Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Family Trade: A Fantasy Novel
    The Family Trade: A Fantasy Novel
    The Family Trade: A Fantasy Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Family Trade: A Fantasy Novel

    Written by Charles Stross

    Narrated by Kate Reading

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A bold new fantasy, The Merchant Princes is a sweeping series from the hottest new writer in science fiction!

    Miriam Beckstein is happy in her life. She's a successful reporter for a hi-tech magazine in Boston, making good money doing what she loves. When her researcher brings her iron-clad evidence of a money-laundering scheme, Miriam thinks she's found the story of the year. But when she takes it to her editor, she's fired on the spot and gets a death threat from the criminals she has uncovered.

    Before the day is over, she's received a locket left by the mother she never knew-the mother who was murdered when she was an infant. Within is a knotwork pattern, which has a hypnotic effect on her. Before she knows it, she's transported herself to a parallel Earth, a world where knights on horseback chase their prey with automatic weapons, and where world-skipping assassins lurk just on the other side of reality - a world where her true family runs things.

    The six families of the Clan rule the kingdom of Gruinmarkt from behind the scenes, a mixture of nobility and criminal conspirators whose power to walk between the worlds makes them rich in both. Braids of family loyalty and intermarriage provide a fragile guarantee of peace, but a recently-ended civil war has left the families shaken and suspicious.

    Taken in by her mother's people, she becomes the star of the story of the century-as Cinderella without a fairy godmother. As her mother's heir, Miriam is hailed as the prodigal countess Helge Thorold-Hjorth, and feted and feasted. Caught up in schemes and plots centuries in the making, Miriam is surrounded by unlikely allies, forbidden loves, lethal contraband, and, most dangerous of all, her family. Her unexpected return will supersede the claims of other clan members to her mother's fortune and power, and whoever killed her mother will be happy to see her dead, too.

    Behind all this lie deeper secrets still, which threaten everyone and everything she has ever known. Patterns of deception and interlocking lies, as intricate as the knotwork between the universes. But Miriam is no one's pawn, and is determined to conquer her new home on her own terms.

    Blending creativity and humor, and the rigor and scope of a science-fiction writer on the grandest scale, Charles Stross has set a new standard for fantasy epics.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateFeb 3, 2015
    ISBN9781427262844
    The Family Trade: A Fantasy Novel
    Author

    Charles Stross

    Charles Stross was born in Leeds, England, in 1964. He has worked as a pharmacist, software engineer and freelance journalist, but now writes full-time. To date, Stross has won two Hugo awards and been nominated twelve times. He has also won the Locus Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Best Novella and has been shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke and Nebula Awards. He is the author of the popular Merchant Princes and Empire Games series, set in the same world. In addition, his fiction has been translated into around a dozen languages. Stross lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife Feorag, a couple of cats, several thousand books, and an ever-changing herd of obsolescent computers.

    More audiobooks from Charles Stross

    Related to The Family Trade

    Titles in the series (5)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Inhibitor Phase

      Aug 11, 2021

      Inhibitor Phase
      2 min read

    • Article

      Welcome To My Cottage Aka The Bates Motel

      Nov 15, 2023

      Quite why my wife gets up so early is a mystery. Is it to avoid me? It's not as if she's milking cows or churning butter, even as the master hulks heavily in his sack. ‘Admin’ is her reason. From dawn till dusk, she's on the phone checking that provi

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Heaven — The Earth

      Sep 10, 2022

      Instead of working on the Amtek account, William Morton stares at his wife’s Instagram. She stands near her black folding chair with hands on hips, a living cliché. He grabs his belly in discomfort. William Morton, VP-Sales, finds rolls of fat where

      18 min read

    • Article

      A River of Stars

      Aug 13, 2018

      A River of Stars
      17 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      May 24, 2023

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Pohlmann Interview, Part 2

      Dec 7, 2018

      We continue our discussion with Mr. Pohlmann to get his faulty recollections of his early days at the magazine. Your first Signals column appeared in Stereo Review in March, 1989. Didn’t you get a Pulitzer for that one? Well, no. The lead paragraph n

