Empire Games : A Tale of the Merchant Princes Universe

Hugo Award-winning author Charlie Stross hits the ground running with Empire Games, provocative techno-thriller and fresh storyline in the Merchant Princes universe.

It’s 2020. Two nuclear superpowers across timelines, one in the midst of a technological revolution and the other a hyper-police state, are set on a collision course. Each timeline’s increasingly desperate paratime espionage agencies are fumbling around in the dark, trying to find a solution to the first-contact problem that doesn't result in a nuclear holocaust.

And two paratime travellers, Ministry of Intertemporal Research and Intelligence Commissioner Miriam Burgeson and newly minted spy Rita Douglas—a mother and her long-lost, adopted daughter—are about to find themselves on opposite sides of the confrontation.

Praise for Empire Games

"The keen eye and what-if imagination of Charles Stross fuel a fresh look at alternate worlds." —David Brin, author of Existence

"A well-written book, full of mystery and intrigue, with entire worlds at stake." —Michael Flynn

"If you like the spy novels of Ian Fleming, or Len Deighton, as I do, but also appreciate a genre twist, then you’ll love Empire Games. It is intelligent, entertaining and yet also a little scary." —SFFWorld.com


Praise for The Merchant Princes Series

“Economic science fiction worth reading.” —Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author

"Stross is not a writer who aims to leave his readers reassured: One can’t tell which way he’s going to go, nor whose side he’s on. No one beats him at hypertech either." —The Wall Street Journal

"Absorbing." —Kirkus Reviews

"If imagination is the key to success for a writer, Charles Stross has it in spades." —The Times (London) on Charles Stross