{"product_id":"2940169051339","title":"Empire Games: A Tale of the Merchant Princes Universe","description":"\u003cp\u003eCharles Stross builds a new series with \u003ci\u003eEmpire Games\u003c\/i\u003e. Expanding on the world he created in the Family Trade series, a new generation of paratime travellers walk between parallel universes. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe year is 2020. It's seventeen years since the Revolution overthrew the last king of the New British Empire, and the newly-reconstituted North American Commonwealth is developing rapidly, on course to defeat the French and bring democracy to a troubled world. But Miriam Burgeson, commissioner in charge of the shadowy Ministry of Intertemporal Research and Intelligenceamp;mdash;the paratime espionage agency tasked with catalyzing the Commonwealth's great leap forwardamp;mdash;has a problem. For years, she's warned everyone: \"The Americans are coming.\" Now their drones arrive in the middle of a succession crisis, for their leader, First Man Adam, is dying of cancer, and the vultures are circling.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn another timeline, the U.S. has recruited Rita, Miriam's own estranged daughter, to spy across timelines in order to bring down any remaining world-walkers who might threaten national security. But her handlers are keeping information from her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo nuclear superpowers are set on a collision course. Two 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 womenamp;mdash;a mother and her long-lost, adopted-out daughteramp;mdash;are about to find themselves on opposite sides of the confrontation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Macmillan Audio production.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Macmillan Audio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47104284688624,"sku":"2940169051339","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169051339_p0.jpg?v=1763670290","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169051339","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}