| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Trade of Queens (Merchant Princes) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Praise for the novels of The Merchant Princes:
"[These books] are, first and foremost, great fun."
--Paul Krugman, "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Great Unraveling
""If imagination is the key to success for a writer, Charles Stross has it in spades."
"--The Times" (London)
"A good deal of fun. Fans of this series should find this conclusion satisfying and chilling."
--"RT Book Reviews" on "Trade of Queens
""Stross effectively builds tension as the clock ticks down toward a hopeless confrontation between the Clan and its superpower opponent. . . The conclusion brings events in these three universes together successfully. . . This all makes for a more than satisfactory close to [the] series."
"--Strange Horizons
""The world-building in this series is simply superb, in other words--it is engaging, crystal-clear and disturbingly real. . . . "The Merchants' War" is fast-paced and engrossing and will leave readers ravenous for the next installment."
"--SciFi Weekly
""These books are immense fun, a sort of 21st-century version of the solid, thought-out costume sword-and-spaceship fiction that provided the enduring spine of science fiction entertainment ."
"--Locus" on "The Hidden Family"
--This text refers to the
Mass Market Paperback
edition.
Product Description
A dissident faction of the Clan, the alternate universe group of families that has traded covertly with our world for a century or more, has carried nuclear devices between the worlds and exploded them in Washington, DC, killing the President of the United States. Now they will exterminate the rest of the Clan and keep Miriam alive only long enough to bear her child, the heir to the throne of their land in the Gruinmarkt world. Mike Fleming, late of US intelligence, has just survived an attack on his life in Massachusetts and knows the worst and deepest secret: behind the horrifying plot is a faction of the US government itself, preparing for a political takeover in the aftermath of terrifying disaster. There is no safe place except, perhaps, in the third alternate world, New Britain - which has just had a revolution and a nuclear incident of its own.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A really gripping ending to this complex and entertaining series. As the civil war between the Gruinmarkt world walkers grows and extends into both "our" reality and the mangled empire of New Britain the very existence of the world walkers is under threat and their own factions insist on making that threat much more real. Driving the plot are brutal attacks on Washington DC and the public unveiling of the ability to cross dimensions which lead to a truly extravagant and utterly ruthless response from the new US President with his very definite approach to dealing with "unknown unknowns".
Most of the series' plot threads are sew up nicely but the series ends with no definite closure, the clan are still very much exposed and their traditional way of life extinguished. I await new volumes set in the same universes which hopefully will expand the clan's future.
Top notch stuff.
Most of the series' plot threads are sew up nicely but the series ends with no definite closure, the clan are still very much exposed and their traditional way of life extinguished. I await new volumes set in the same universes which hopefully will expand the clan's future.
Top notch stuff.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"Trade of Queens" is the last book in a series of six, the Merchant Princes (though I suspect if you're interested in this book you will already know that) and it's hard to review without reviewing the series as a whole. So I'll get that out of the way: in my view the last three, this, The Merchants' War (Merchant Princes) and The Revolution Business (Merchant Princes) have been the best, with The Clan Corporate (Merchant Princes 3) something of a low point. The author, Charles Stross, explains on his website that the original plan was for three Big Books which the publisher insisted on dividing up - Clan Corporate is just the scene setting for the second Big Book. The third isn't written yet.
The narrative device underlying is that there are parallel instances of our world, which certain individuals have the inherited ability to cross between, and that in particular we have been "visited" by traders from a version of North America (the Gruinmarkt) where the Viking settlements took root, but there has been little progress since. This is the Clan (who make their living by exploiting their abilities to transport various, er, substances safe from the authorities). Stross introduced a rival tribe of "world walkers" in Book 2, alongside a third alternate world, a steampunk flavoured New Britain. In the earlier volumes he played with ideas about the development of the various worlds, and the reaction when those authorities discover what's been going on. We see much of this through the eyes of Miriam Beckstein, a descendent of the Clan who has been brought up in safe ignorance of its doings in our world.
Anyway, in the present volume, the pace of events, which built up in the last two, continues to be rapid, but there's a grim ending. The Clan is under threat, and its Stupid Faction insists on making the threat worse, leading to a terrible fate for the Gruinmarkt, mostly visited on those who did nothing wrong. The plotting is ingenious, with many (but not all) of the issues left hanging form previous books wrapped up (I was left a bit confused, I must admit, about the number and identity of the moles within the Clan. And patently, someone in the Clan was helping Egon, but who was it?)
