Eines der neuen Science Fiction Talente, hier mit dem dritten Teil der Merchant Princess Serie.
The Clan Corporate: Book Three of The Merchant Princes
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""The Clan Corporate" offers more proof, if any were needed, why Charles Stross has become universally acknowledged as one of science fiction's major new talents."--Mike Resnick
"Stross and his feisty heroine are currently about the best practitioner and heroine the old motif boasts, and many are and will be the readers hoping for more than the three volumes they've given us so far." --"Booklist"
"Stross is a cunning writer." -"Locus" on "The Clan Corporate"
"Charles Stross's Family Trade series continues strong with "The Clan Corporate,"" --"Analog" "Stross continues to mix high and low tech in amusing and surprising ways. . . .[he] weaves a tale worthy of Robert Ludlum or Dan Brown." -"Publishers Weekly" on "The Hidden Family"
"It's simply a great adventure, full of danger, of plots within plots, of forbidden love and political murder."--Orson Scott Card on "The Family Trade"
"Stross and his feisty heroine are currently about the best practitioner and heroine the old motif boasts, and many are and will be the readers hoping for more than the three volumes they've given us so far." --"Booklist"
"Stross is a cunning writer." -"Locus" on "The Clan Corporate"
"Charles Stross's Family Trade series continues strong with "The Clan Corporate,"" --"Analog" "Stross continues to mix high and low tech in amusing and surprising ways. . . .[he] weaves a tale worthy of Robert Ludlum or Dan Brown." -"Publishers Weekly" on "The Hidden Family"
"It's simply a great adventure, full of danger, of plots within plots, of forbidden love and political murder."--Orson Scott Card on "The Family Trade"
Synopsis
In "The Family Trade" and "The Hidden Family", Miriam got in touch with her roots. Now those roots have begun to strangle her. A young business journalist from Boston, Miriam discovered that her family comes from a parallel timeline, that she is very well-connected, and that her family is way too much like the Mafia for her comfort. She's tried hard to remain her own woman, even going so far to start a profitable (and legitimate) business in a third timeline she has discovered, outside the family reach. There have been murders and betrayals.Now, however, she may be overreaching - if she gets caught, death or worse is around the bend. For instance, there's the brain-damaged son of the local king who needs a wife ...But they'd never make her do that, would they? 'Stross gives us an escape fantasy that is most seductive, indeed' - Salon. 'The "Clan Corporate" offers more proof, if any were needed, why Charles Stross has become universally acknowledged as one of science fiction's major new talents' - Mike Resnick.
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In the third part of the "Merchant Princes" series, main protagonist Miriam Beckstein, former high-tech journalist and unluckily, in a parallel universe also known as Duchess Helge of Thorold, is successfully grounded by her mafia-like relatives, striving to keep her docile, and , preferably, silent. While the Clan`s business structure is falling apart after the defection of Count Angbard`s right-hand-man, Matthias, Miriam/Helge is forced to cool her heels on Gruinmarkt, taking dancing and etiquette lessons. This is not going all too well, as can be imagined, and after undertaking one social blunder after another and a too short period of freedom, Helge is sentenced to private emprisonment and being married off to the dim-witted crown prince Creon.
At the same time, in the "real" USA, Matthias`revelations about the Clan enable agents of a special investigation unit to come up with a method of infiltrating Gruinmarkt. As it happens, the first agent to cross over is Miriam`s former lover Mike Fleming. Their first encounter is anything but romantic, the circumstances unexpected, to say the least, and Miriam has to run for her life and her freedom.
While the story starts rather slow and seems sometimes as boring as Miriam`s confinement to medieval quarters - there is a lot of intrigueing and manoevering without real and decisive action - it gains speed at a breathtaking clip and closes with a showdown of medieval proportions. There is no real ending, rather a cliffhanger keeping the reader wondering what will become of Miriam, pardon Helge, after the dust has settled down.
