The Hidden Family (Merchant Princes Book 2) by Charles Stross Search Amazon for other books by or about Charles Stross. Rating: Reviewed by: John Walsh

In this second installment of his entertaining and stimulating series The Merchant Princes, Charles Stross allows us to follow the further adventures of heroine Miriam Beckstein in the Amberesque parallel worlds that she and other members of the aristocracy are able to travel. Having discovered that a second new world (which is world three, so to speak) also exists and was discovered more or less by accident by a branch of the family that believed itself to be betrayed, Miriam sets about establishing a toehold there in the form of a business which will provide an example of an alternative economic paradigm that will prove the drugs smuggling mercantilism of the rest of the family obsolescent. At the same time, she must struggle against the discrimination against women and foreigners of a police state, the various sets of people trying to kill her and her loved ones and, above all, the all pervading cold of a pre-modern world which has no recognizable modern comforts. Stross confidently treads a fine line between maintaining a light tone suitable for a modern fantasy romp and keeping evident the sense of the physical differences and problems that the characters, most of the principals are women, face in the other worlds. The result is the willing suspension of disbelief as readers will, presumably, be in full support of the likeable and capable Miriam and her occasional foibles.

At the centre of much of Stross's work is the combination of societal and economic factors that lead to structural change in societies and this book is no different in this regard. Miriams business on New Britain is painstakingly developed through proxies and with the aid of smuggled bullion--a crime that would lead to extremely severe repercussions if it were detected. She previously determined that, given the nature of the means of production available to her, it is the transmission of information across worlds that offers the most convenient means of making money. Patents are established in components that may be sold through intermediaries, thereby ensuring a level of anonymity for herself that is required because of her dubious status as both a woman and an outsider in a war-torn society. Stross employs a primitive form of Marxian thought as a basis for economics (e.g. the labour theory of value) and then shows how it becomes updated through the application of technology and modern business techniques. Many readers enjoy this aspect of his work and I did read that Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman was also a fan.

This is, as mentioned, the second book in a series and, although the author does probably as much as is required to make it possible to read this one without having read the first, readers are likely to enjoy the narrative more if they were more properly acquainted with the events of the first novel. Even so, this is an extremely readable novel full of ideas and plenty of good fun. Recommended.