Escape From Yokai Land

A Laundry Files Novella

By: Charles Stross

Narrated by: Gideon Emery

Regular listeners of Charles Stross's Laundry Files might have noticed Bob Howard's absence from the events of The Nightmare Stacks, and his subsequent return from Tokyo at the start of The Delirium Brief.

Escape from Yokai Land explains what he was doing there.

Bob's been assigned to work with the Miyamoto Group, checking the wards that lock down Japan's warded sites - a task previously handled by his predecessor Dr. Angleton, the Eater of Souls. This mostly involves policing yokai: traditional magical beings, increasingly grown more annoying and energetic.

But then Bob's simple trip turns into a deadly confrontation with the ultimate yokai. It's massively powerful. It's pink. And it says Hello.

©2021 Charles Stross (P)2021 Recorded Books

Squee Fun

I really liked the narrator. He gives an engaging performance. The story, though short, was a lot of fun and gave me a different perspective of kawaii characters. Princess Kitty (Hello) is forever changed fir me. Now, if only he could do something with Pepper Pig. I know, I know. Trademarks...

A good old-fashioned laundry field trip story again

While I certainly enjoyed and appreciated the Mo and Mhari books, it was really good to see good old geek-master bad-ass-when-you-force-me Bob again.
A good short entry, although I think I remember from the previous books that he spends a lot more time in Japan than this little story would seem to indicate. So perhaps there is more to happen here.
The cat lady theme was a little too much on display, and too coincidental that the secondary hero and primary villain operated in that motif. Also there were some dangling threads—though maybe they will be picked up in some future installment—such as Angleton’s unread notes.
And why can’t Bob’s phone generate a pseudo ward, like I believe some of the other laundry phones do?

good but short

I love the return of the classic character. Good story. It is a bit short.

Bob is back in what was once his series

And it's for a 2 hour long spin-off book.. Still, it was nice hearing more about the status of Bob and his issues that we've grown attached to. Where he was during one of the other books. The voice actor struggles with some Japanese words and it's a little silly to hear things like Nekomimi ears/cat ears ears, but with Bob's unfamiliarity of the language that at least somewhat makes sense. The meat puppets of Quantum Dreams and the necronomicon of the book before with the ragtag gang were mildly entertaining albeit a bit.. Forcibly random and it did not feel like it added anything to the greater plot as a whole, feeling like diversions. And while this is a little spin-off book, hearing about the status of a major entity in the setting somehow feels more impactful and makes me wish for more, since the series had me hooked on the Laundry Files, and other books in the series were still tied to it, this feels like a small little comeback to that.

pink perfection

Bob Howard is the ur laundry employee and it's fun to revisit him. This is a nifty entry with the goofy bureaucratic touches that make the Laundry Files such fun.

it was nice to hear about Bob again

I didn't realize how much I missed this narrator and Bob.

The other stories are good too, but this is what got me into the series.

Confusing if you haven’t read the series before

I usually like Charles Stross, but have not read this series before and so I found the story puzzling. Too many world-specific terms about the magic system I didn’t understand. Better to start with one of the novels, where there is time for explanations, rather than a short story.

Sweater vested sci-fi humor

“Never call someone a Nazgûl if they can hear you”
A cute combo of middle-aged Brit’s wry humor and anime level monster-mystery set in an alternate age of both magic and tech.

“Crap crapity crap and a side order of Exlax.”
Occasional F bombs, quirky exclamations, beasties like Yokai and Kaiju.
I liked this enough to wishlist book 1.

Torturous storyline

The foundation for a Portrait clear from the beginning , very difficult to follow. Much more in the beginning help me with the ensuing story line. Trite metaphors, overly simplistic and vague dialogue. —. This has real potential, but needs LOTS of work.

What I liked? It was Free, and short.

A bit short for the price

As the title says, despite knowing it's a novella, I felt the length was on the shorter side for the price. Having said that, I always enjoy Gideon Emery's narration for the Laundry Files books, especially when Bob is the main protagonist. He does a great job doing the different character voices. The story left much to be desired. Again, I know it is a short story novella, but I felt Stross could have fleshed out some more details and lore about Japan and it's ghostly infestation. I would've enjoyed learning more about Japan's version of the Laundry as well. Overall, not a bad Laundry edition; I just wish there was a little more in there.