A review by odysseusta
The Bloodline Feud by Charles Stross

3.0

I enjoyed this "double feature" more than I expected. I was avoiding Stross' "Merchant Princes" series because the premise sounded iffy to me -- unexplainable timeline jumping with a medieval setting? -- but I became curious after reading about the series reboot "Empire Games", and I couldn't pass up a free ebook (thanks Tor!). 

Generally I find Charles Stross stories to be filled with fascinating ideas, and good-to-great plots, but weak in the areas of character and dialogue, and confusing scenes (detailed in description, I just get lost in the minutae). "Bloodline Feud" was a good example of these features. The ideas around a dimension-traveling clan(s?) economically exploiting less advanced societies for fun and profit -- I wasn't expecting this! It was fascinating. And 3/4ths of the time I found the story unputdownable. 

The dialogue between the various characters, particularly Miriam and her mother, or the unnecessary "love" plot for Miriam...bleh. It also seemed a little too neat that Miriam was so quick to come up with a plan concerning the third timeline, as interesting as it was.

Overall, though, I liked it. The book ends in such a way that I wasn't left with any major lingering mysteries, other than "what happens next?", so I'm not feeling any pressure to continue on in the series, but I am curious.