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jaceyCharles Stross: The Family Trade
Merchant Princes #1
Tor, 2004
Damn you, Charlie Stross! I was really getting into this when it ended inconclusively and thereby forcing me to immediately order the second one in the series. Yes, it's that good!
When Miriam, an investigative journalist, uncovers something dirty and takes the scoop of the century to her boss, she's immediately sacked along with the analyst whose done some of the research with her. Later, at a loose end, she visits her adoptive mother only to be given a family heirloom, a locket with a strange pattern on the inside. Later, at home, she discovers that pattern enables her to walk between worlds. What meets her in that alternate America is stranger than she ever thought possible. It turns out she's the long lost heir to a fortune and is part of a clan of families who make millions in the import/export trade and via a series of courier operations, running drugs and high value commodities via various inter-world routes.
The whole new family situation is a vicious tangle of politics. Several different factions seem to want Miriam dead and she doesn't know who to trust. And then there's Roland, a somewhat distant cousin, world-walker and her forbidden lover, Can she really trust him?
And just when it's getting warmed up with Miriam accepting her place in the alternate world and determining that she will make changes from the inside... it stops without coming to any kind of conclusion.
Yes, I've ordered the next one... of course.
Merchant Princes #1
Tor, 2004
Damn you, Charlie Stross! I was really getting into this when it ended inconclusively and thereby forcing me to immediately order the second one in the series. Yes, it's that good!
When Miriam, an investigative journalist, uncovers something dirty and takes the scoop of the century to her boss, she's immediately sacked along with the analyst whose done some of the research with her. Later, at a loose end, she visits her adoptive mother only to be given a family heirloom, a locket with a strange pattern on the inside. Later, at home, she discovers that pattern enables her to walk between worlds. What meets her in that alternate America is stranger than she ever thought possible. It turns out she's the long lost heir to a fortune and is part of a clan of families who make millions in the import/export trade and via a series of courier operations, running drugs and high value commodities via various inter-world routes.
The whole new family situation is a vicious tangle of politics. Several different factions seem to want Miriam dead and she doesn't know who to trust. And then there's Roland, a somewhat distant cousin, world-walker and her forbidden lover, Can she really trust him?
And just when it's getting warmed up with Miriam accepting her place in the alternate world and determining that she will make changes from the inside... it stops without coming to any kind of conclusion.
Yes, I've ordered the next one... of course.
