The Labyrinth Index cover art

The Labyrinth Index

Laundry Files, Book 9

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The Labyrinth Index

By: Charles Stross
Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard
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About this listen

Britain is under New Management. The disbanding of the Laundry - the British espionage agency that deals with supernatural threats - has culminated in the unthinkable: an elder god in residence in 10 Downing Street.

But in true 'the enemy of my enemy' fashion, Mhari Murphy finds herself working with His Excellency Nylarlathotep on foreign policy - there are worse things, it seems, than an elder god in power, and they lie in deepest, darkest America.

A thousand-mile-wide storm system has blanketed the Midwest, and the president is nowhere to be found. Mhari must lead a task force of disgraced Laundry personnel into the storm front to discover the truth. But working for an elder god is never easy, and as the stakes rise, Mhari will soon question exactly where her loyalties really lie.

2019, Hugo Award for Best Series, Short-listed

©2018 Charles Stross (P)2018 Hachette Audio UK Adventure Science Fiction Fiction

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Critic reviews

Brilliantly disturbing and funny at the same time (Ben Aaronovitch, author of RIVERS OF LONDON)
Charles Stross owns this field, and his vast, cool intellect has launched yet another mad, sly entertainment that will strangle the hell out of anything else on offer right now (Warren Ellis, author of Transmetropolitan)
Stross at the top of his game - which is to say, few do it better (KIRKUS)
Alternately chilling and hilarious (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY)
Ferociously enjoyable (SFX)
All stars
Most relevant  
I have nothing but praise for the Labyrinth Index. It continues the laundry files, picking up soon after The Delerium Brief, in the beginnings of case nightmare green. If you're a fan then this story will not disappoint.
However I do have to mention the elephant in the room and that's the pronunciation of Mhairi Murphy by the narrator. In the previous books her name is pronounced as Ma-Ree. It's a Gaelic variation of Mary. If you really wanted to be pedantic "mh" in Gaelic is usually pronounced as "V".
The narrator however continually pronounced it as Ma-Hari. It was very annoying and somewhat detracted from the enjoyment of the book.
Whoever produced the book should at least check pronunciation from the previous books to ensure continuity when changing narrators.

Pronunciation is important

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Readers who join a series part way through should be obliged to listen to the previous books and at least make a passing attempt to follow the accents and personality of the characters as already established. They should also be obliged to follow a name prononciation guide for characters, species, planets, etc.

This is like it belongs to a different series to the rest. Names are so badly pronounced that they have changed (“Mari” has become “Mahari” - I don’t know what the original spelling was but this far into the series the pronunciation has now been established). Bob has changed from being a dour and slightly grumpy character to a whiney geek with a squeaky voice. Brains has developed a full-on Scottish accent. And all the male characters are just shouty cartoon versions of the originals.

This might be a really good book, but I’m finding it hard to tell through the reading.

Reader does not fit with the series

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Good story but some of the accents were a bit grating. I got through it in order up continue with this excellent series. You can to.

Here’s a question audible book production companies. How about using male voiceover artists to voice the male characters and female voiceover artists to voice the female characters?

Good story. Jarring accents.

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It's no use. Just occasionally there are narrators that so wind me up that I have to return the book rather than listen all the way through. This is one. It's the joint worst narration I've heard - and I've heard a lot. The worst crime of all, as mentioned by other reviewers, is that the reader hasn't even bothered to find out how to pronounce the main protagonists name. None of the characters sound anything like they have before, accents are over the top and way out. I'm going to see if I can get text to speech on kindle instead as I'd rather have a robot voice than this. Just awful, which is sad for me as I was counting the days to the release.

Based on partial listen

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Editing errors at: Ch. 4 18m 22s remaining & Ch.4 16m 12s remaining.

Laurence Bouvard is a good narrator, but some of the English accents don't match those established by UK series narrator Jack Hawkins. That said, she does this book excellently and it was really enjoyable once I'd got my head around the difference(s).

Still listening to this series as started so well, but has basically jumped the shark in the last couple of installments. Nonetheless, looking forward to what comes next.

Some sound edit errors, overall enjoyable

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The story is good but the narrator is absolutely appalling and actually puts you off listening to the book for more than a few minutes at a time. Also the pronunciation of the lead characters name is dreadful, you don't pronounce the 'h' in Mhairi. I find it hard to believe that the author heard and approved the narration. The voice characterisation's of the players in the story sound like broad stroke caricatures rather than well considered portrayals and the narrator is awful at doing british accents.

Appalling narrator, actually puts you off

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The narration is not that bad but at odds with past books. As others are finding if you have followed the series there is a change in narrator witch is fair enough female main lead character. However even if there is an intention as the story takes place in the USA to make everyone sound American it comes across as the narrator has not listened to the other books, as names and regional accents don't match up with how I have come to expect them to sound. perhaps the narrators don't get access to past recordings of the series??, perhaps in the USA they have a different recording to the UK and this follows the established character voices. It left me almost returning the audiobook and getting the print copy.

Good story let down by strange narration.

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If you’ve been following so far then this is a great addition to the overall story. All the key things are there and you’ll genuinely worry for some of the regulars while seeing frightening similarities to national politics in the world.
The problem is the narration - up until now we have been blessed with two incredible performances bringing the books to life - the new narrator is ok as a stand alone but compared to what we have had the subtle differences make this a jarring experience to start with - but if you can get past the incorrect pronunciations of key people’s names and the change in how key characters come across vocally then it is a reasonable performance. Please though bring back the wonderful Jack Hawkins or Carolina Guthrie for future instalments.

Great story

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The Laundry Files are an excellent set of audio books and whilst Mhari is not the most sympathetic of characters her tale of saving the world is a good thriller.

However the narrator severely limited my enjoyment of the title. She did try to give all the people their own voice and was successful - in some cases. In others they all were very very similar. However the really broke the enjoyment this title was the mispronunciation of the title characters name. Every single time it made me grit my teeth...

Romping story - poor narrator

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great book, only marred by the narrator's inability to say Mhairi in a reasonable way

Great book

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