The Family Trade (Merchant Princes Series #1) FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review
Scottish author Charles Stross' newest release is a dramatic departure from acclaimed hardcore science fiction thrillers like his Hugo Awardﾽnominated Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise. The Family Trade is a fantasy about parallel realities and a powerful clan in charge of an "interuniversal import/export" business.
The novel's first few sentences are guaranteed to captivate readers: "Ten and a half hours before a mounted knight with a machine gun tried to kill her, tech journalist Miriam Beckstein lost her job. Before the day was out, her pink slip would set in train a chain of events that would topple governments, trigger civil wars, and kill thousands." After Beckstein is unceremoniously fired for uncovering a billion-dollar money-laundering scheme that involved her magazine's parent company, she seeks counsel from her foster mother. Instead of advice, however, her adoptive mom gives her an old locket that used to belong to her biological mother -- one of the few possessions her mother had on her when she was found brutally murdered when Miriam was only a baby. The intricate knotwork on the locket hypnotizes Miriam and mysteriously transports her to an alternate Earth where she is no longer a journalist but an elder member of a corrupt family reminiscent of Mario Puzo's Corleone clan.
Comparable to Harry Turtledove's Crosstime Traffic sequence and Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, The Family Trade is intriguing, to say the least. Equal parts entrepreneurial adventure, organized crime thriller, and world-hopping fantasy, this novel brings new meaning to "limited liability company." Paul Goat Allen
FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Miriam Beckstein is happy in her life. She's a successful reporter for a hi-tech magazine in Boston, making good money doing what she loves. When her researcher brings her iron-clad evidence of a money-laundering scheme, Miriam thinks she's found the story of the year. But when she takes it to her editor, she's fired on the spot and gets a death threat from the criminals she has uncovered." "Before the day is over, she's received a locket left by the mother she never knew - the mother who was murdered when she was an infant. Within is a knotwork pattern, which has a hypnotic effect on her. Before she knows it, she's transported herself to a parallel Earth, a world where knights on horseback chase their prey with automatic weapons, and where world-skipping assassins lurk just on the other side of reality - a world where her true family runs things." "The six families of the Clan rule the kingdom of Gruinmarkt from behind the scenes, a mixture of nobility and criminal conspirators whose power to walk between the worlds makes them rich in both. Braids of family loyalty and intermarriage provide a fragile guarantee of peace, but a recently-ended civil war has left the families shaken and suspicious." "Taken in by her mother's people, she becomes the star of the story of the century - a Cinderella without a fairy godmother. As her mother's heir, Miriam is hailed as the prodigal countess Helge Thorold-Hjorth, and feted and feasted. Caught up in schemes and plots centuries in the making, Miriam is surrounded by unlikely allies, forbidden loves, lethal contraband, and, most dangerous of all, her family. Her unexpected return will supercede the claims of other clan members to her mother's fortune and power, and whoever killed her mother will be happy to see her dead, too." Behind all this lie deeper secrets still, which threaten everyone and everything she has ever known. Patterns of deception and interlocking lies, as intricate as the knotwork between the universes. B
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Best known for his Accelerando novels (Singularity Sky, etc.) of an ever-speedier techno-Singularity, British author Stross mixes high-tech with medieval trappings in this highly entertaining science fantasy in the "misplaced modern" mode. Reporter Miriam Beckstein, recently fired for exposing a money laundering scheme and threatened by the criminals involved, finds that staring at her mother's antique brooch can move her from contemporary America to a Viking-settled parallel universe, where she discovers her true heritage as a countess among the world-walking, goods-smuggling Clan. Struggling to master the mores and politics of her new family, Miriam discovers trust to be the rarest commodity in which they deal. Earl Roland, her new love, may be too loyal to her uncle, Duke Angbard, while Roland's intended, the Baroness Olga, is much more than a silly heiress waiting to be married off. Miriam schemes to update the Clan's ancient business and make herself invaluable to their interests, before one of the many assassins after her succeeds. Stross makes much of the incongruity of modern technology alongside old-fashioned costumes and customs, and many will be reminded of Roger Zelazny's Amber books, which had similar dizzying intrigues. Agent, Caitlin Blaisdell. (Dec. 8) Forecast: Fans of Stross's faster-paced, higher-tech SF may be put off by the more traditional storytelling, but he stands to gain many new readers, especially among the Regency romance set. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Reporter Miriam Beckstein uncovers a money-laundering scheme but instead of acquiring the scoop, she finds her job terminated and her life threatened. When Miriam receives a locket belonging to her murdered birth mother, she stumbles into a strange "other world" of mounted knights armed with automatic weapons and noblemen who are also merchants in a highly competitive and lethal reality, one to which she was born. Blending the surreal hip fantasy of Roger Zelazny's "Amber" series with the modern drama of The Sopranos, Stross's (Singularity Sky) latest novel features a determined, independent heroine ready to make the best of a whole new life. For fantasy collections. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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