A time of ambition, treachery and dangerous secrets . . .
Rita Douglas is plucked from her dead-end job and trained as a reluctant US spy. All because she has the latent genetic talent to hop between alternate timelines - and infiltrate them. Her United States is waging a high-tech war, targeting assassins who can move between worlds to deliver death on a mass scale, and Rita will be their secret weapon.
Miriam Beckstein has her own mission, as a politician in an industrial revolution North America. She must accelerate her world's technology before their paranoid American twin finds them. It would blow them to hell. After all, they've done it before. Each timeline also battles internal conspiracies, as a cold war threatens to turn white hot. But which world is the aggressor - and will Rita have to choose a side?
Empire Games is the first book in an exciting series in the same world as Charles Stross' Merchant Princes series.
About the Author
Charles Stross was born in Leeds, England, in 1964. He has worked as a pharmacist, software engineer and freelance journalist, but now writes full-time. To date, Stross has won two Hugo awards and been nominated twelve times. He has also won the Locus Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Best Novella and has been shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke and Nebula Awards. In addition, his fiction has been translated into around a dozen languages. Stross lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife Feorag, a couple of cats, several thousand books, and an ever-changing herd of obsolescent computers.
Industry Reviews
Complex and subtle * Kirkus * It easily measures up to Charles Stross's best novels such as Accelerando, Glasshouse and Rule 34. His clear and witty writing style as well the diverse environment and characters make this an entertaining journey * SciFiEmpire.net * Watch those blistering fingers as you turn the pages, Empire Games is fast-paced, intricate and thoroughly captivating. I look forward to reading the rest of the series * Shoreline of Infinity Magazine * Empire Games is a book that takes espionage, spy novels and The Cold War and then makes them . . . something else. It is as we expect of Stross's novels - complex, thoughtful, entertaining * SFFWorld.com * Plenty of action . . . a complex storyline underpinned by convincing worldbuilding and evocative descriptions . . . immensely enjoyable * Interzone * The keen eye and what-if imagination of Charles Stross fuel a fresh look at alternate worlds * David Brin * Empire Games is immensely compelling, an excellent novel: I look forward to seeing where the story goes from here * Locus * Stross's ferociously imaginative world-building is on full display here . . . few other writers can match him for humour, creativity and sheer density of ideas * SFX * 'Mind-boggling, complex and truly brilliant' * Daily Mail * Charles Stross blurs the boundaries of genre until they become meaningless. When intrigue, politics and suspense are so well executed, it doesn't matter which realm, dimension or timeline the participants hail from. Add to that a sense of mischief, wit and humour and Charles Stross gives you the full package * Chris Brookmyre *
