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54-59) "The Merchant Princes" series - Charles Stross.
I picked up the "Merchant Princes" series because I encountered Charles Stross in a discussion thread on rachelmanija's DW. The thread was about Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett's "Long Earth" series, and someone (possibly me) said they didn't like that particular series but would have been up for more alternate universe stories, and Stross himself replied, saying (IIRC) he had written a series that came out about the same time as the Long Earth and got overshadowed by it. (Unfortunately I don't recall his DW user name, because my highly developed Mainer instinct for protecting famous people's private lives caused me to erase it from my memory.) Eor bought it on the Kobo for me, in a version where the six books are combined into three, and I must have liked it well enough because I ripped through these in a few weeks. There are some small points I'd have liked more clearly explained, or where I might have suggested a little bit of a 'kill your darlings' approach on the occasional phrase, but who am I to judge given my epic book series is still mostly in my head. It's definitely edge of your seat adventure, and after six books I was still up for more. Wiki on it here, if you don't mind the potential of spoilers with your synopseseses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_Princes
The Family Trade
The Hidden Family
The Clan Corporate
The Merchants' War
The Revolution Business
The Trade of Queens
And if you want to look for the compiled copies we bought, it's
The Bloodline Feud
The Traders' War
The Revolution Trade
And I now learn from the Wiki that there IS a second series of three books! Well, there goes another couple of weeks. :) Focusing on, as I expected, the main protagonist's daughter she gave up for adoption. I thought sure she would show up before the end of the first series, but I'm glad she didn't. She was twelve at that point, and writing a kid in an action adventure story is always a tricky idea.
60) "The Machine's Child" - Kage Baker
The cyborgs continue to muddle on toward the end times, most of them at a rate of one second per second, but some have found ways to cut through time. Alec, Edward and Nathanial get their beloved Mendoza back, but she has complete amnesia. She knows there's something not right with her supposed 'husband', but accepts the explanation that he was damaged in an accident and doesn't realize he has three personalities sharing the same body. Joseph (who thinks of Mendoza as his daughter) is searching for Mendoza and wants to kill Alec/Edward/Nathanial for "ruining" Mendoza's life, like a typical overprotective and overcontrolling father. I adore Joseph's bumbling. He literally goes back in time and tries to make sure Alec is never born in an elaborate, terrifying scheme with typically amusing results. :) The weirdest shit happens at the end, I can't even.... it makes sense in context, I think. And that's where Baker shines, I think - making weird shit seem to make sense. It's a thing I like in all the authors I really adore.
I can't actually finish this post and get up to date, today, so I guess I'll just go with this.
I picked up the "Merchant Princes" series because I encountered Charles Stross in a discussion thread on rachelmanija's DW. The thread was about Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett's "Long Earth" series, and someone (possibly me) said they didn't like that particular series but would have been up for more alternate universe stories, and Stross himself replied, saying (IIRC) he had written a series that came out about the same time as the Long Earth and got overshadowed by it. (Unfortunately I don't recall his DW user name, because my highly developed Mainer instinct for protecting famous people's private lives caused me to erase it from my memory.) Eor bought it on the Kobo for me, in a version where the six books are combined into three, and I must have liked it well enough because I ripped through these in a few weeks. There are some small points I'd have liked more clearly explained, or where I might have suggested a little bit of a 'kill your darlings' approach on the occasional phrase, but who am I to judge given my epic book series is still mostly in my head. It's definitely edge of your seat adventure, and after six books I was still up for more. Wiki on it here, if you don't mind the potential of spoilers with your synopseseses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_Princes
The Family Trade
The Hidden Family
The Clan Corporate
The Merchants' War
The Revolution Business
The Trade of Queens
And if you want to look for the compiled copies we bought, it's
The Bloodline Feud
The Traders' War
The Revolution Trade
And I now learn from the Wiki that there IS a second series of three books! Well, there goes another couple of weeks. :) Focusing on, as I expected, the main protagonist's daughter she gave up for adoption. I thought sure she would show up before the end of the first series, but I'm glad she didn't. She was twelve at that point, and writing a kid in an action adventure story is always a tricky idea.
60) "The Machine's Child" - Kage Baker
The cyborgs continue to muddle on toward the end times, most of them at a rate of one second per second, but some have found ways to cut through time. Alec, Edward and Nathanial get their beloved Mendoza back, but she has complete amnesia. She knows there's something not right with her supposed 'husband', but accepts the explanation that he was damaged in an accident and doesn't realize he has three personalities sharing the same body. Joseph (who thinks of Mendoza as his daughter) is searching for Mendoza and wants to kill Alec/Edward/Nathanial for "ruining" Mendoza's life, like a typical overprotective and overcontrolling father. I adore Joseph's bumbling. He literally goes back in time and tries to make sure Alec is never born in an elaborate, terrifying scheme with typically amusing results. :) The weirdest shit happens at the end, I can't even.... it makes sense in context, I think. And that's where Baker shines, I think - making weird shit seem to make sense. It's a thing I like in all the authors I really adore.
I can't actually finish this post and get up to date, today, so I guess I'll just go with this.