      2 min read

    • Article

      Epithalamium

      Jun 1, 2023

      Epithalamium
      16 min read

    • Article

      The Day My Mother Was Murdered

      Oct 20, 2023

      The Day My Mother Was Murdered
      15 min read

    • Article

      'I'm Authentically Sorry For The Facebook Unpleasantness. Well, Kinda, Sorta Sorry'

      Mar 26, 2018

      Rejected first draft of Mark Zuckerberg's belated apology for the mass data invasion that affected at least 50 million Facebook users: To all devoted members of the worldwide Facebook family, I want to say how sorry I am that some of your personal in

      3 min read

    • Article

      Smoke And Mirrors

      Feb 17, 2023

      Smoke And Mirrors
      15 min read

    • Article

      US Warns On Collapse As SA’s Lesser Mortals Navigate Abyss

      Mar 4, 2023

      THIS week the US Embassy issued an advisory to its citizens living in or visiting South Africa. It’s a horror story: “Prepare for the worst, stock up on water for three days, tinned food, batteries, medicine, first aid supplies and memorise the phone

      2 min read

    • Article

      Citizen Ron

      Dec 14, 2019

      Citizen Ron
      4 min read

    • Article

      Patrick’s Pages

      May 25, 2022

      THERE’S BEEN a revolution going on in the world of work over the past couple of years… and in future, for many, ‘going to the office will involve just popping upstairs. Home working is here to stay. It proved popular with millions of employees during

      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘Keyboard Heroes’ Will Get Comeuppance

      Mar 6, 2021

      SOCIAL media will be the end of us. If it’s not sending us down rabbit holes into the sewers of conspiracy theories and hate, it’s destroying us for showing the world who we really are – and we’re doing it all by ourselves. The Penny Sparrows, Velaph

      2 min read

    • Article

      Pattern Recognition

      Mar 4, 2024

      Five hours’ New York jet lag and Cayce Pollard wakes in Camden Town to the dire and ever-circling wolves of disrupted circadian rhythm. It is that flat and spectral nonhour, awash in limbic tides, brainstem stirring fitfully, flashing inappropriate r

      3 min read

    • Article

      Viewpoint Andy Blackmore

      Dec 28, 2017

      The internet hosts a marvellous melange of quotations concerning chimpanzees and typewriters; you know the kind. That an infinite number of chimps, thumping away, over an infinite number of typewriters, would eventually write an episode of Hancock’s

