Thursday, May 18, 2006

The Hidden Family, by Charles Stross

The Hidden Family, by Charles Stross

This is the second book in a series that has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, this was about as uneven as the first one. The ability to travel to parallel worlds is fascinating, but doesn’t seem to be put to much use here except as a gimmick. There are a lot of storylines in this book, but it isn’t long enough to flesh any of them out. (I think Stross is trying to be Puzo here but can’t quite make it happen.) Follow this up by having several of the minor characters turn out to not only know about world-walking but actually have the ability and you have a disappointing novel. It didn’t suck, more like bubble gum for the mind. I’ll give this series one more try, but if it doesn’t get any better I’ll probably walk away.

First Sentence:
The committee meeting was entering its third hour when the king sneezed, bringing matters to a head.

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