In this third book in the series, Stross’ world building gets more complex 
and even more interesting. Plus Miriam, our protagonist and heroine, gets into more trouble than she can get out of.
At the end of the last novel, Miriam discovered that her foster mother Iris was her real mother Patricia, and Patricia returned (somewhat unwillingly) to the world of the Clan after an attempt on her life. Mattias, the security chief of Miram’s Uncle the Duke, turned traitor and, with a well thought out plan, decimated the Clan’s safehouses and couriers in our world, and in turn informed the FBI that it was the Clan that was responsible for a large smuggling operation. Miriam’s lover Roland is killed in the destruction and takeover of the Clan safehouses. Miriam is kept under lock and key while she recovers, but is furious to find out that the business she set up in world 3 (which is using patents/inventions from our world to make money) is being run by someone else in the Clan. (more…)
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This is the second book of the Merchant Princes series (got the first four books in the series at a sale at Katy Budget Books). 
It is very much a straight continuation (i.e., no cliff hanger) from the 1st book, The Family Trade.
Miriam, fresh off several assassination attempts, is back in our world, bringing along Brill from the Clan’s home world (for background, from the first book, Miriam and others with similar DNA can world-walk by looking at a particular braid design; her family in world 2 is called the Clan, made up of six families; world 2 is about 150 years behind our world in development, and has a monarchy and hierarchical caste system). From one of the assassination attempts, she retrieved a locket from one of the assassins (whom Miriam killed); the locket contains a braid, but of a different design. She cannot use it to world walk from our world, but she can from world 2, and it takes her to…world 3, which is more advanced than world 2 (airships, primitve cars) but not as advanced as ours. (more…)
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This is the first book of the Merchant Princes series (got the first four books in the series at a sale at Katy Budget Books). 
The series combines the idea of parallel worlds with severe economics; each of the worlds are at a different stage of economic development, and our protagonist is determined to take advantage of this as a wealth creation mechanism.
Miriam Beckstein is a reporter on the trail of a huge story about drug smuggling. She and her investigative helper, Paulette, get fired upon presenting their story to management. In a funk, Miriam goes to see her foster mother, who sees this as a good time to give her a box of things from her “real mother”. This box includes a locket, which when opened shows a braid design that enables those of a particular bloodline to “world walk”. (more…)
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