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Family Trade

    3.5/5

    34 ratings22 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      I enjoyed the idea of a clan of merchants able to move anything they can carry between worlds, but that they cannot move enough of anything to bring the people of this world out of the middle ages. I also liked the doppelganger idea, where protecting a home on one world means protecting it on both worlds at once.However, in spite of the thought provoking ideas I did not like this book. The story itself was weighted down by seemingly one dimensional characters and heavy handed dialogue to advance the plot. I have trouble understanding this author - half his books I love, half I hate.
    • 3/5
      One of Mr. Stross's earlier novels, and that does shine through somewhat. Also, I'm sure Tor can afford better editors than that. Having said that, it was an enjoyable read ending on what you could call a bit of a cliff hanger, and I've already ordered the next three volumes in the series.
    • 3/5
      I liked how one other reviewer here put it. To paraphrase, starts with a nice premise and then adds too many holes. I loved the protagonist set-up. Mirriam comes across smart, modern, and capable. I enjoyed the build-up leading to meeting her birth family but then the book gets sloppy. I waited until I was into the second book before writing this review on the first.The end of this first book is a near-literal 'Perils of Pauline' ending, and would not be a satisfying read for someone unwilling to continue the series.I love most of Charlie Stross' other works. He has a way of sucking me in and blowing my mind. This is a departure for him, in terms of genre, being closer to fantasy than SF and closer to steam-punk than cyber-punk. So I come to this series as a huge fan of his. I claim him as one of my very favorite authors and some of his work as best-of-breed pieces of modern SF (along with some works of Vernor Vinge, Neal Stephenson, and other rare contemporary luminaries).I am feeling slightly bothered because he set up a magnificent situation and a character with staying power yet I am sensing it diminishing into a common 'summer read.' He may yet pull it out of the ordinary and finish with some mind-blowing but as the first book ends it is losing steam, not gathering it. Sure it has a faint ring of Zelazny's Amber series but in no way does it feel like a rip-off, just an inspiration.I agree with some other reviewers that Mirriam rises to challenge the family too swiftly and loses the composed tactics I expected from her. She is not even trying to learn the language, a huge weakness for someone in her shoes. Now the counter argument is probably that someone is trying to kill her (more than one someone) on totally alien soil and she's forced into reactionary behavior. True. But it still feels out of character. She starts pulling on Angbard's tail too early.To me the set-up of the book is 4-star at least but by the end I'm feeling only a 3 star rating. I will continue the series and I still love Stross' works but this may not be counted among his finest. Too early to say until I finish the series, lol.
    • 4/5
      Fist off I'll say that I'm a Charles Stross fan, albeit his SF titles to date. So when a friend of mine who REALLY reads fantasy recommended this title I decided to pick it up. I trul;y enjoyed this book and plan to read the other titles in the series. NOT what I would consider hard-core fantasy (witches, warlocks and the sort); rather a delightful and intriguing plot with the "worl-walker" concept able to fit into an SF plot just as readily.
    • 5/5
      Fantasy - Time Travel - Inter dimensional travel - Alternate Reality/parallel world... A little bit of everything here.I'm not sure what really works here for me because I didn't particularly care for the lead characters. The story line though is original enough to keep me reading.
    • 3/5
      Plot: Interesting take on the lost family heir plot, with a good combination of fantasy, sci-fi and conspiracy. A little too predictable and too easily solved at times.Characters: It's a good collection of characters, and they're well drawn especially in dialogue. What is missing, however, is motive, in far too many cases. Why they do the things they do is a mystery in too many cases, and so it's hard to identify with them or understand them.Style: The worldbuilding is too big for the book, which is a major issue. It's a great underlying idea, but it never quite takes shape because the book is too short for it, and so it never gets to shine. Prose is nothing extremely bad or extremely good, pacing is a little off balance at times but tends to work. Plus: The underlying business principles actually make sense. Minus: Too many things don't get fleshed out. The story lacks depth, as do the characters. It's too fast.Summary: A quick and fun read, but it lacks actual content.
    • 4/5
      I've come at least moderately late to this, I know Charles Stross as a moderately hard SF writer.He's brought some of that hard SF skill to his fantasy too. There's a "our world" heroine who's a princess in the other world... but she's a smart, talented and trained working journalist over here with a skill set that puts her both at odds and in some ways at an advantage over there...There's huge, complex, fantasy intrigue with some hard economics in there too. Hard fantasy... maybe. Good fantasy, yes sure.
    • 3/5
      I don't like it. It's well-written, excellent characterization, fascinating universe and "magic" - but I have the same headache as Miriam does trying to work out who's doing what why. The manipulation, plotting, tricks, and flat lies that make up the storyline are overwhelming. Now I've finished it, I still have very little idea what's going on; the new enemy is reasonably clear, but the older one is still obscure to me - is it Angbard, Miriam's direct relatives, someone else? Honestly, at this point I don't even care. And the fact that the sample of the next book has an entirely new set of characters (well, almost entirely new) and portentously announces that the rather boring meeting that's described is very important some way doesn't particularly appeal. Not for me, I think - someone who enjoys this kind of double- and triple-thinking would love it, but I won't bother to get the next one.
