This is a book with a somewhat typical fantasy premise. Adopted girl finds out that her birth parents are from an alternate Earth, and that she is actually royalty. The beginning of the book was a bit slow for me and I wasn't very impressed with Miriam, the main character. However, the alternate Earth and the Family that Miriam finds herself pulled back into are interesting; just the politics and economics of a group of people who can cross over between our world and an alternate Earth makes for some fascinating what-ifs. By the end of the book, I was totally drawn in to Miriam's troubles and the larger political struggle going on. ( )

I enjoyed the premise of and (for the most part) execution of this story about an unconventional reporter who quickly lands herself in the frying pan by uncovering a story that threatens people with power and then finds herself in the fire after being given a locket that had belonged to her biological mother, who died shortly after her birth. Through the locket, she transports herself into an alternate Earth, the home of her extended family, not all of whom welcome her appearance, which could displace relatives who inherited in her place, and she is disliked even more when people get to know her and that she is unwilling to play the role she has been assigned.

It is hard to give a review or rating to this book, because it feels incomplete. Even though I know it is part of a series, I still expected some sort of resolution at the novel's end. Still, I am looking forward to reading the next books. ( )

There's something uniquely frustrating about a great idea poorly executed. This book is based on an exciting premise -- A family Clan who are able to move between our world and an unindustrialized parallel -- but devotes too much of its energy to a poorly introduced conspiracy populated by a cast of characters we are barely introduced for. The result is a frustrating mess. I'll probably read the next book, but only because am so terribly confused, and am foolishly intrigued by the potential of a world such as this. ( )

The first book of Stross' fantasy series, if "fantasy" is really the right term for it.

On the one hand, we get the familiar trappings of a fantasy novel - a vaguely familiar quasi-medieval society, everyone helpfully speaking English, and people turning out to Secretly Be Princesses After All. On the other hand, one of the worlds is contemporary Boston and the other is a backwards alternate-history Viking-colonised New England. The Secret Princess is an IT journalist in her thirties who is not happy about the whole thing. The economy of the far side is entirely based on cocaine-smuggling on this one. And the one true fantasy element - the ability of a small number of people to travel "between worlds" - is the sort of thing that could be passed off as SF with a bit of babble about Special Genetic Silliness, which I suppose just goes to show how close the boundaries are.

It's fun, really. Plain, uncomplicated, fun. There is a nicely described alternate history, where the world-travellers are a tightly-connected family of feudal nobility (the power is genetic), and the practical implications are dealt with quite quickly. (I am a sucker for books where people think about the economic background.) The plot moves along at a fair clip - the ending could have been tidied up a little, but if memory serves it ties closely into the next one, which I plan to run through later in the week, so I can't really object.

There are some other annoyances with the writing - Miriam falls into bed with virtually the first man she meets, which seems a bit convenient. It's never quite clear why the local (non-Clan) nobility speak English, rather than expecting their guests to speak the local language. She apparently forgets ever to phone her mother and say she's okay. The Clan are implausibly powerful on the "normal" side. There are a few other things, too, which escape my attention for a second; but conversely, there are a couple of lovely moments - when she first travels, she "looked around in wild surmise", and quietly dropped in at the beginning is the comment that the sky "was the colour of a dead laptop screen".

Not his finest book by a long shot, but certainly one I had no objections to rereading and will probably return to again in a few years.

I enjoyed this book of parallel worlds as Miriam discovers the truth about her mother and learns about a family she never knew. I liked how she uses her skills as a journalist to uncover secrets and I look forward to reading the next book in the Merchant Princes series, The Hidden Family. ( )

Start with a good premise.

Then fill it with so many holes that you can drive Mack trucks through it...

I found that reading this story only had me thinking that for a heroine who was so smart so often, and able to predict life threatening situations with such great ability, she was certainly unable to see how many ways she could have been eliminated so as to make this story a non-starter.

Oh, there it is, it dawns on me that if the other characters could see how easily I do that our protagonist could be snuffed out, then the book would have ended. And that is what should have happened. This book should have died in the slush pile. ( )

Enjoyable, I liked the "alternative" history ( )

Not my favourite Stross by a long shot, as it lacks the futuristic flights of prophetic brilliance his SciFi is known for... but a pleasant read none the less, and an undemanding one at that. ( )

Fascinating read about how to profit from traveling between worlds. The only thing you need is to be of pure enough blood and have access to a magical pattern.

Fist off I'll say that I'm a Charles Stross fan, albeit his SF titles to date. So when a friend of mine who REALLY reads fantasy recommended this title I decided to pick it up. I trul;y enjoyed this book and plan to read the other titles in the series. NOT what I would consider hard-core fantasy (witches, warlocks and the sort); rather a delightful and intriguing plot with the "worl-walker" concept able to fit into an SF plot just as readily. ( )

Plot: Interesting take on the lost family heir plot, with a good combination of fantasy, sci-fi and conspiracy. A little too predictable and too easily solved at times.

Characters: It's a good collection of characters, and they're well drawn especially in dialogue. What is missing, however, is motive, in far too many cases. Why they do the things they do is a mystery in too many cases, and so it's hard to identify with them or understand them.

Style: The worldbuilding is too big for the book, which is a major issue. It's a great underlying idea, but it never quite takes shape because the book is too short for it, and so it never gets to shine. Prose is nothing extremely bad or extremely good, pacing is a little off balance at times but tends to work.

