The Merchant Princes Series: Difference between revisions

A [[Fantasy]] series by [[Charles Stross]], about a journalist named Miriam Beckstein who finds an [[Alternate Universe]] stuck in [[Medieval Stasis]] where her long-lost family are powerful traders who can travel between dimensions. There are six books so far:{{when}} ''The Family Trade'' (2004), ''The Hidden Family'' (2005), ''The Clan Corporate'' (2006), ''The Merchants' War'' (2007), ''The Revolution Business'' (2009), and ''The Trade of Queens'' (2010).

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* {{spoiler|[[The End of the World Asas We Know It]] (The Gruinmarkt gets carpet-bombed with hydrogen bombs at the end of Book 6, and it's implied that the result is a global nuclear winter for the rest of that version of Earth)}}

* [[Giving Radio to Thethe Romans]]: How Miriam gets rich in New Britain.

** This trope is [[Zig -Zagging Trope|Zig Zagged]]. They consider it, and ultimately everyone agrees to support if that's what she wants, which is surprising in the socially conservative culture of the Gruinmarkt. That's justified by both an inversion of [[Politically-Correct History]] - people actually do understand the value of that kind of thing, because in that kind of culture it can prevent blood feuds and [[Death Byby Childbirth]] - and a possible [[Batman Gambit]]. {{spoiler|In the end Miriam decides to keep it for political reasons. But then she has a [[Convenient Miscarriage]], so it wouldn't matter. And then the Gruinmarkt is [[Nuke'Em|destroyed]], so she wouldn't need her claim to power in their political structure anyway.}}

* [[Misapplied Phlebotinum]]: A minor version is played straight at first, and a major part of the plot is ending that. The Clan has the ability to teleport between worlds, and they ''are'' using it to get rich by smuggling drugs past international boundaries and selling high-tech innovations to a low-tech setting. However, the system used at the start of the story is limited to what individuals can carry and it's unsafe to make trips more than once or twice a day, putting a sharp limit on the weight and volume of their interdimensional cargo. And trade is risky for cultural reasons (such as illegality) in both worlds. After Miriam throws a [[Spanner in Thethe Works]], people begin experimenting and work out ways to increase the amount carried, and she suggests that [[Giving Radio to Thethe Romans]] would be a much higher-profit enterprise, given starter capital and a government that enforces patents.

* {{spoiler|[[Nuke'Em]] (WARBUCKS uses a nuke against the Clan, but it misses and [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him|drops a bridge]] [[Big Damn Villains|on the Clan's enemies]] instead.)}}

{{quote| {{spoiler|Overhead without any fuss, the bombers were going out.}}}}

** On a lighter note, Miriam's friend who happens to have some legal training usually has some words of wisdom, often a bit off kilter, which she prefaces with [[Fear and Loathing Inin Las Vegas|"As your attorney I advise you to..."]]

** To ''[[The Pirates Ofof Penzance]]'': The general was the perfect model of a modern military man

* [[Spanner in Thethe Works]] (Miriam's very existence knocks several conspiracies out of the water, and then she brings her reform plan into play)