‘The Clan Corporate’ – Charles Stross (Tor UK)

Is Charles Stross the hardest working writer in genre fiction? I couldn’t say for certain (as I’m sure all genre writers work very hard) but the number of books, of his, that I’ve either had sent to me or heard about suggest that this is a man who has no option other than spend a lot of time sat at his computer trying to get all the ideas out of his head.
Up until now I’d never read any of Stross’ ‘Merchant Princes’ series but liked the look of the blurb enough to jump straight into the third book and see what happened. On reflection, I should probably have started at the beginning...

Miriam is a business journalist from Boston who has recently discovered that her family comes from a parallel timeline where they (and others) operate a courier service, between our world and theirs, dealing in drugs and weaponry amongst other things. Miriam’s family is a little too like the Mafia for her comfort and she is about to find out just what they will do to keep family members in line. If this wasn’t bad enough, her (legitimate) business interests, in yet another dimension, are in danger of going under and just what is a Boston cop doing at her wedding? All these questions will be answered while others will be raised...

‘The Clan Corporate’ is definitely not the place to jump into this series, at least not as far as I was concerned. With varied and convoluted plots (as well as what feels like a very large cast of characters) spanning three dimensions you really need to have been with this one from the beginning if you are to make any real sense of it. To be fair, Stross does add little ‘what has gone before’ type passages here and there but these are clearly intended to reinforce character’s actions in the book rather than serve as an introduction for new readers.
Every now and then though you do get moments where Stross introduces plot elements that clearly will not come to fruition until a later book and these serve as points where new readers can start to get a feel for what is going on. The machinations of the US ‘Black Ops’ team are a good example of this. As someone who is new to the series though, I personally found that this had the unwelcome effect of spoiling the pace of the book...
My advice? If you want to give this series a go then start from the beginning, it will make a lot more sense!

Is this a series worth picking up though? Based on what I’ve seen I’d say that it’s certainly worth picking up the first book, in your local bookstore, and flicking through the first chapter or so. In fact, I may even go and do just that this lunchtime...
There is plenty going on with a cast of characters that cannot afford to let their guard down and trust anyone, plots and counterplots ensue and the end result is a book that kept me thinking about who was double-crossing who... The world that the Clan inhabits is scarce on detail but I’d have to excuse this seeing as this is the third book in a series! The world of New Britain was a lot more detailed though and, not surprisingly, this was where I enjoyed spending time the most.
Stross likes to get technical in his work and ‘The Clan Corporate’ was no exception. Unfortunately though, it felt to me like this was done at the expense of certain characters that came across to me as a little flat and one dimensional. Miriam, for example, is full of anger at her situation but it didn’t feel like there was room for much else. Then again, there could be a lot of character development that I missed out on by not reading the earlier books. Who’s to say...?

‘The Clan Corporate’ is an interesting (although slightly flawed) read that suffered, through no fault of its own, through my not having jumped on board sooner. There’s certainly enough there to pique my interest in the earlier novels, other readers would be well advised to start at the beginning if they fancy trying this series out...

Seven and a Half out of Ten

‘The Clan Corporate’ will be published on the 5th of December 2008 by Tor UK. If anyone is interested in a signed copy, and happens to be in Edinburgh on December 11th, Charles Stross will be signing copies at Waterstones (128 Princes Street) at 6pm. Free tickets are available instore...