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http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static
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The Regicide Report came out in January 2026. Traditionally I wait for the paperback before writing one of these spoiler-laden crib sheets, but there won't be a US paperback edition and the UK one isn't until the end of the year: if you don't want to wait, you don't have to. So here it is. The Laundry Files main story arc runs through nine novels, not including A Conventional Boy, a number of novellas and short stories (of which ACB was originally intended to be one—it over-ran), and the New…
This isn't a blog entry I wanted to write, but it's a necessary one: a statement about the use of generative large language models (colloquially "AI") in my work. I do not use LLMs in my work. I don't use them in my non-work life either, for that matter. I despise the grifters selling these toys as "tools" and trying to convince us to use them to generate plausible answer-shaped text strings in place of actual internet search for verifiable sources. I've been selling fiction that I wrote myself…
So, the second novel in the Laundry Files, The Jennifer Morgue, was first published on November 1st, 2006. And while it was superficially a pastiche of the Bond movie canon (as it existed at that time--I was writing before the Daniel Craig era, ushered in with Casino Royale--it was also interrogating the dramatic conventions of the genre and also the implications of rule by Bond Villains. At about the time I was writing it, a friend of mine (initially a tech journalist, later an industry…
I must remember that now I'm over 60, doing more than one SF convention in a month is probably more than my stamina can cope with. (Which is going to make this November really interesting as I'm about to say yes to two literary festivals/SF conventions in Spain, a week apart, in Barcelona and Madrid: more on this when it's confirmed). Anyway, now I'm over the Cymera SF Festival here in Edinburgh I'm getting my teeth into an edit letter. An edit letter is basically exactly what it sounds like:…
(This blog essay is overdue because I'm still waiting for new prescription glasses and writing while cross-eyed with text zoomed to 250% is tedious. They should be here later this week. Meanwhile ...) Back in January 2022 I wrote an essay revisiting my predictions for 2017. My review of 2017's stab in the dark began, "it spanned three blog posts and ended happily in a nuclear barbecue to put us all out of our misery: start here, continue with this, and finale: and the Rabid Nazi Raccoons shall…
So, I had my second round of eye surgery, and it worked fine. I got a short distance lens, leaving me myopic, which was expected, and I've booked an opthalmology appointment for the earliest possible date post-surgery (in mid-May, the...
It's the end of March. Since the last blog update I've had my second cataract surgery (it went much better this time), written a portion-and-outline of a new novel (for my agent, who will hopefully have feedback or maybe just...
... The TLDR is: the cataract in my one mostly working eye (the other has about 50% retinal occlusion) is steadily getting worse, and I'm scheduled for surgery on March 27th. NB: no need to lecture me about cataract surgery,...