This is a very satisfying ending to the series, leaving enough loose ends for more books (and I hope there are more). In particular, the dynamics of the situation in which the Clan is left are intriguing. They are not safe. They are surrounded by suspicious potential enemies. They will now have to earn a living, as worldwalking to the USA is not possible anymore. The situation has lots of possibilities and I'd hope that any sequels investigate those, as well as that ominous leaking door-to-another-dimension.
The narrative device underlying is that there are parallel instances of our world, which certain individuals have the inherited ability to cross between, and that in particular we have been "visited" by traders from a version of North America (the Gruinmarkt) where the Viking settlements took root, but there has been little progress since. This is the Clan (who make their living by exploiting their abilities to transport various, er, substances safe from the authorities). Stross introduced a rival tribe of "world walkers" in Book 2, alongside a third alternate world, a steampunk flavoured New Britain. In the earlier volumes he played with ideas about the development of the various worlds, and the reaction when those authorities discover what's been going on. We see much of this through the eyes of Miriam Beckstein, a descendent of the Clan who has been brought up in safe ignorance of its doings in our world.
Anyway, in the present volume, the pace of events, which built up in the last two, continues to be rapid, but there's a grim ending. The Clan is under threat, and its Stupid Faction insists on making the threat worse, leading to a terrible fate for the Gruinmarkt, mostly visited on those who did nothing wrong. The plotting is ingenious, with many (but not all) of the issues left hanging form previous books wrapped up (I was left a bit confused, I must admit, about the number and identity of the moles within the Clan. And patently, someone in the Clan was helping Egon, but who was it?)
This is a very satisfying ending to the series, leaving enough loose ends for more books (and I hope there are more). In particular, the dynamics of the situation in which the Clan is left are intriguing. They are not safe. They are surrounded by suspicious potential enemies. They will now have to earn a living, as worldwalking to the USA is not possible anymore. The situation has lots of possibilities and I'd hope that any sequels investigate those, as well as that ominous leaking door-to-another-dimension.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This, the sixth and last installment in the series, suffers from the same problems as the fifth book, and suffers from them in spades. It's very disappointing that such a good series should deteriorate like this. The politicking is still there (although perhaps not as much as the previous volume) but the silliness, culminating in nuclear carpet-bombing, is just so ridiculously over the top as to offend my sensibilities, even allowing for the fact that it's fiction and for dramatic suspension of disbelief.
I almost gave this just one star but it's just about pulled up to two by the fact that it's pretty much required reading if you've already got this far - just be prepared to be disappointed, even if you weren't disappointed (and you should have been) by the previous installment.
The end is somewhat intriguing and sets up more potential sequels, which may be improved by having had the obnoxious feudalism killed off along with all its incomprehensible politicking. There's a few interesting directions in which it could go, depending on which of the loose ends Stross decides to follow up on, if at all - on his blog he says "I'm not ruling out writing more books in that universe â" but I'm taking a couple of years of time out first, and if and when go back to there, it'll be with a new story and mostly new characters". Good, it could do with a partial reboot.
I almost gave this just one star but it's just about pulled up to two by the fact that it's pretty much required reading if you've already got this far - just be prepared to be disappointed, even if you weren't disappointed (and you should have been) by the previous installment.
The end is somewhat intriguing and sets up more potential sequels, which may be improved by having had the obnoxious feudalism killed off along with all its incomprehensible politicking. There's a few interesting directions in which it could go, depending on which of the loose ends Stross decides to follow up on, if at all - on his blog he says "I'm not ruling out writing more books in that universe â" but I'm taking a couple of years of time out first, and if and when go back to there, it'll be with a new story and mostly new characters". Good, it could do with a partial reboot.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A real page turner
As good as the other books in the series the tension builds & the plot lines come together well, but leave you wanting more! a great read
Published 3 months ago by A. Smith
Merchant Princes series
This series started with an interesting and original premise which the first book started to explore. Read more
Published 7 months ago by R. Lythgoe
A fitting end to a groundbreaking series
Sadly, this is the last book in this series. Most series end by running out of steam, their plots all worn out. This series, unusually, still has multiple plotlines left. Read more
Published 14 months ago by A. J. Poulter
Book The Trade of Queens
This item was purchased for a third party who was very pleased with the secure packageing and speed of delivery.
Published 23 months ago by R. W. Mason
Excellent Finale
A true pity that Charles Stross has indicated that 6 books in the series are enough (for now). Wraps up the major plot lines, leaves enough open to keep you wanting more and... Read more
Published on 24 May 2010 by Prefers Not To Have Their Real Name On A Shopping Site
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
