Book #5 in the Merchant Princes series, sequel to The Merchants’ War.

The U.S. Government have become really pissed off with the world-walking Clan, and send a small nuke into the Gruinmarkt. It misses the clan but takes care of the new king who was waging war on them. Miriam is pregnant with a royal child and manages to parlay that into being crowned queen-widow. The con­ser­v­a­tive faction in the Clan view the nuke as a deadly insult and want revenge.

This is another heady mixture of feudal intrigue, U.S. spycraft, politics and economics. Stross is very good at taking ideas and ex­trap­o­lat­ing them in in­ter­est­ing ways. Most of the Clan were only slightly more forward-thinking than the rest of their feudal world. Miriam’s arrival and the discovery of new worlds they can walk to has overturned many long-held as­sump­tions about their unique way of life. Matters are coming to a boil and will be resolved in the sixth book of the series.