The Hidden Family by Charles Stross

First sentence:

"The committee meeting was entering its third hour when the king sneezed, bringing matters to a head."

Description:

"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 their world and ours make 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.

Miriam, a hip tech journalist from Boston, discovered her alternate-world relatives with explosive results that shook three worlds. Now, as the prodigal Countess Helge Thorold-Hyorth, she finds herself ensnared in schemes and plots centuries in the making. She is surrounded by unlikely allies, lethal contraband, and, most dangerous of all, her family. With her modern American attitudes, she's not sure she can fit in, or if she even wants to, but to stay alive, she really has no choice.

To avoid a slippery slope down to an unmarked grave, Miriam must build a power-base of her own. She started applying modern business practices and scientific knowledge to a trade heretofore dominated by medieval mercantilists-with unexpected consequences for three different timelines, including the quasi-Victorian one exploited by the hidden family." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This was a good book about alternate worlds. I liked how Miriam learned about the third world and how she brought new inventions there. I looking forward to reading the next book in the series, The Clan Corporate.

Date read: 12/4/2008
Book #: 86
Series: The Merchant Princes, #2
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 0765313472
ISBN-13: 9780765313478
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2005
# of Pages: 303
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page