Written especially for Tor.com's holiday season, Charles Stross's novelette is a … The night watchmen are about, but they’re not supposed to come up here. I pull out my phone to call Mo, then pause. When the holiday falls on a weekend day (as Boxing Day does this year) everyone gets a day off in lieu at the beginning of the following week except the Night Duty Officer, who is in it for up to four days at triple pay—as long as he doesn’t go mad with boredom first. “If you can spare half an hour?”. My job, as Night Duty Officer, is to sit tight and answer the phone. I can’t say I’ve ever been big on the English Suburban Christmas. I stretch, then mouse over to the screen lock. I’ve got an office to hang out in. “Yeah, and I’m the tooth fairy. “Quiet, please! Nobody in the Laundry has ever had to get the Prime Minister out of bed in the small hours, but there’s always a first time: more importantly, it’s the NDO’s job to make that call if a sufficiency of shit hits the fan on his watch. Written especially for Tor.com's holiday season, Charles Stross's novelette is a finalist for the 2010 Hugo Award. I plonk myself down behind the desk and unlock the drawer, then pull out the phone book. Another snappy and fast reading short story set in the Laundry Files universe. Palimpsest is a 2009 science fiction novella by Charles Stross, exploring the conjunction of time travel and deep time.Originally published in Stross's 2009 collection Wireless, it won the 2010 Hugo Award for best novella.. Subterranean Press has announced that they will be reprinting the novella separately in 2011.. Inspiration. Punch repeatedly (not more than 10% alcohol by volume), serve the turkey, set fire to the Christmas pudding, discover fire extinguisher is six months past mandatory HSE inspection deadline, and suppress. Mélange improbable d’humour britannique de culture geek et d’espionnage, Charles Stross y réussit le tour de force de renouveler Lovecraft sans en trahir l’esprit, bien au contraire. Then, in a flashing moment, the tentacle lashes out and simultaneously engulfs all the pies, sucker-like mouths sprouting from its integument to snap closed around them. Why do I feel as if I’m being watched? First of all, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Facilities for organizing a party at short notice and under considerable budgetary constraints—a budget which is unavoidably much tighter than for last year’s festivities. . Overtime All bureaucracies obey certain iron laws, and one of the oldest is this: get your seasonal leave booked early, lest you be trampled in the rush. I run for the staircase, clutching stocking, pin box, and the tray of stale mince pies. “You’re here because you’re trapped in a time paradox. I always enjoy the blend of the banal life in 21st century London with the fantasy of a world where there are really bad things under the bed. published in multiple languages including English, consists of 30 pages and is available in Kindle Edition format for offline reading. All comments must meet the community standards outlined in Tor.com's Moderation Policy or be subject to moderation. That’s why they pay me to fight demons instead. The book has been awarded with Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novelette (2010), Edgar Awards and many others. The Laundry, perforce, must find work for many idle hands—the hands of everyone who comes to our attention and must needs be made a job offer they’re not allowed to refuse. So you’re just an echo of a future that never happened.”. In the unlikely event that it rings, I have a list of numbers I can call. “Surely he’s been pulling rabbits out of hats long enough we can run a Bayesian analysis and see how well he . My appetite for nocturnal exploration is fading, tempered by the realization that I may not be the only one putting in some overtime in the office tonight. A wilted air of festivity wafts through the corridors of power, like a slightly moist crêpe banner. Written especially for Tor.com's holiday season, Charles Stross's novelette is a finalist for the 2010 Hugo Award. “Sorry to call you like this, but it’s about the office party. I’ve been expecting you.”, The thing that calls itself Dr. Kringle takes a step backwards into the incinerator room, beckoning. Being part of the Laundry’s active service arm brings hazards of its own: but dying of boredom isn’t one of them. It’s not even scrambled: the encryption is handled at the exchange level. : Classement des meilleures ventes d'Amazon : Comment les évaluations sont-elles calculées ? The Filler of Stockings is clearly no exception to the hunger rule. © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. ou ses filiales. . Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.” He sounds bored, as well he might. Meetings are truncated by 11 a.m.; agendas updated, email filters set to vacation. It’s not my fault I failed to book my Christmas leave in time—I was in hospital and heavily sedated. Books like Overtime include Down On The Farm, Equoid, The Family Trade, The Apocalypse Codex, The Hidden Family... Log In More to explore. At least, I think they’re arms—they’re skinny, and there are too many elbows, and now I notice them I realize he’s got two pairs. It’s locked, of course, and I spend a precious minute fumbling with the bunch of keys before I find one that fits. Entire departments beaver away in anonymous quiet, building paper dams to hold the real world at bay. Select Your Cookie Preferences. There is a humdrum ritual for an office Christmas party anywhere in England. An easy read that makes you laugh and think a bit. But we’re good at make-do-and-mend in this department—it’s bred in our bureaucratic bones—and with the aid of a five hundred quid ents budget (to cover the hundred odd folks who work here), we make it work. In fact, I can go into places where I’d normally get my nasal appendage chopped right off if I had the temerity to sniff around without authorization. Big fan of Charles Stross since I read Accelerando; Overtime was the first short story I've read of his and it seemed to rest quite securely in the Ghost/ paranormal genre rather than Sci/Fi for which he is famed. We thought we had a few years’ grace: according to Dr. Mike our calculations are wrong, and the window began to open nine months ago.) Some folks—the few, the lucky—begin to clear their desk drawers, for they know they shall not be coming back to work until the new year. Let’s steal a facetious phrase from Andy and call it the Filler of Stockings: Lurker in Fireplaces, Bringer of Gifts. 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