The Family Trade
Charlie Stross
308 pages
published in 2004

Forget what you see on the cover of this, The Family Trade is not fantasy, but science fiction. I'll be cynical and accuse TOR Books of only calling it fantasy because fantasy sells and science fiction doesn't, or at least not as well. Not that they wouldn't admit to this if called upon; they are after all in the business of selling books and make no bones about that. The fantasy label is not wholly without merit anyway, as people who like a good fat fantasy series will quite likely enjoy this as well. For those of us who have followed Charlie Stross' work for longer, this is somewhat more ... commercial science fiction than we are used to, in the same way that Walter Jon Williams' The Praxis was somewhat more commercial than his other books.

The Family Trade then is somewhat less exuberant, somewhat more traditional science fiction than we are used to from Stross, best described as being in the tradition of H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen novel and Paratime stories. It differs in that it has the usual Strosserian focus on economies and technological impact on same underneath the surface story.

There's one more thing you need to know about this novel before I'll start talking story: it ends on an enormous cliffhanger, almost as abruptly as if the book had been cleaved in half, with the second half being published as a second novel. Funnily enough, this is almost exactly what happened. Originally, this and the second novel in the series, The Hidden Family were to be published as one book, in your typical fat fantasy fashion. Between writing the book and publishing it however, the dominant American bookchains decreed they'd have no more fat books and hence it had to be chopped in two. I therefore strongly suggest that unlike me, you have the second novel in the series at hand before reading this.

Miriam Beckstein is a journalist working for a tech sector trade magazine, specialising in biotech, who discovers a money laundering operation that her magazin's parent company may or may not be involved in. When she is fired on the spot when presenting her story, she knows it is. She decides to continue her investigation quietly, but first she visits her foster mother --she was adopted when her real mother was murdered when she was still a baby -- for sympathy. Iris, her foster mother, gives her an old box with mementos of her real mother, which includes a strange locket containing a celtic knot piece of art. Investigating this late at night, she gets a heavy migraine, closes her eyes and when she reopens them again she is in a heavy forest, on another world...

She manages to get back home, then investigates further. During this she comes to the attention of her real family, who kidnap her and explain who she and they are. Turns out they're a clan of world walkers, peopel whoc an travel between their Earth, still stuck at a Medieval level of technologu\y and ours, smuggling heroin to us and gold, medicine and luxuries to theirs. Thirty years ago there was a civil war in theclan, which is when Miriam's mother was killed and Miriam's re-appearance may spark it again... At the same time the Clan is stuck in a rut, powerful but unable to grow their powerbase. Guess who's going to be the catalyst to get the Clan to change its ways?

As I said, this was originally meant to be part of a bigger novel, which is notable in a couple of places, with some plotlines set up not going anywhere here. Much of the book is like that, more setup than resolution. The other problem I had with The Family Trade was the start which up until the weirdness starts for Miriam, reads a bit awkward, as if Stross is trying too hard. On the whole though this was a very enjoyable read; these are just minor quibbles. This is the sort of book you devour in an hour or three and then immediately wish you had bought the sequels at the same time.

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Charles Stross, The Family Trade, science fiction, book review