The Hidden Family: Book Two of The Merchant Princes

by Charles Stross

Tor, 2005, ISBN 0-765-31347-2

A book review by Elisabeth Carey

Life gets even more interesting and complicated for Miriam/Helge, as she tries to learn her way around the Clan and Gruinmarkt, establish an independent foothold which will give her a negotiating position with the Clan, discovers a second pattern and a third world, and generally learns that being non-political is not an option. It's not too far off the mark to say that everything she thinks she knows is wrong, and a lot the Clan thinks it knows is wrong, too.

The story begun in The Family Trade comes to a satisfactory conclusion, but there's room for more stories, and we haven't heard the last of Miriam or her troublesome family. Again, highly recommended.

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