The Clan Corporate (Merchant Princes) - Tapa dura

"THE CLAN CORPORATE offers more proof, if any were needed, why Charles Stross has become universally acknowledged as one of science fiction's major new talents." Mike Resnick"

Miriam Beckstein has been in touch with her roots and they have nearly strangled her. A young, hip, business journalist in Boston, she discovered (in "The Family Trade") that her family comes from an alternate reality, that she is very well connected, and that her family is too much like the mafia for comfort. In addition, starting with the discovery that women are family property and required to breed more family members with the unique talent to walk between worlds, Miriam has tried to remain an outsider and her own woman. She started a profitable business in a third world, outside the family reach (recounted in "The Hidden Family"). She fell in love with a distant relative, but he died saving her life. Now, however, in "The Clan Corporate", Miriam may be over reaching. And if she gets caught, death or a fate worse is around the bend. There is, for instance, the brain damaged son of the local king, who needs a wife. But they would never make her do that, would they?