Book Review – The Hidden Family

Author: Charles Stross
Publisher: Tor
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: June 2005

In the first book of the Merchant Princes, The Family Trade, Stross introduced a family of world-hopping entrepreneurs, who have leveraged their abilities to form a vast import/export corporation. We are also introduced to Miriam Beckstein, a long-lost daughter of the family who was raised in this world and only recently discovered her power and heritage. By the end of that novel, Miriam has been betrayed by members of her own family and is on the run from yet another faction of world-hoppers who have attempted to assassinate her.

This is where The Hidden Family picks up. The basic plot involves Miriam’s discovery of a third world, one that can be traveled to from the Family’s homeland. Her desire is to have the Family take part in the transport of materials more humane than drugs and weapons, such as technological innovations. The problem is that Miriam feels the need to explain the details of her economic plan, over and over again, to pretty much every person she encounters.

This is just one of many ways the novel seemed to get bogged down. Stross seems to have lost his way here, becoming unfocused on how the events flow from one to another. For one thing, Miriam begins making strange intuitive leaps with no basis in fact, except that they turn out to be true. She suspects one of her colleagues of lying to her, and she’s right, even though there’s been no actual indication why she had that suspicion. Twists begin to spring up for the sake of convoluting the plot rather than progressing it.

Furthermore, the logistics of having three worlds begins to get troublesome. The last several chapters of the book become an odd confabulation, with a conspiracy and betrayal that isn’t clear, and a rescue plan that makes even less sense. The locations of the various participants, as well as their roles in the plan, get terribly confusing.

Overall, this book was a serious let down. Stross created a world with an intriguing twist on the alternate Earth concept, but has seemed to get lost in the labyrinth of details that he invested within it. I will probably give the third book in the series a chance when it comes out, but Stross will have to work hard to make it worth my time.

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