The Family Trade (Merchant Princes) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Charles Stross is a relatively new writer who has already developed quite a track record of breathing new life into classic SF themes. In Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise were stories of interstellar adventure, but set in a post-singularity universe. In the Atrocity Archives he gave us spies vs. Lovecraftian horrors. Now, once again, it is time for something completely different.

The Family Trade is a slim book that is clearly the first of a series (Merchant Princes). Miriam Beckstein is a financial reporter specializing in biotech. She is fired when she stumbles over a money-laundering scheme that her bosses have a stake in, and then discovers that she is the long lost child of a family of Merchant Princes from an alternate earth who have the genetic ability to cross from their medieval alternate earth to ours, and who have built up a financial empire based upon cross-world import/export and smuggling.

The naive character suddenly over her head in an alien culture is a familiar SF theme, and Stross handles it expertly. The Merchant Princes have an essentially medieval attitude toward women, while Miriam is a modern, American, professional woman. The Merchant Princes have a complicated family structure (they are required to marry into the family to maintain expression of the recessive world-walking trait). Miriam must quickly find her balance in the complex family intrigues of the Princes before one of them decides to assassinate her (and assassination is hard to avoid when an assassin can suddenly pop in from an alternate world). But she has one key asset--her knowledge of modern business practices and her skills as an investigative journalist.

Like Stross's other work, "The Family Trade" manages to bring back fond memories of classic stories without seeming at all derivative. In this case, I was beset by fond memories of Zelazny's "Nine Princes in Amber." And like the first book in Zelazny's Amber series, "The Family Trade" is frustratingly slim, ending just as it gets going really good. Nevertheless, while it left me wanting more (and soon; I hope he writes fast), "The Family Trade" is a satisfying read. However, be warned that if you get started on this series, you may well find yourself buying expensive hardcovers because you won't be able to wait for the next one to come out in paperback.

Long ago, when I played a lot of fantasy role playing games (D&D for grownups) we had long discussions about how much one could do with a single magic spell. In a sense, that's what the author has examined here: if you had the single "magic" capability of swapping between two universes in a flash... what could you accomplish that you couldn't do now? What would you bring back and forth, and who would benefit?

It's a great premise, and the author does a good (not blow-me-away-wow but good) job at exploring it. Miriam is a high-tech journalist who loses her job and, on the same day, through a series of mishaps, discovers that staring at her birth mother's locket can bring her to an alternate universe. (It's in the same place as Boston, for instance... just a different history that brought the people there.)

Do be aware that this is the first of a series; the author doesn't wrap up very much at the end, so you may not feel as though the book has closure. Also, the story is heavy on political intrigue, and brings up economic theory; that may be a turn-off or something you appreciate.

While the story isn't perfect -- there were a few places in which I thought the protagonist simply wouldn't DO that -- the book held my interest, and I stayed up late to finish it. It also re-sparked our old discussions about what you could do with this particular single magic spell: would *you* have made the same decisions that Miriam did? that her family did? Any novel that instigates philosophical conversations gets a positive nod.

You have to love a book that starts out with this kind of a bang: "Ten and a half hours before a mounted knight with a machine gun tried to kill her, tech journalist Miriam Beckstein lost her job. Before the day was out, her pink slip would set in train a chain of events that would topple governments, trigger civil wars, and kill thousands."

The trouble starts when Miriam uncovers an enormous money-laundering scheme. When she brings it to the attention of her boss, she's instantly fired. As it turns out, Miriam's now ex-employer's parent company is deep in the action. Miriam visits her ailing adoptive mother, who gives her newspaper articles about Miriam's birth mother --- a "Jane Doe" who was stabbed to death. The murdered woman's baby, Miriam, was adopted. Now Miriam's adoptive mother challenges Miriam to investigate the murder.

Along with the papers, Miriam receives a locket worn by her murdered mother. As she examines it, she sees blue-white lights, smells burning toast, her stomach is upset, the light goes out, and she falls down. When she rises, she is no longer in her home. Instead, she's outside in a forest. As she attempts to orient herself, she spies a most disorienting sight --- armored knights riding horses toward her, and shooting at her. She gazes again at the locket and finds herself near her home.

Miriam decides she must return to the mysterious place. Not only must she satisfy her journalist's curiosity, but she also needs to find the connection that the strange forest may have with her birth mother. After her life is threatened concerning her knowledge of the money-laundering scheme, she suspects that she may someday have to travel to the forest to hide. However, that makes her wonder: if her birth mother could have escaped to the other world, why hadn't she done so to escape her murderer?

As Miriam sleeps in her own bed, she is kidnapped. Her kidnappers wear swords and call Miriam "your highness." The reader discovers what happens when take-charge Miriam finds herself in an unbearable and dangerous situation. Her actions set this series in motion, leaving us anxious for volume two of the series. Can Miriam single-handedly drag her new world out of the middle ages? Can she somehow change the despicable trade her family is engaged in? And, with her life in constant danger, will she survive to accomplish her lofty goals?

THE FAMILY TRADE's characters are endearingly flawed and likeable. The pace is quick, with many unusual twists in the plot, and the story is riveting from the first sentence --- an excellent read! When, oh when, will Book Two be out?

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon