The downside to having connections and being lucky enough to get to see books and stuff early is that when you hit the end of the road, it’s the end of the road.

I finished reading The Clan Corporate a little while ago. It’s the third of Charles Stross’s ‘The Merchant Princes’ series, and I really like it. Smart, funny, engaging and occasionally disturbing, but mostly really entertaining. And it ends on a cliffhanger, a hell of a cliffhanger. Which is great, but when I finished The Family Trade (due from Tor any minute – go advance order it), I knew pretty well that Charlie had some of the rest of the series finished. Now I’m up to the point where writing the next book – A Hostile Takeover – is only on his ‘to do list’ and even if he does it pretty soon, there’s nothing on paper. This is the end of the road, for the moment. Shit. You guys have to go buy Book 1, because that way he’ll hopefully get a contract for Book 4, then he’ll write it and I’ll (er, we’ll) get to read it. Now.

Oh, and one other Stross-related thing. I’ve noticed a couple reviewers suggest that “Survivor”, the novelette published in the October/November Asimov’s is the penultimate story in the ‘Accelerando’ series. It ain’t. It’s the end of the road. If you check here you’ll find a listing on his website that makes it pretty clear.