry Files adventure the fate of the world will literally depend on the roll of dice... twenty-sided dice, that is.

In 1984, Derek Reilly was just another spotty teenage dungeon master growing up in middle England. But then a secret government agency tasked with suppressing magical intrusions received a tip-off - and one midnight raid later, his life was turned upside down by the Satanic D&D Panic.

Decades later Derek, now middle-aged and institutionalized, is a long-term inmate at Camp Sunshine, a center for deprogramming captured Elder God cultists. He's considered safe enough to edit the camp newsletter, and he even has postal privileges - which he uses to run a play-by-mail game. After 25 years, Derek finally has reason to escape: a nearby D&D convention. While Derek's D&D games were full of fictional elder gods and world-ending threats, a LARP game at the con 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 magic dice bag.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250357845
• ISBN13: 9781250357847
• Release Date: January 2025
• Publisher: Tordotcom
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Entertaining!

The Laundry Files kept popping up as a series that I wanted to read one day because it sounded so entertaining. But it wasn't till now, when I got the chance to read the Conventional Boy that I got to see what it was about, and I will say, this book was so entertaining with a very likable guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time when people freaked out about Dungeons and Dragons (thinking that he was summoning and not just playing a game) and he got to spend years at Camp Sunshine due to paperwork errors. Derek is so sweet and innocent yet so knowing about the real magic now and what does he do? He uses paperwork to break out to go to a convention. I must say it must have been fate cause it certainly gets crazy at the convention and Derek is just the man for the job! This was a great introduction to that world and I also enjoyed the two short stories with Bob Howard and I will definitely be going back to read the Laundry Files finally! Cool world, a bit scary because the things that go bump in the night are most likely interdimensional horrors bent on eating your soul but I wouldn't mind have those dice that Derek made. They would be so useful for deciding things and figuring out what is the best path! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read this advance book and introduce me to a wonderfully entertaining series!