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The Trade of Queens (Merchant Princes Book 06) by Charles Stross

Description: A dissident faction of the Clan, the alternate universe group of families that has traded covertly with our world for a century or more, has carried nuclear devices between the worlds and exploded them in Washington, DC, killing the President of the United States. Now they will exterminate the rest of the Clan and keep Miriam alive only long enough to bear her child, the heir to the throne of their land in the Gruinmarkt world. Mike Fleming, late of US intelligence, has just survived an attack on his life in Massachusetts and knows the worst and deepest secret: behind the horrifying plot is a faction of the US government itself, preparing for a political takeover in the aftermath of terrifying disaster. There is no safe place except, perhaps, in the third alternate world, New Britain – which has just had a revolution and a nuclear incident of its own. Buy From:

Rating:

Review:Trade of Queens is the 6th book in the Merchant Princes series and concludes the current story line. By this time Nuclear bombs have been deployed in the US and the President along with most of the cabinet and senate are casualties, while on Gruinmarkt the clan is in the middle of a brutal civil war and a nuke has been deployed at the king’s palace. This is situation from where the ‘Trade of Queens’ starts from and expands.

As expected by now the characters in the book are quite well defined and the author uses the fog of war expertly to further the story line along with a couple of unexpected twists in the plot.

The book has a lot of different minor storylines going on in parallel and sometimes it took a few paragraphs to figure out what story line was being developed at that particular point in time. But it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, the different naming conventions in each of the three worlds made it easier to identify the players and when it wasn’t clear which side a character was on the author usually found a way to clarify that quite soon.

If you have been following the series then you will realize that the books in the series have gotten a lot grittier than the earlier books. Which in itself is not a bad thing but I personally enjoyed the lighter tone of the earlier books more.

One thing I noticed was that even though the author has stated that this is the last book in this storyline there are a lot of plot lines which have been left unresolved. I personally think that Stross will be writing additional novels in this universe but from a different point of view with new central characters. If he doesn’t do this then I would be disappointed because there is an amazing scope for new books in this universe.

Final Recommendation: A good read.

The Krillitane Storm (Doctor Who: New Series Book 036) by Christopher Cooper

Description: When the TARDIS materialises in medieval Worcester, the Doctor finds the city seemingly deserted. He soon discovers its population are living in a state of terror, afraid to leave their homes after dark, for fear of meeting their doom at the hands of the legendary Devil’s Huntsman. For months, people have been disappearing, and the Sheriff has imposed a strict curfew across the city, his militia maintaining control over the superstitious populace with a firm hand, closing the city to outsiders. Is it fear of attack from beyond the city walls that drives him or the threat closer to home? Or does the Sheriff have something to hide? After a terrifying encounter with a deadly Krillitane, the Doctor realises the city has good reason to be scared. Buy From:

Rating:

Review:The Krillitane Storm is the last book featuring the 10th Doctor from BBC Books. He is still traveling alone and has landed in medieval Worcester where he finds the local population terrified of the Devil’s Huntsman. Soon after he lands he comes face to face with a Krillitane who has killed a human and the story continues from there.

The plot was quite fast paced with no major plot holes or forced contrivances used to further the storyline.

Since this is about 800 years before his previous encounter with the Krillitane they haven’t fully integrated their latest change into their system yet. This the the point in time where they decide to focus their genetic scavenging to perfect their bodies and become gods.

It had a few plot twists along the way which I didn’t quite expect and they didn’t spoil the book either.

Final Recommendation: A good read

Autonomy (Doctor Who: New Series Book 035) by Daniel Blythe

Description: Hyperville is 2013’s top hi-tech, 24-hour entertainment complex – a sprawling palace of fun under one massive roof. You can go shopping, or experience the excitement of Doomcastle, Winterland, or Wild West World. But things are about to get a lot more exciting – and dangerous! What unspeakable horror is lurking on Level Zero of Hyperville? And what will happen when the entire complex goes over to Central Computer Control? Buy From:

Rating:

Review:Autonomy is the 35th Book in the New Doctor series which is basically Doctor Who from 2005 onwards. It features the 10th Doctor played by David Tennant.

The Doctor lands on earth in 2013 and finds himself in Hyperville a gigantic 24 hour entertainment complex which is being taken over by the Nestene Consciousness.

The plot of the book started off as pretty interesting but the story development was a bit shaky and a lot of the solutions to the problems used in the book were a bit too pat and felt contrived. Plus most of the characters were not very well developed and felt quite two dimensional.

This is one of the few Doctor Who books that I didn’t finish in one sitting. It took me three attempts to finish the book.

Final Recommendation: An OK book for when you don’t have anything else to read.