Book:The Family Trade

Charles Stross takes a break from post-Singularity tales with this first book in his Merchant Princes sequence, The Family Trade. Though since the main character, at least in this volume, is a woman one wonders why the set isn’t called The Merchant Princess. Oh well. The book is good enough but seems to be dangerously close to trilogyitis, doing nothing after 300 pages but setting the table. We know who Miriam Beckstein really is, that she’s smart and capable (though what SF protagonist isn’t?) and her real family is vicious but perhaps not as smart as they consider themselves. Book Two is already out and I’ll withhold judgment until it comes back to the library.