The Fuller Memorandum is the third Laundry Files book by Charles Stross, and the first book that I bought and read on my Kindle. It was chosen as my first Kindle purchase because I enjoyed the last two Laundry Files books greatly and didn’t want to wait until this third one came out in paperback to buy.
That said, I am probably going to buy a copy of it in paperback too when it gets released in that format. Not because I disliked reading it on the Kindle, but because I enjoyed it enough that I want a copy on my shelf to show off to friends and encourage them to read the series.
The story takes place a few years after the previous Laundry Files novel, The Jennifer Morgue, and again stars Bob Howard the IT geek, demonologist, and spy who was the main character of the previous two books. If you hadn’t seen the reviews I did of the previous ones, then it is a spy thriller novel with supernatural plotlines and all the bureacracy and paperwork and administrative oversight and office politics that James Bond would have to deal with in real life but that usually gets ignored in the novels and movies.
The plotline in this novel involves CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, which has been mentioned in previous novels and is the Laundry’s codename for the end of the world, and crazy cultists who are trying to accelerate it’s coming. Actually given the twists and turns in the novel it is hard to say much about the plot without spoiling it. Suffice to say, in great spy thriller tradition there are betrayals, deception, great dialogue, and a great story.
While you could start reading the series with this novel, the time gap between them means that their aren’t really any spoilers of the previous ones, but I’d really recommend that you start with the first one, The Atrocity Archives, and then The Jennifer Morgue and finally this most recent one The Fuller Memorandum.
Very highly recommended reads.
As for reading it on the Kindle, it was a great first book for that. I bought the book right after I got my Kindle unboxed and charged up, turned it on text-to-speach while I was working (Which really is still an ‘Experimental’ feature as it doesn’t do a very good job handling paragraph breaks or even long enough pauses at periods at times), and then finished the book up when I got home that night. Basically reading it all in one sitting and very much enjoying the book and the experience.