Stross once again tells a tale in the best tradition of Zelazny, seasoned with some SF- and Secret-Service-flavors of his own, making it attractive for fans of alternate-reality-SF as well as special-agent-stories.
At the same time, in the "real" USA, Matthias`revelations about the Clan enable agents of a special investigation unit to come up with a method of infiltrating Gruinmarkt. As it happens, the first agent to cross over is Miriam`s former lover Mike Fleming. Their first encounter is anything but romantic, the circumstances unexpected, to say the least, and Miriam has to run for her life and her freedom.
While the story starts rather slow and seems sometimes as boring as Miriam`s confinement to medieval quarters - there is a lot of intrigueing and manoevering without real and decisive action - it gains speed at a breathtaking clip and closes with a showdown of medieval proportions. There is no real ending, rather a cliffhanger keeping the reader wondering what will become of Miriam, pardon Helge, after the dust has settled down.
Stross once again tells a tale in the best tradition of Zelazny, seasoned with some SF- and Secret-Service-flavors of his own, making it attractive for fans of alternate-reality-SF as well as special-agent-stories.
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3.0 von 5 Sternen
readable but a disappointment compared to the first two
7. August 2006
Von R. Kelly Wagner
- Veröffentlicht auf Amazon.com
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
The paradox about this third volume in the series is that although there's a lot of action, and many things happen, nothing happens in terms of character development or new ideas about communications between the worlds.
First off, this volume is not readable as a stand-alone. If you are new to the series, book 3 would make no sense whatsoever unless you read books one and two first - so if you're going to order this one, order all three. Second, although we have no new ideas and very little in the way of character in book 3, if you're reading the series, you'll have to read this one, or else book 4, when it comes out, will be unintelligible. In my opinion, book 3 should not have been published as a stand-alone at all, with its beginning in the middle of a conversation between two characters and its end in a cliff-hanger; Stross should have saved it and combined it with whatever will be in volume 4, for a larger book, one with more of a satisfying plot.
Such as it is, the plot of this book consists entirely of getting a few more of our-world characters aware of the existence of the Clan's world, and killing off a few important characters in each world in order to make way for whatever happens next. We get only about 5 seconds' worth of Miriam working on her technology-transfer business, and about 3 seconds of her flirting with James Lee, of the family that discovered the New Britain world, for romance. The rest is spies spying and the military plotting to blow things up (several different military organizations, in more than one world-line) and occasionally doing so.
As alternate history goes, since Miriam spends almost no time in New Britain in this volume, and most of her time in the Clan world is spent on internal business of royalty and etiquette, we don't really find out anything new about the differences between the worlds.
In short, unless you're interested in a few drug busts and a bit of military paranoia, the only thing to recommend this book is that it's a necessary bridge in the series. You could wait to cross that bridge until book 4 comes out, so that you actually have a destination, and then buy both volumes together.
First off, this volume is not readable as a stand-alone. If you are new to the series, book 3 would make no sense whatsoever unless you read books one and two first - so if you're going to order this one, order all three. Second, although we have no new ideas and very little in the way of character in book 3, if you're reading the series, you'll have to read this one, or else book 4, when it comes out, will be unintelligible. In my opinion, book 3 should not have been published as a stand-alone at all, with its beginning in the middle of a conversation between two characters and its end in a cliff-hanger; Stross should have saved it and combined it with whatever will be in volume 4, for a larger book, one with more of a satisfying plot.
Such as it is, the plot of this book consists entirely of getting a few more of our-world characters aware of the existence of the Clan's world, and killing off a few important characters in each world in order to make way for whatever happens next. We get only about 5 seconds' worth of Miriam working on her technology-transfer business, and about 3 seconds of her flirting with James Lee, of the family that discovered the New Britain world, for romance. The rest is spies spying and the military plotting to blow things up (several different military organizations, in more than one world-line) and occasionally doing so.
