The Revolution Business: Book Five of the Merchant Princes (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Stross's disorganized fifth Merchant Princes story (after 2007's The Merchants' War) continues the adventures of hapless Boston journalist Miriam Beckstein. Newly free of political imprisonment, pregnant and on the lam, she finds herself at the center of a desperate power grab as political instability rocks the mafia-like Clan Corporate, who are magically able to cross between parallel worlds. When world-walkers steal nukes from a U.S. installation, it's a race against time to find out who has them, and why, before they can be deployed. The U.S. is also close to discovering a technological method of world-walking, rendering the clan both vulnerable and obsolete. Stross pays heartfelt homage to Roger Zelazny and Lois McMaster Bujold, but with too many characters and too little focus, this novel fails to match their achievements. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

In the fifth Merchant Princes novel, things are going very badly for the Clan. Civil war rages over control of the kingdom of Niejwein, and the Clan’s army is under siege in two universes. The Clan’s leader has suffered a stroke, and the normal plotting and intrigue have ratcheted up. Miriam, the worldwalking Clan princess raised in our world, has been rescued (again!) and plopped in the center of the Clan’s ostensibly progressive faction. Even as she tries to figure out who wants her as a leader and who is just looking for a figurehead, authorities in our world break the secret of transdimensional travel and are coming through. --Frieda Murray

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1ST edition (April 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765316722
• ISBN-13: 978-0765316721
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #54,695 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit sketchy, a bit ranty, April 30, 2009

By	Kevin Murphy (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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I really like this series, and have rated the earlier books 4s and 5s, but I gotta say this installment in noticeably weaker than the others.

Portions of it seem a bit sketchy and rushed, notably the New Britain segments. We never see the situation building, just one day everything changes. It reads like the author needed to get from here to there to set up for Book 6, but didn't have the spare pages in which to flesh it out.

The situation in America seems, well, a rant. The same story could have been told without dragging current-day politics into it -- distracting greatly from the story and alienating some readers. The previous clowns in office were not the only clowns ever to be there, nor will they be the last. Generic officeholders would have done as well or better.

That being said, the promised climax to the series in Book 6 ("The Trade of Queens") should be well worth the wait.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointingly slow, June 4, 2009

By	Claude Rothman "There's no shame preferring h... (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When you reach the fifth volume of a collection,

1- You expect a summary of the previous ones
2- You "dream" to see some of the previous issues addressed
3- You hope to have at least the same pleasure to read it as you had with the precedent volumes.

The truth is that there's long scientific (?) demonstrations and passages not really necessary because they lead nowhere.
The continuity with the previous volumes is there but without any real flow. As if it had to be there but without real connexion with what previously happened such as the revolution in New Britain which is deadly slow and almost uninteresting.
The usual fast-pace of the previous volumes is recovered at the end of the book only where finally something happens.

Let's hope the last volume will be more captivating.

And for those who enjoy parallel words SF, Zelazny had started with the collection "Amber princes". Remarkable from the first to the last volume.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars end game is in sight for ambitious SF saga, May 27, 2009

By	Robert M. Baird "BerkeleyBob" (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Book 5 of Charles Stross' ambitious SF/fantasy cycle of 6 novels is out and the end game is in sight. This is a complex story involving a very likable and tough-minded female business journalist from our world and time and parallel worlds, quite unlike ours. The series have given one of my favorite writers a chance to explore economics, political systems and do so in the context of a rousing tale of good guys and bad guys. You really would not want to jump into this mid-stream, read them in sequence. A very rewarding read, particularly for those who enjoyed Stephenson's Baroque cycle.