Plus: The underlying business principles actually make sense.

Minus: Too many things don't get fleshed out. The story lacks depth, as do the characters. It's too fast.

Summary: A quick and fun read, but it lacks actual content. ( )

Miriam Beckstein works as a journalist and she's found evidence of money laundering, however instead of being a good thing it costs her her job. Then she receives a locket that she had when she was orphaned. Suddenly she finds herself in another world and she's part of the family who run things. However the family are quite murderous and she's a target and she doesn't have the skills the rest of the family have to keep herself alive.

It's interesting but the family are just so powerful, it would appeal to people who are interested in mafia style stories. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/493161.htm...

I had been looking forward to reading this for some time. Reviews that I had skimmed (and indeed hints dropped by the author) led me to understand that it borrows the feudal and feuding families who can walk between the worlds of Roger Zelazny's Amber series, a firm favourite of mine from an early age. But my anticipation was mixed with a little trepidation: even Zelazny was unable to really pull it off in the end - while the Amber books contain some of his most lyrical prose, the plot has holes you can drive an army of dark, clawed, fanged, furry man-like creatures through, and his own interest and energy had very obviously faded by the middle of the second series. And as for the Betancourt prequels - critical reaction has been pretty unanimous, so I don't think I'll bother.

Well, I think Charlie has pulled it off. He's taken Zelazny's idea and wondered what people with that ability would actually do with it in today's world; applied an economic model to it, if you like. Amber was always supposedly a great trading nexus (Corwin had written its anthem, the Ballad of the Water Crossers), but the evidence of this was pretty minimal - rather than wealth, its children seemed to be more attracted to power, and went off to find kingdoms and wars of their own. In the Stross version, there is a convincing business model using the fact that those with the gift can shift between our world and one where the Vikings settled North America and Europe never developed (and, we suspect, at least one other such parallel universe). Also in the Stross version, we have a plot that makes sense and is compelling reading; and some very interesting and complex characters. The Family Trade doesn't have the vivid imagery of some of his other work, but I sat up much later than I should have last night to finish it, and now can't wait for the sequel, The Hidden Family.

It's popcorn. Maybe even kettle corn. Tasty, nice, not a meal. Not like some of Stross's other stuff.
It does seem like our ubercool protagonist just handles everything thrown at her a little too well. Maybe we could see her face some challenges she's less prepared for?
Overall, a fun time. ( )

One of Mr. Stross's earlier novels, and that does shine through somewhat. Also, I'm sure Tor can afford better editors than that. Having said that, it was an enjoyable read ending on what you could call a bit of a cliff hanger, and I've already ordered the next three volumes in the series. ( )

Sample Chapters: http://webscriptions.net/chapters/076...

Fantasy - Time Travel - Inter dimensional travel - Alternate Reality/parallel world... A little bit of everything here.

I'm not sure what really works here for me because I didn't particularly care for the lead characters. The story line though is original enough to keep me reading. ( )

Easy to read and pulled me in pretty quickly. I found this to be really original but on the other hand I haven't read much fantasy. I didn't find this to be focussed on the 'fantastic' stuff too much but rather was interesting because of the political situation into which the main character is landed. She has to make alliances and sort out who her enemies are pretty quickly as well as come to terms with a new culture. It ends on a bit of a cliff hanger so you have to get the next book straight away. You can get some idea as to where it's headed but not too much is given away so it's pretty exciting. ( )

I've come at least moderately late to this, I know Charles Stross as a moderately hard SF writer.

He's brought some of that hard SF skill to his fantasy too. There's a "our world" heroine who's a princess in the other world... but she's a smart, talented and trained working journalist over here with a skill set that puts her both at odds and in some ways at an advantage over there...

There's huge, complex, fantasy intrigue with some hard economics in there too. Hard fantasy... maybe. Good fantasy, yes sure. ( )

If Roger Zelazny's Amberites are Supermen, then Charlie Stross' Clan members are on the level of street hood that Daredevil and Batman deal with. No reality manipulation, just the ability to travel between two worlds, or dimensions, or something like that.

The protagonist, Miriam, is a journalist. She stumbles across something one day, and everything goes to hell.

This, is, of course associated with who her real parents are, and the ability to world walk.

The 'other world' is far more primitive, so, of course the
world-walking Clan has an advantage, with access to information,
technology, and money from 21st century America.

Miriam and the Clan are the target of guerilla assassins, and
probably traitors. There seems to be more than one group at work in all
these nefarious schemes.

This, of course, is a classic series set up. It doesn't annoy you,
the writing is good, and it leaves you wanting to find out what
happens.

So, if you want a fantasy that isn't Tolkien pastiche #6423, and
more of the urban variety, with gangsters, or you are an Amber fan,
quite likely you will enjoy this.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2006/12... ( )

http://rivkat.livejournal.com/133693.... ( )

He does a good job of taking the world-jumping/'oh, i'm a princess in an alternate dimension' thing and saying 'no, this is what really happens (hint: they're scummy)' but his prose style is pedestrian with a touch of off. He's clever but not consistently or thoroughly enough. Fun, not awesome. ( )

http://www.fast-forward.tv/bookreview... ( )

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/jjones/ent... ( )

Note: This book should be read in conjunction with the sequel "The Hidden Family" as it is really one story spread over two volumes for publishing reasons. Read on its' own, "The Family Trade" is incomplete and parts of it don't make any sense; read as a whole it's a very engaging parallel worlds story. ( )