Where to Start with Charles Stross
- Best entry point → The Atrocity Archives
- Best standalone → Glasshouse
- Start the Eschaton series → Singularity Sky
- What fans keep coming back to → Accelerando
- Best narrator for Charles Stross → The Jennifer Morgue
- Highest rated by listeners → The Nightmare Stacks (Laundry Files #7)
- 1
The Atrocity Archives
Laundry Files • Book 1
Narrated by Gideon Emery
★ 3.86 ABR Score (30.4K ratings)★ 3.89 Goodreads (27.5K) ★ 4.18 Audible (2.9K)More about this pick
Bob Howard is a tech support guy for a secret agency that treats Lovecraftian horrors as bureaucratic problems requiring proper paperwork. Gideon Emery perfectly captures the dry British humor mixed with cosmic terror.
- 2
The Apocalypse Codex
Laundry Files • Book 4
Narrated by Gideon Emery
★ 4.21 ABR Score (12.7K ratings)★ 4.18 Goodreads (11.5K) ★ 4.62 Audible (1.3K)More about this pick
Computational demonologist Bob Howard faces occult threats and bureaucratic promotion in equal measure. The Laundry's supernatural civil service gets another brilliant installment.
- 3
The Fuller Memorandum
Laundry Files • Book 3
Narrated by Gideon Emery
★ 4.15 ABR Score (14.1K ratings)★ 4.19 Goodreads (12.7K) ★ 4.53 Audible (1.4K)More about this pick
Bob Howard faces Russian agents and ancient demons when a top-secret file vanishes from the Laundry archives in Stross's computational demonology thriller.
- 4
The Rhesus Chart
Laundry Files • Book 5
Narrated by Gideon Emery
★ 4.19 ABR Score (10.7K ratings)★ 4.19 Goodreads (9.5K) ★ 4.6 Audible (1.2K)More about this pick
Bob Howard faces the Laundry's first vampire problem when occult mathematics creates actual bloodsuckers. Gideon Emery balances the bureaucratic humor with mounting supernatural dread perfectly.
- 5
The Nightmare Stacks
Laundry Files • Book 7
Narrated by Gideon Emery
★ 4.41 ABR Score (7.9K ratings)★ 4.23 Goodreads (6.8K) ★ 4.65 Audible (1.1K)More about this pick
Gideon Emery captures Alex's vampire condition and hometown anxieties as Leeds faces an otherworldly invasion that threatens both his cover and his family.
- 6
The Delirium Brief
Laundry Files • Book 8
Narrated by Gideon Emery
★ 4.22 ABR Score (6.8K ratings)★ 4.26 Goodreads (5.9K) ★ 4.65 Audible (926)More about this pick
Bob Howard's Laundry career faces exposure as someone threatens to reveal the secret agency's supernatural mission. Stross combines cosmic horror with spy thriller elements as bureaucratic hell meets literal hell.
- 7
The Jennifer Morgue
Laundry Files • Book 2
Narrated by Gideon Emery
★ 4.02 ABR Score (16.5K ratings)★ 4.02 Goodreads (15.1K) ★ 4.39 Audible (1.4K)More about this pick
Lovecraftian horrors crash into James Bond parody as bureaucrat Bob Howard infiltrates a tech billionaire's yacht to prevent oceanic apocalypse. Emery's dry British delivery perfectly captures Stross's satirical tone.
- 8
Accelerando
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 3.68 ABR Score (23.2K ratings)★ 3.87 Goodreads (22.4K) ★ 3.95 Audible (748)More about this pick
Three generations of one family navigate the Singularity as artificial intelligence surpasses human limits and nanotechnology reshapes reality. George Guidall tackles Stross's dense technological concepts with clarity and appropriate wonder.
