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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Third of the Merchant Princes,
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This review is from: The Clan Corporate (Merchant Princes) (Hardcover)
This is the third of a continuing series, a parallel worlds saga spanning (so far) three different timelines. I think it's safe to say that if you are still reading at book 3, then you enjoy the series - and if you don't like them, you will have stopped. Either way I don't think this will change your mind.
For my part, I am enjoying this series. I don't think they're great writing, but I like seeing Stross set out his canvas and set to work filling in the detail. And I find the central dilemma of Miriam, the main protagonist, interesting. That said, this volume is mildly frustrating because, apart from one or two jaunts, Miriam is - frankly - trapped through most of the book, unable to drive the plot forward, but only to react - hence only three stars. Developments are brewing but they don't really link up before the end of the book. I think there will probably be fireworks in the next installment (due in 2007?) which I certainly look forward to.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
No 3 - not the best one of them,
By
This review is from: The Clan Corporate (Merchant Princes) (Hardcover)
Miriam is definitely stuck in this book. She is discovering just what her role is in this mideval society that her relatives come from. Things are not quite as black and white as she might have thought and her enemies are not always who she had thought. Friends are being shunted to the side or even killed and Miriam is left increasingly alone in a society where a woman's role is to bear children - period.
For Miriam this is incredibly unfair. She feels that she has built a successful business in world 3 - a business that is left in the hands of a less than competent male relative. Her life is in increasing danger from her uncles and her mother is manipulating things in a manner that leaves Miriam feeling more and more helpless. The ending was a bit abrupt and extremely unfinished - intentional on the part of the author I'm certain. This way we HAVE to buy no. 4. I have enjoyed this series. This book is no exception.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Slow to start, but a great read,
By
This review is from: The Clan Corporate (Merchant Princes 3) (Paperback)
Number three in the series, this book really takes its time to get going, but after a hundred pages of meh it picks up and is back to the pace and quality of its pre-decessor. Again, like The Hidden Family this is the first half of a larger story that got split for some reason, but the split is handled better this time, ending on a nice cliff-hanger but without too many loose ends. As the third installment in a large series, there is of course the problem of how to bring a new reader up to speed who hasn't read the earlier volumes, but this is done without the repetition being too irritating for someone who has started at the beginning. My only niggle is that some exposition is handled somewhat maladroitly as "transcripts" of bugged conversations, but these transcripts (and the organisations and people making them) aren't obviously used. Perhaps they'll show up in a later volume. But I can forgive this, as to a large extent these solve the problem I noted in The Family Trade, that the plots and schemes within plots and schemes are too opaque to the reader. These serve to remove the veils somewhat. Again, I recommend it, but with the proviso that it will work a lot better if you've read the previous two books.
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