Equoid: A Laundry Novella
A Tor.Com Original
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4.4 • 16 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Charles Stross's "Equoid" is a dark fantasy tale from the Hugo-winning author of Rule 34, Halting State, The Atrocity Archives, and many others.
The "Laundry" is Britain's super-secret agency devoted to protecting the realm from the supernatural horrors that menace it. Now Bob Howard, Laundry agent, must travel to the quiet English countryside to deal with an outbreak of one of the worst horrors imaginable. For, as it turns out, unicorns are real. They're also ravenous killers from beyond spacetime...
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stross's Hugo-nominated Laundry Files novella, first published in Tor.com in 2013, is an entertaining mash-up of Lovecraftian mythology and an extremely twisted take on a fantasy trope. Bob Howard, bureaucrat and agent for the Laundry a secret British agency that fights extradimensional terrors has been called into the field to fight a possible manifestation of unicorns, the evil spawn of Shub-Niggurath. There's not a whole lot of plot beyond a brief mystery as to how Shub-Niggurath is getting away with hiding its tracks, but Stross does a great job with the truly nasty backstory. Lovecraft's "lost" letters add a nice secret history element, explaining the cause of his nervous breakdown, and contain some truly ghastly imagery. Laundry Files fans accustomed to more action-oriented spy riffs might be a little disturbed by the horror elements, but if they can stomach it, there's plenty of traditional action (including a car chase and a close-quarters zombie fight) and Stross's trademark wit.
Customer Reviews
Nightmare Unicorns from Lovecraft
As scary and horrible as it sounds. Safety note - keep story out of reach of unicorn-loving children. A long way out of reach.