    • 4/5
      Miriam Beckstein works as a journalist and she's found evidence of money laundering, however instead of being a good thing it costs her her job. Then she receives a locket that she had when she was orphaned. Suddenly she finds herself in another world and she's part of the family who run things. However the family are quite murderous and she's a target and she doesn't have the skills the rest of the family have to keep herself alive.It's interesting but the family are just so powerful, it would appeal to people who are interested in mafia style stories.
    • 3/5
      It's popcorn. Maybe even kettle corn. Tasty, nice, not a meal. Not like some of Stross's other stuff. It does seem like our ubercool protagonist just handles everything thrown at her a little too well. Maybe we could see her face some challenges she's less prepared for?Overall, a fun time.
    • 3/5
      I finished this book last night, and while it has its moments, it seems to be lacking in a few spots, namely, the lead character Miriam.I liked the world, I liked the background. It is definitely a creative take on the old plot of parallel universes, and people jumping back and forth between them.What I didn't like is the main character. Miriam is a successful reporter who understands how business works. After receiving an amulet from her adoptive mother that was once her Birth Mothers, she manages to transport into an a non-technology, still feudal alternate universe. Initially, her reactions were right - investigate, do it slowly, and consistently. But, once she meets her birth-mothers family, her character doesn't act believably. She manages to understand her families business in a matter of days. After a few more days, she's already scheming on how to change the world. After initial concern for her adoptive mother, Miriam doesn't mention Iris for the rest of the book. She falls in love too fast with the leading man, who may or may not be what he seems.The end of the book was lacking. It doesn't complete the story and feels very unfinished. The end action scene was all over the place, and hard to follow.I enjoy this world, and I suspect, will enjoy reading the next two volumes in this trilogy, but unless I encounter the book in a Library or find them on BookMooch, I will not be finishing the series.
    • 3/5
      I didn't hate it--I even read the second one--but I agree with other reviewers that the characters were one-dimensional and too numerous.
      And it's also one of those kind of books where you have to remember this whole complicated political situation from book to book, which I think is irritating.
    • 5/5
      Great series about alternative universes, medieval families, smuggling and a strong female lead.
    • 2/5
      There's something uniquely frustrating about a great idea poorly executed. This book is based on an exciting premise -- A family Clan who are able to move between our world and an unindustrialized parallel -- but devotes too much of its energy to a poorly introduced conspiracy populated by a cast of characters we are barely introduced for. The result is a frustrating mess. I'll probably read the next book, but only because am so terribly confused, and am foolishly intrigued by the potential of a world such as this.
    • 4/5
      Easy to read and pulled me in pretty quickly. I found this to be really original but on the other hand I haven't read much fantasy. I didn't find this to be focussed on the 'fantastic' stuff too much but rather was interesting because of the political situation into which the main character is landed. She has to make alliances and sort out who her enemies are pretty quickly as well as come to terms with a new culture. It ends on a bit of a cliff hanger so you have to get the next book straight away. You can get some idea as to where it's headed but not too much is given away so it's pretty exciting.
    • 3/5
      He does a good job of taking the world-jumping/'oh, i'm a princess in an alternate dimension' thing and saying 'no, this is what really happens (hint: they're scummy)' but his prose style is pedestrian with a touch of off. He's clever but not consistently or thoroughly enough. Fun, not awesome.
    • 5/5
      This is a book with a somewhat typical fantasy premise. Adopted girl finds out that her birth parents are from an alternate Earth, and that she is actually royalty. The beginning of the book was a bit slow for me and I wasn't very impressed with Miriam, the main character. However, the alternate Earth and the Family that Miriam finds herself pulled back into are interesting; just the politics and economics of a group of people who can cross over between our world and an alternate Earth makes for some fascinating what-ifs. By the end of the book, I was totally drawn in to Miriam's troubles and the larger political struggle going on.
    • 3/5
      This book was ok. As a fan of Roger Zelazny, I think I should note that although the premise of this series is similar to the Chronicles of Amber, the writing is not as clear and engaging. However, I enjoyed the story enough to keep reading the series, and I'll hope that the story evens out as we go along.
    • 4/5
      Good start to the series. The books don't stand alone early as well as they work as a series.
    • 2/5
      Grrrrrrrrrrrrr, someone with MS only needs an oncologist if they also have cancer!
    • 4/5
      An interesting start to a series. I think that I figured out what was going on about halfway through... I'll continue to read just to see if I'm right. Characters are kind of so-so, Miriam is kind of Stephanie Plum-ish, i.e can't wait to jump in the sack with the first good looking guy to come along, but that's ok; I like Stephanie Plum.
    • 2/5
      Start with a good premise. Then fill it with so many holes that you can drive Mack trucks through it... I found that reading this story only had me thinking that for a heroine who was so smart so often, and able to predict life threatening situations with such great ability, she was certainly unable to see how many ways she could have been eliminated so as to make this story a non-starter. Oh, there it is, it dawns on me that if the other characters could see how easily I do that our protagonist could be snuffed out, then the book would have ended. And that is what should have happened. This book should have died in the slush pile.