- 9
Singularity Sky
Eschaton • Book 1
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 3.75 ABR Score (16.7K ratings)★ 3.84 Goodreads (16.1K) ★ 4.11 Audible (567)More about this pick
Humanity's AI creation, the Eschaton, forbids time travel while pushing technological evolution beyond imagination. George Guidall navigates Stross's complex world-building and the clash between high-tech Earth descendants and their simple colonial lives.
- 10
Quantum of Nightmares
The New Management • Book 2
Narrated by Gideon Emery
★ 3.96 ABR Score (2.7K ratings)★ 4.11 Goodreads (2.4K) ★ 4.48 Audible (289)More about this pick
Britain operates under an eldritch god Prime Minister where death sentences await most crimes and supernatural enforcers patrol the streets in this Lovecraftian spy thriller.
- 11
Iron Sunrise
Eschaton • Book 2
Narrated by George Guidall
★ 3.90 ABR Score (9.8K ratings)★ 3.98 Goodreads (9.4K) ★ 4.3 Audible (358)More about this pick
New Moscow's destruction triggers a revenge attack against the wrong target, and missiles are already flying. Rachel Mansour must uncover the real culprits before Dresden gets obliterated.
- 12
Glasshouse
Narrated by Kevin R. Free
★ 3.78 ABR Score (12.1K ratings)★ 3.88 Goodreads (11.7K) ★ 4.14 Audible (389)More about this pick
Robin awakens with missing memories in the 27th century, hunted by unknown enemies in this identity thriller. Stross imagines a future where personalities can be edited and histories censored.
- 13
Halting State
Halting State • Book 1
Narrated by Robert Ian MacKenzie
★ 3.69 ABR Score (12.9K ratings)★ 3.8 Goodreads (12.5K) ★ 4.02 Audible (387)More about this pick
Edinburgh police investigate a bank robbery committed by orcs and a dragon—inside a virtual reality game that somehow became real crime. Robert Ian MacKenzie navigates Stross's complex blend of gaming culture and near-future technology.
- 14
A Conventional Boy
Laundry Files • Book 13
Narrated by Gideon Emery
★ 3.98 ABR Score (1.4K ratings)★ 4.16 Goodreads (1.3K) ★ 4.61 Audible (114)More about this pick
Derek Reilly's teenage D&D obsession triggered a government raid during the 1980s Satanic Panic, landing him in supernatural containment decades later. Gideon Emery perfectly captures the absurdist horror.
- 15
Season of Skulls
Laundry Files • Book 12
Narrated by Gideon Emery
★ 3.99 ABR Score (2.1K ratings)★ 4.16 Goodreads (2.0K) ★ 4.56 Audible (114)More about this pick
Britain's Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god ruling a country where crime has plummeted because nearly every offense is punishable by death. Gideon Emery captures the absurd horror perfectly.
- 16
Tor.com: Selected Original Fiction, 2008-2012
by Tor Books, Sylvia Day, Brandon Sanderson, Charles Stross, Ken MacLeod, Lee Mandelo, Rachel Swirsky, Meghan McCarron, John Scalzi
Narrated by Luke Daniels, R.C. Bray, Amy McFadden, MacLeod Andrews, Kathleen Gati, Cassandra Campbell, Jill Redfield, Gideon Emery
★ 3.49 ABR Score (305 ratings)★ 3.32 Goodreads (104) ★ 3.76 Audible (201)More about this pick
Award-nominated short fiction from Tor.com's early years, featuring Sanderson, Scalzi, and other genre masters. Multiple narrators tackle diverse stories spanning science fiction and fantasy.
- 17
The Regicide Report (Laundry Files, 14)
Laundry Files • Book 14
Narrated by Gideon Emery
★ 3.95 ABR Score (691 ratings)★ 4.3 Goodreads (625) ★ 4.56 Audible (66)More about this pick
The Laundry Files reaches its explosive finale as Bob and Mo face off against an Elder God Prime Minister targeting the monarchy, with Gideon Emery capturing the series' signature occult bureaucracy.
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