English language
Published July 12, 2010 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.
Horrendous. Like The Room of books, but that's too good for this.
This is somewhere between 3 and 4 stars for me. It was very readable, kept me interested and reading till the end; but also, not extremely memorable characters or details, so I doubt I'll have much memory of anything I read in a year or two. There's really only one character you get to know well, which is Miriam, the high-powered journalist who discovers she has the inherited ability to step between worlds into an alternate dimension. This ability comes to her from her family - who she has never known, being an orphan - but once on the other side, her ability identifies to her to her relatives, who turn out to be the equivalent of a massively powerful and corrupt mafia family. Now Miriam finds herself trapped in the "family business" - whether or not she wants any part of it, her ability to travel makes her highly …
This is somewhere between 3 and 4 stars for me. It was very readable, kept me interested and reading till the end; but also, not extremely memorable characters or details, so I doubt I'll have much memory of anything I read in a year or two. There's really only one character you get to know well, which is Miriam, the high-powered journalist who discovers she has the inherited ability to step between worlds into an alternate dimension. This ability comes to her from her family - who she has never known, being an orphan - but once on the other side, her ability identifies to her to her relatives, who turn out to be the equivalent of a massively powerful and corrupt mafia family. Now Miriam finds herself trapped in the "family business" - whether or not she wants any part of it, her ability to travel makes her highly valuable and her position in the family inheritance paints a target on her back. She spends the rest of the book trying to find a way to evade those trying to kill her and find a morally more acceptable alternative to simply joining the family business.
I think at some point in their lives every girl has wanted to be a princess. Unfortunately after while you realise that most princesses, don't really get to do very much cool stuff. In fact was quite often the prince, the knight, the x male hero that did all the exciting stuff and the princess is a bit disappointing in comparison.
I think this is the first book in about 20 years about princesses that hasn't induced optic nerve damaging levels of eye rolling.
This book follows Miriam. Miriam is a tech journalist, or at least she is before rapidly getting fired at the start of the book, who discovers that she is a member of an Ruling Class of a world that she can travel to buy staring at a locket that used to belong to her mother (think the Long Earth, but sort of mediaeval). Of course in …
I think at some point in their lives every girl has wanted to be a princess. Unfortunately after while you realise that most princesses, don't really get to do very much cool stuff. In fact was quite often the prince, the knight, the x male hero that did all the exciting stuff and the princess is a bit disappointing in comparison.
I think this is the first book in about 20 years about princesses that hasn't induced optic nerve damaging levels of eye rolling.
This book follows Miriam. Miriam is a tech journalist, or at least she is before rapidly getting fired at the start of the book, who discovers that she is a member of an Ruling Class of a world that she can travel to buy staring at a locket that used to belong to her mother (think the Long Earth, but sort of mediaeval). Of course in Keeping with all good princess stories our protagonist doesn't know she it is a princess at the start her mother having been stabbed in mysterious circumstances, resulting in her being adopted as an orphan.
The story follows her trying to get to grips with this new world and the political intrigue but is within it and also trying to stay alive from Assassin's bombs, swords, and guns all sort of other danger in this new world.
I liked this a lot. You should read it.
This is the first book in a series called the Merchant Princes. I'd say it was frothy entertainment, done pretty well. A few people have the genetic ability to move back and forth between the present day and an alternate universe set on what appears to be the same planet, but to what looks like a period about 200 years earlier, and where history is a bit different. They use this remarkable ability to run a business that exploits the differences. A woman with this ability is orphaned as an infant, raised as a middle class American, and discovers her ability when she's 32. Consternation ensues.
