Customer Reviews

The Clan Corporate: Book Three of The Merchant Princes

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

The Clan Corporate is not, as may seem obvious for book 3 of a continuing sereis, a standalone novel. You really need to have read the first two books to properly follow this one, and this one (as with its predecessor) ends with a cliffhanger. The book has other "middle book" problems -- lots of it is just setting up things for the next book. There is not really enough action, especially for the first two thirds of the book or so, and there isn't really enough new going on. I'm not sure there was a way out for Charles Stross -- this book does do important things for the series arc. And it is not unenjoyable reading -- but it is also not brilliant stuff. Still, by the end the excitement factor is ratcheted way up, and the next book promises to be pretty thrilling.

There are two primary threads. One follows Miriam Beckstein, the series hero, as she struggles against confinement by her newly found family in an alternate world. She makes some political blunders trying to make space for herself, and she finds her mother not exactly on her side. To her despair, she finds herself threatened with marriage to the mentally handicapped younger son of the King. And she has made an enemy of the sadistic elder brother to her putative future husband. The other thread follows a new character, Mike Fleming, a DEA agent assigned to the secret investigation, back in the U.S., of the problem presented by the revelations of the existence of a possibly inimical foreign government with agents that can literally disappear to another world. Mike is the lead interrogator of the defector who betrayed Miriam's Clan. He is also, by a rather outrageous coincidence, an ex-boyfriend of Miriam's. Eventually he is tasked with crossing over to the Clan's world, in hopes that he can get to Miriam and persuade her to help the U.S. But he gets there at an inauspicious time -- Miriam is caught in a palace uprising, and things have just gone politically pear-shaped again...

So, as I said, the next books promise to be pretty fascinating. Charles Stross's realistic view of political behavior is central to these stories -- there are several political entities acting, with completely different objectives, from multiple worlds at different tech levels. Some characters are mostly evil, but most are just out for their own side's advantage, from their own limited perspective. Miriam is an appealing character for whom we root -- but she isn't perfect, and she makes believable mistakes. The whole setup is intriguing, and a huge political brouhaha, involving three (or more?) worlds is clearly coming. So -- this isn't by itself Stross's best work, but the series as a whole is still worth following.

I am a Charles Stross fan, mainly of his science fiction. I own all of his science fiction books (although Wireless was weak and I gave it away). I checked the Merchant Princes books out of the library and enjoyed the first two. I was about to buy them when I started reading the third.

I was surprised that the plot seems to get out of Stross' hands. Early in the third book we learn that a culture that is only slightly more advanced than the Victoria era has developed nuclear weapons. This shattered the plot for me, since there was no way such a culture could do this. The Manhatten project taxed the resources of the United States in the 1940s. It remains the largest scientific and engineering project that has ever been undertaken. Such a project would be out of reach of the culture in the book. This shattered the "suspension of disbelief" for me and the book seemed to be down hill from there.

The main character, Miriam Beckstein, seems to plod along. Her Mother, who was previously an interesting and unconventional person becomes conventional. Stross seems to be grinding these books out because they are profitable, but by the third book the series lost it for me.

Hierarchical hardball.


This is really just as good as the others, but an obvious part of a series. Miriam makes some mistakes, running into the royal spymaster. Breeding plans for her are afoot by the 'old bitches' as her mother and the King call them.

Further complicating the plot, Matthias' defection in the last book has left a US alphabet soup agency force with the knowledge and Clan hostages to enable them to start making inroads into the situation. They are terrified of people teleporting nuclear weapons.

Then, it all gets a bit Guns of Avalon if you like.

This series had great potential, but seems to have gone astray. In the earlier books, we had an intelligent modern heroine, exploring new worlds (quite literally), and getting things done. Her Mafia-like Clan - who hadn't known of her existence until the first book - were precious little help, but she was succeeding and hopeful. And the series seemed to be of the Connecticut Yankee type, where one intelligent, well informed person from a more advanced technology makes a difference.

It has now turned into a thriller - complete with ever-escalating threats - up to and including nuclear catastrophe. And the heroine? Much of this book is about her family imprisoning and blackmailing her. She's basically stuck in a more-or-less helpless female role, being pushed into marriage with a royal half wit. At the very end she escapes - but only into even more trouble. She's stopped being an effective change agent - we mostly just get to watch as bad things happen to her.

I gave four stars each to the first two books - this one gets two. The writing is still as good as it was, the alternate worlds are still interesting - but I didn't sign up to follow a tale of abuse and ever increasing catastrophe. If you liked the first two books as much as I did, you are unlikely to like this one.

Stross continues where he's left off with another solid addition to the series. If you enjoyed the first two boooks and the general concept, you'll enjoy seeing your favorite characters thrown into new, complicated scenarios. Stross has constructed a world with interesting mechanics, and his characters explore that world to the fullest. At times, his portrayal of bureaucracy ascends to the ridiculous, but that's part of his style.

If you're expecting something revolutionary or different than the other novels in the series or dislike the medieval culture part of the Merchant Prince universe, you'll be disappointed. If you are looking for continuation of the story arcs and some twists, it'll do.

I loved the prior books in this series, but just couldn't get into this one. The first book set up a novel sci fi premise, and the great thing about Book Two was the heroine had plans (something few heroes do).
This book hit the "reset" button, wiping out what the heroine had accomplished in the last book, and making the heroine a helpless Pawn of Fate. Lots of writers have based their entire careers around this, but part of what made the prior book in this series was it was different. Also, if I feel the protagonist's accomplishments are likely to be erased, it is harder for me to care about the events.
Unlike some reviewers I don't think the heroine's passivity is out of character (I think she is in an impossible situation) but it is still hard to care what happens, when she is effectively a helpless prisoner for the entire book.
I think I understand why the author did this. Many texts on writing talk about the need for conflict, and the protagonist was arguably getting too effective. A novel of her suffering disasters plays a role a bit like the movie "Return of the Jedi". While they are undoubtedly harder to write, I have always preferred novels where the protagonist builds something gradually to ones where she dodges disasters.
Woven throughout the book is a secondary plot, involving the FBI mishandling of the situation. This seems like a preachy attack on George Bush. While I have no problems with (rhetorical) attacks on George Bush, this did not fit in with the rest of the series. It's like finding a rant about Harry Truman in the middle of a C.S. Lewis novel.
The book was not all bad. We got an interesting glimpse of what a Mediaeval society built on the genetics of a psychic power could be like, the society is well though out. At the same time, the preachy bits in our world do have a nice illustration of why law enforcement professionals are often more effective then spooks, and illustrates some things I understand happened post-911. They still don't really fit.

Stross continues his tradition of sloppy, ill-researched writing. The man really has a good story in hand here and if he would trouble to, for example, learn some grammar it would be a readable story as well. Whether this book will work for you depends on your literary pain threshold. If it drives you nuts to run into several bad sentences on each page then you probably ought to read something else. All he needs is a decent editor!