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Charles Stross

The Family Trade (Merchant Princes 1) Paperback – Unabridged, 2 Nov. 2007

by Charles Stross (Author)

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Paperback, Unabridged, 2 Nov. 2007

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Miriam Beckstein, a successful reporter for a hi-tech magazine in Boston, finds iron-clad evidence of a money-laundering scheme. 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 knot work 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.

'Fast, funny, busily inventive . . . [Stross] is the crème de la crème' Locus

'Science fiction is in good hands with Charles Stross here to lead the new generation' Orson Scott Card

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Tor
Publication date

2 Nov. 2007
Dimensions

11 x 2 x 17.8 cm
ISBN-10

0330451936
ISBN-13

978-0330451932
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Product description

Review

'Fantasies with this much invention, wit and gusto don't come along every day.'
-- SFX

'One of the defining phenomena of twenty-first century SF is Charles Stross, for the quality of his work at its best...'
-- Timeout

Book Description

The first book of the 'Merchant Princes' - a sweeping new series from one of the hottest new writers in science fiction

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tor; Main Market edition (2 Nov. 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0330451936
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0330451932
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 11 x 2 x 17.8 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 1,628,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 13,530 in Contemporary Fantasy (Books)
- 115,181 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- 121,587 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews:
77 ratings

About the author

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Charles Stross

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Charles Stross, 50, is a full-time science fiction writer and resident of Edinburgh, Scotland. The author of six Hugo-nominated novels and winner of the 2005, 2010, and 2015 Hugo awards for best novella, Stross's works have been translated into over twelve languages.

Like many writers, Stross has had a variety of careers, occupations, and job-shaped-catastrophes in the past, from pharmacist (he quit after the second police stake-out) to first code monkey on the team of a successful dot-com startup (with brilliant timing he tried to change employer just as the bubble burst).

Customer reviews

5 star		30%
4 star		33%
3 star		16%
2 star		17%
1 star		4%

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D. R. Cantrell

Proof once again that there's no real difference between sci-fi and fantasy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 June 2009

Verified Purchase

The cover of my copy says it's a fantasy, despite the crucial points all stemming from technological differences between worlds, demonstrating once again that there's no real difference between sci-fi and fantasy. Those differences, and restricted travel between worlds, lead to what I'm sure will be an excellent story in a well-developed universe with sympathetic fleshed-out characters. But it is let down by two things. First, the plots and schemes within plots and schemes are terribly opaque. Second, they're not made clearer by the book stopping so abruptly without a firm conclusion. This seems to be an editorial decision - apparently The Family Trade and its sequel "The Hidden Family" were originally written as one novel, but were published seperately. I hope that once I've read The Hidden Family things will be made much clearer.

Despite those reservations, I still enjoyed reading this, and recommend it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 April 2013

Verified Purchase

I read a lot of Charles Stross' other stuff, so wasn't really expecting this. At first I thought it was going to be a sort of "Narnia" sort of thing with wacky mediaeval style fantasy world and hi jinks and crossing back and forth, etc.

Then reading more I began to expect a typical American power fantasy about bootstrapping a civilisation.

Spoiler below:

Still spoiling

Dimension travelling drug dealers throw down against the USA. I didn't see that coming.

Fantastic.

Helpful

pherman

First of Six (I think)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 January 2013

Verified Purchase

This book introduces the reader to the heroine,Miriam,and to the idea of parallel worlds.These worlds are only accessible to members of one inter-related "Family" known as" the clan".Fans of alternate history/time travel/science fiction will probably like this series,although they are not exactly any of those categories.If you read this first book you will want to read the rest.You have been warned.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 May 2012

Verified Purchase

This is not a standalone book in any sense. It does not come to a satisfactory conclusion at all. It reads like the synopsis for a TV series that desperately wants to be commissioned for a second series, so leaves everything open and unexplained. Since I have read and enjoyed quite a few of his books, i was disappointed. I like a series of books but don't like being ripped off by book 1 being half a book, or possibly less.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Greenbirch

Major disappointment

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 May 2008

Verified Purchase

I shouldn't expect an author to keep on churning out the same type of book over and over again - but having read Atrocity Archive, Jennifer Morgue and Halting State in quick succession, and being avid for more, I was desperately disappointed to come across what reads like a Jackie Collins airport novel, written by someone who's just finished a housewives' creative writing course. The first person narrative of some of his other novels feels a lot more direct and interesting than the rather mechanical progression through scene setting and character development that you get in the first few pages of Family Trade. I should also add that the feisty American who just happens to be able to move to different worlds has been done before, repeatedly.

5 people found this helpful

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A disappointment after singularity sky

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 June 2005

Verified Purchase

This was a clever idea but I've read it done a lot better. Its not a patch on the Recluse series and I was disappointed after first coming across Stross with Singularity Sky - this seems a bit more formulaic and it spends a lot of time looking at culture shock rather than getting on with the story. Sorry , but I cannot recommend this

10 people found this helpful

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J.H.Barnard

Chick Lit

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 December 2012

Verified Purchase

Despite the score, this book is readable and lightly engrossing. A complex series of stages is introduced to the reader, in a formulaic fashion. The cliffhangers are intriguing, but the book relies on our sympathy for the non emancipated female.

Helpful

bushbaby

series has an awful ending

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 September 2019

This book is the first in The Merchant Princes series, originally 6 books later republished as three larger books encompassing pairs of the originals.

I generally hate series where the individual books have no real endings – or worse still cliffhanger endings. However, I would be prepared to make an exception for this series because for me it was a terrific story that was hard to put down. The story had many threads, but it all revolved around a group of people who had the ability to “world-walk” – switch between parallel worlds that were at different stages of development. I found the concept made a great series, and although I’ve seen negative comments about it, for me it was a terrific read.

BUT – a long series of 6 original books has got to have a great ending, tying up all the threads. Instead, the series finished with many threads unresolved. Moreover – spoiler alert - since it is very relevant to my big complaint, I need to explain that the last book in the series ends with a very long and tedious description of the US sending a mass of planes to carry out a carpet bombing with hydrogen bombs of the alternate world. It is a pointless, massive overkill of a mainly peasant population, carried out it seemed – with no real explanation of the rationale – as a fit of pique by an arrogant (recently promoted) US president. And there, in the main, the story just stopped, with no exploration of the consequences, or effect on the protagonists, who were the unfair targets of the bombing but who escaped it, though with negative consequences.

So for me at least, this great series was ruined by lack of a proper ending and a hugely over-the-top climax that almost seemed to be intended mainly to make some political point rather than finish the story. It’s two stars rather than one because of the high quality of the first five books, but though this first book is great, don’t read the series unless you don’t mind it having an awful finish.

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The Family Trade (Merchant Princes 1) Paperback – Unabridged, 2 Nov. 2007

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About the author

Charles Stross

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