Dark State--A Novel of the Merchant Princes Multiverse (Empire Games, Book II)

December 1, 2017
This sequel to Empire Games (2017), set in the same world as Stross' Merchant Princes series, plunges us deep into a nightmarish clash of arms, politics, and wills between near-future governments in alternate timelines.In timeline No. 2, which chillingly resembles our own, the United States has morphed into a full-blown police state in which surveillance is universal and inescapable and the paranoid powers that be are willing to use, and have used, nuclear weapons to achieve their aims. Timeline No. 3 presents a bizarre fun-house-mirror world in which the U.S. never existed; instead, a corrupt, despotic British empire persisted until its recent overthrow by the revolutionary, democratic New American Commonwealth. The U.S. desperately wants to learn what's happening in this less technologically advanced but nuclear-armed timeline, so the Department of Homeland Security's Col. Smith coerces people, called world-walkers, who possess the ability to cross between timelines, into becoming spies. Critically, recruit Rita Douglas happens to be the estranged daughter of Commonwealth biggie Miriam Burgeson, herself a refugee from the radioactive wasteland of timeline No. 1 and now guiding the rapid development of the Commonwealth with technology purloined from the U.S. The Commonwealth faces challenges from counterrevolutionaries and the huge, powerful French empire, while the U.S., terrified of nuclear weapons in any hands but its own, probes yet another timeline where the hostile remnants of a still more advanced civilization lurk. Tension crackles from every page as readers grapple with the horrifying sociological and political implications, the looming threat of another intra-time nuclear war, and the fates of individual characters embroiled in disturbing intrigues. Even the fact that every scenario ends in a cliffhanger isn't too annoying given the enormous care and skill Stross expends on getting the details right and rendering meticulous accounts of complex, intersecting events. Not to mention the real-world implications.Sheer brilliance: when Stross is in this mood, nobody else comes close.

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December 18, 2017
In Stross’s middling second Empire Games novel (after Empire Games), plots don’t just thicken; they proliferate and snarl in each other like weeds. In the year 2020 in Timeline Two, a world somewhat like ours, U.S. spies have recruited Rita Douglas, the estranged daughter of intertemporal spy extraordinaire Miriam Burgeson. Having failed to infiltrate Timeline Three’s North American Commonwealth (which only freed itself from the British monarchy in 2003), Rita returns to the unfriendly embrace of her handlers with a message from Miriam: open diplomatic relations between the timelines, or face another war. But the Commonwealth has its own problems—the head of its government is terminally ill, and his death will trigger the country’s first succession crisis. Hoping to solidify their position against other factions, the worldwalkers who move between timelines hope to pull off a diplomatic coup: helping Princess Elizabeth Hanover defect from Britain to the Commonwealth. When these plans go awry, Rita is pulled even deeper into the machinations of two timelines, trying to prevent a war that threatens to consume them all. Stross writes with passion and ease about both human and technological spycraft, and his characters remain intriguing and sympathetic. The story, however, feels like a placeholder for the next book, and finishes with an unsatisfying cliff-hanger. Agent: Caitlin Blasdell, Liza Dawson Associates.

Starred review from December 15, 2017
What sets Hugo-winner Stross' (Empire Games, 2017) engaging series apart from other technothrillers is the omniscient point of view that plays no favorites. There are no bad people, just bad decisions. Miriam Beckstein, original protagonist of the series, has made way for long-lost daughter Rita Douglas, who is now an uncomfortable go-between for the advanced police state that is the U.S. and the Commonwealth, for which Miriam is championing a new form of democracy. Rita's adoptive grandfather, Kurt, trained Rita in spycraft from an early age, never suspecting she would actually become a spy. Miriam's colleagues are involved in a plot to help a princess defect, which would be a distinct diplomatic advantage for the Commonwealth. It's a huge risk, and Colonel Smith, Rita's superior, is attempting to interfere with it. Smith is also investigating a way to explore other worlds while avoiding awakening the Forerunners, a dangerous ancient race. Complexly plotted and with characters to match, Dark State exceeds the promise of Empire Games and points toward an exhilarating conclusion around this same time next year.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)