As alternate history goes, since Miriam spends almost no time in New Britain in this volume, and most of her time in the Clan world is spent on internal business of royalty and etiquette, we don't really find out anything new about the differences between the worlds.
In short, unless you're interested in a few drug busts and a bit of military paranoia, the only thing to recommend this book is that it's a necessary bridge in the series. You could wait to cross that bridge until book 4 comes out, so that you actually have a destination, and then buy both volumes together.
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3.0 von 5 Sternen
Stross lost the bits that made this a compelling story
13. Oktober 2006
Von Esther Schindler
- Veröffentlicht auf Amazon.com
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
I wrote a glowing review of the first book in this series, because Charles Stross had done something wonderful: give a character the ability to flit back-and-forth between alternate timetracks in two sort-of-parallel worlds. The second book in the series added the question, "What if there are *more* than two universes?" and our heroine, Miriam, naturally explored the answer while she experimented with the economics of "what can you carry on your back?"
While I wanted to know what happened in The Clan Corporate, reading it was a bit of a slog. That's because the story no longer has its anchor in a firm SF/F "what if?" question; it's just politics and intrigue and backstabbing. And it's not brilliantly done, I'm afraid; Miriam spends most of the time feeling like a pawn in someone else's game, and that's because she _is_. Things are done to her; she instigates very little, herself, and most of those decisions are fairly dumb. Nor do we have the opportunity to watch good character development. Even when she does things, she doesn't grow or learn very much from the experience.
Overall, quite a disappointment. I'll look at the next book in the series but I won't rush to get it, as I did with this one.
While I wanted to know what happened in The Clan Corporate, reading it was a bit of a slog. That's because the story no longer has its anchor in a firm SF/F "what if?" question; it's just politics and intrigue and backstabbing. And it's not brilliantly done, I'm afraid; Miriam spends most of the time feeling like a pawn in someone else's game, and that's because she _is_. Things are done to her; she instigates very little, herself, and most of those decisions are fairly dumb. Nor do we have the opportunity to watch good character development. Even when she does things, she doesn't grow or learn very much from the experience.
Overall, quite a disappointment. I'll look at the next book in the series but I won't rush to get it, as I did with this one.
5 von 5 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
4.0 von 5 Sternen
inconsistent New Britain descriptions?
28. Mai 2006
Von W Boudville
- Veröffentlicht auf Amazon.com
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
Stross continues his engagingly complex series with this third book. He weaves an intricate plot, located in three parallel worlds - ours of the early 21st century, a backward medieval setting and one some 50 years or so behind us. Despite the fantastical looking aspect of the cover, this book, like its predecessors, is no fantasy excursion. Instead, it is a solidly grounded science fiction tale. If you are new to this series, seriously consider first reading the earlier books. Coming to this book cold can be rather confusing, and you'll miss a lot of nuances.
Stross came up with a brilliantly evocative terminology. In the world of New Britain, they have just detonated a fission bomb. They call it a corpuscular petard, inevitably and fetchingly abbreviated as 'corpse'.
There is one caveat with the book. In the earlier books, the New Britain society seems technologically equivalent to ours around 1900. That is, about a century behind. But in this book, they are now only some 60 years behind, being roughly where the US was in 1945, after having developed the atomic bomb. Granted, a basic plot statement is that there are worlds at different stages of development. However, the New Britain world seems to have jumped 40 years in less than a year's narrative. Somewhat jarring.
Stross came up with a brilliantly evocative terminology. In the world of New Britain, they have just detonated a fission bomb. They call it a corpuscular petard, inevitably and fetchingly abbreviated as 'corpse'.
There is one caveat with the book. In the earlier books, the New Britain society seems technologically equivalent to ours around 1900. That is, about a century behind. But in this book, they are now only some 60 years behind, being roughly where the US was in 1945, after having developed the atomic bomb. Granted, a basic plot statement is that there are worlds at different stages of development. However, the New Britain world seems to have jumped 40 years in less than a year's narrative. Somewhat jarring.
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