From Publishers Weekly

Stross's disorganized fifth Merchant Princes story (after 2007's The Merchants' War) continues the adventures of hapless Boston journalist Miriam Beckstein. Newly free of political imprisonment, pregnant and on the lam, she finds herself at the center of a desperate power grab as political instability rocks the mafia-like Clan Corporate, who are magically able to cross between parallel worlds. When world-walkers steal nukes from a U.S. installation, it's a race against time to find out who has them, and why, before they can be deployed. The U.S. is also close to discovering a technological method of world-walking, rendering the clan both vulnerable and obsolete. Stross pays heartfelt homage to Roger Zelazny and Lois McMaster Bujold, but with too many characters and too little focus, this novel fails to match their achievements. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

In the fifth Merchant Princes novel, things are going very badly for the Clan. Civil war rages over control of the kingdom of Niejwein, and the Clan’s army is under siege in two universes. The Clan’s leader has suffered a stroke, and the normal plotting and intrigue have ratcheted up. Miriam, the worldwalking Clan princess raised in our world, has been rescued (again!) and plopped in the center of the Clan’s ostensibly progressive faction. Even as she tries to figure out who wants her as a leader and who is just looking for a figurehead, authorities in our world break the secret of transdimensional travel and are coming through. --Frieda Murray