The Bloodline Feud - (Merchant Princes) by Charles Stross (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published separately as The family trade and The hidden family.

Book Synopsis

The Bloodline Feud: an omnibus edition of the first two novels in Charles Stross's The Merchant Princes series

The six families of the Clan rule the kingdom of Gruinmarkt from behind the scenes. They are a mixture of nobility and criminal conspirators whose power to walk between their world and ours makes them rich in both.

Miriam, a hip tech journalist from Boston, discovers her alternate-world relatives with explosive results that shake three worlds. Now, as the prodigal Countess Helge Thorold-Hjorth, she finds herself ensnared in schemes and plots centuries in the making. She is surrounded by unlikely allies, lethal contraband, and--most dangerous of all--her family.

To avoid a slippery slope down to an unmarked grave, Miriam must build a power base of her own--with unexpected consequences for three different time lines, including the quasi-Victorian one exploited by the hidden family.

Review Quotes

"Great Fun!" --Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist on The Merchant Princes series

"Stross brings to fantasy the same kind of sly humor and clear-eyed extrapolation that he previously brough to space opera and horror...presented with great wit and high suspense." --San Francisco Chronicle on The Merchant Princes series

"A marvelous romp through this world and others, told by a master of the imaginative thrill-ride." --Karl Schroeder on The Merchant Princes series

"A fantastically thrilling series." --Booklist on The Merchant Princes series

"Totally off the wall and delightful." --Anne McCaffrey on The Merchant Princes series

"An alternate world that is fascinating and original...it's simply a great adventure, full of danger, of plots within plots, of forbidden love and political murder." --Orson Scott Card on The Merchant Princes series

"Stross gives us an escape fanatsy that is most seductive, indeed." --Salon.com on The Merchant Princes series

"Inventive, irreverent, and delightful...an alternate world where business is simultaneously low and high tech, and where romance, murder, marriage, and business are hopelessly intertwined--and deadly." --L. E. Modesitt, Jr. on The Merchant Princes series

"Fans of the author's previous work will recognize his trademark skill at world building--you can almost see the filth on the streets of New England, feel the closeted oppression of the Clan hierarchy, and experience Miriam's terror at the horrifying circumstances she finds herself in." --SciFiNow on The Merchant Princes series

"A rollicking, pacy read and delivers on the fun." --Interzone

About the Author

Charles Stross is the author of the bestselling Merchant Princes series, the Laundry Files series, and several stand-alone novels including Glasshouse, Accelerando, and Saturn's Children. He has won three Hugo Awards, including one for the Laundry Files novella "Equoid," published on Tor.com. Born and raised in Leeds, England, he lives with his spouse in Edinburgh, Scotland, in a flat that is slightly older than the state of Texas.