Big thanks to Mr. Stross for writing this story! I seriously can’t get enough of the Laundry Files. Escape From Yokai Land is a great read. It’s good to see where Bob Howard was when The Nightmare Stacks took place. I only wish it was a longer tale, though it’s a solid read nonetheless. Many thanks to Mrs. Stross for her wonderful question; and, thanks for all the pink!

“Escape from Yokai Land” is a newly released novella by Charles Stross, which is set in his Laundry Files Series. The events of this novella occur while he is absent from the novel “The Nightmare Stacks” and before his return in “The Delirium Brief.” Goodreads identifies it as number 7.5 in the Laundry Files Series. Like most Laundry Files novellas, it isn’t necessary to the main narrative, but tells an interesting side story. In this novella Bob Howard has been sent to Japan to provide assistance to their supernatural intervention agency. He has to smooth over past problems caused by his former boss Dr. Angelton, while dealing with an unprecedented incursion of Yokai. This is just the beginning of his troubles though, as they have called him to help secure a site beneath the Japanese Puroland Theme Park. He’s working with the charming Dr. Suzuki, who appears to not quite be human herself, at least her cat ears seem to indicate that. Bob is about to discover that the color out of space is actually pink. This Laundry novella has its share of the dry dark humor that is characteristic of the series. It is refreshing in that it puts Bob in a different environment and culture, without any other members of the Laundry to help him. It’s a nice little self contained story that lets Bob do what he does best.