The Traders' War: A Merchant Princes Omnibus: The Clan Corporate & The Merchants' War

I'm getting more familiar with jumping between 3 or 4 parallel universes with several main characters who travel & many who don't, but since there are 4 or 5 story lines interweaving timelines and universes, it's not hard to misplace where & when you are, especially if you happen to put the book down for a day or more. Nevertheless, this one has lots more of Stross' excellent narrative action, I understand the characters & their motivations better, so the reading is less work & much more fun. I expect the series will continue to get even better for these reasons, so my advice for Stross fans would be to persevere, and you will be richly rewarded.

Originally published as the third and fourth books in a series of 6, the author has combined them into one big volume, rewriting them in spots and removing some of the introductory material for the fourth volume which is not needed here. I read the first two volumes at the same time and did not expect what transpires in the 3rd and 4rth volume. They make for very enjoyable reading. Middle books of trilogies usually suffer from the lack of resolution of anything at all relevant since that is saved for the concluding volume. Here some matters are resolved, new issues are raised, and the happy ending of the first two volumes is shattered. And yet, the story remains consistent when you take a look at it after having read the first 4 books of the series. The first two volumes could have been labeled fantasy. These volumes will disabuse you of that theory. While I do not intend to be specific about the story, I will point out that there are historical inaccuracies in it but, if you think about it, the answer will be obvious.

I'll use the same review for all three in the trilogy.I read them when they first came out as a 6 book series, and I think the rewrite to put them back in the original 3 volumes, plus the authors improved skill, has really worked, I think they are markedly better, and worth buying again. Usually, a re-read is just familiar, perhaps you pick up a few things you missed. Occasionally, you realize either you've moved on, or you really missed something, but with this, they just seem better.I did this to refresh myself for the sequel trilogy (all new) that comes out in a few days (Jan 17, 2017), don't worry, it's all written and the publisher has it (though for some reason they are going dribble it out one book a year!).

The Traders' War (The Merchant Princes, #3-4) by Charles StrossOkay, so you thought the first Omnibus was confusing? Well, then let's add in another world with it's now set of distant, and pissed off Clan, and oh yeah, the US government is also pissed off as well.So now our hero, the ever plucky Miriam aka Helge, has to negotiate thru landmines (sometimes literally) in all three worlds, while dodging various bullets. Oh, and being under house arrest is not a good idea for her either!At least there are some few folks that she can count upon, but who are they really? Everyone seems to need her of rather own machinations, and she really is getting sick and tired of all this.The characters are becoming more fully fleshed out, but the plot become much more intertwined and twisted! Don't blink as you might miss something important... in whichever world you may be?

This is my second time through these books, and I'm enjoying it as much as the first. The worlds create are brilliantly imagined, the characters are relatable, and I have trouble putting the book (iPad) down at night. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys alternate-reality/worlds scifi.

As much as I love Stross - and I do, from the Lovecraftian Laundry Files stories to his near-future-tech stand-alone novels, to the Saturn's Children series of far-future android descendants of mankind - I have to rate this one a complete stinker.The Traders' War is a combination of two novels in the "Merchant Princes" series, the third and fourth. It features the ongoing trials of the female protagonist who was born on "our" Earth, but to a mother who was a member of the "Clan" - the other-Earth, reality-traveling merchant-courier-cum-royalty extended family who are the only ones capable of traveling between Earths.Our heroine, formerly an investigative journalist named Miriam, starts the story as a virtual prisoner in a Georgian-era-like society. Railing against her new position in society and being cut off from the new company she started previous to this book, she blunders from outer edges of intrigue to plot to intrigue, getting herself deeper and deeper into trouble until the only use the Royal Court can find for her is as an imprisoned brood mare.Miriam is an utterly unlikable character, displaying a lack of intelligence, refusal to adapt to the situation at hand, and inability to investigate that leads me to believe she must have been a very poor journalist in her previous life. The dialog is soporific, the plot seems to attempt to be convoluted but really just left me bored, and the conversational excerpts - translated or transcribed from intelligence collection sources never revealed or explained - are somehow incomprehensible related to the story.Every time I came back to read this book, I felt like I was forcing myself - unusual for someone who typically reads 2-3 books a week. If It was a movie, I would have walked out of the movie theater. I made it 40% of the way before I gave up, deleted it from my Kindle, and wrote this review.

Great series! Stross writes characters with such intelligence on each side of a conflict that it’s a joy to read as they interact!