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Dark State

(Empire Games #2)

Charles Stross (Goodreads Author)

4.18 · Rating details · 1,555 ratings · 130 reviews

Dark State is the second book in an exciting series in the same world as Charles Stross' Merchant Princes series, following Empire Games.

In the near-future, the collision of two nuclear superpowers across timelines, one in the midst of a technological revolution and the other a hyper-police state, is imminent. In Commissioner Miriam Burgeson’s timeline, her top level agent ...more

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Paperback, 352 pages

Published January 11th 2018 by Tor Books UK (first published January 2018)

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Jan 18, 2018 Bradley rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018-shelf, worldbuilding-sf, sci-fi

This second (or eighth) novel in Stross's Merchant Princes universe is continuing the new and interesting tack that began in Empire Games.

First of all, some background. There's three alternate timelines and world-walkers, jaunters, and on our timeline, there's now tech that allows us to hop timelines and possibly exploit entire green Earths, not just the three inhabited ones.

All of this gets very sticky because we have a super-paranoid State, the United States of a slightly different our world t ...more

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Dec 28, 2017 David Harris rated it it was amazing

I always look forward to Stross's books, and I've been following his stories of world walkers since the start of the Merchant Princes sequence (in its original, six volume, form). So this is the 8th book in that series I have read, and I'm glad to be able to say that Stross is successfully keeping the books fresh, while engaging with events whose seeds were sown right back at the start.

He's done this by successively widening the scope. We began with one woman, Miriam Beckstein (now Burgeson) who I always look forward to Stross's books, and I've been following his stories of world walkers since the start of the Merchant Princes sequence (in its original, six volume, form). So this is the 8th book in that series I have read, and I'm glad to be able to say that Stross is successfully keeping the books fresh, while engaging with events whose seeds were sown right back at the start.

He's done this by successively widening the scope. We began with one woman, Miriam Beckstein (now Burgeson) who originates in what looked then like "our" timeline and her discovery of her place in the relatively parochial, parallel timeline kingdom called the Gruinmarkt as part of its "world-walking" Clan. Over the original series the story broadened from fantasy-like beginnings to a technothrillery narrative which took in nuclear terrorism, drug dealing and ultimately revolution (in a third, steampunkish timeline).

Empire Games, the first part of this new trilogy, went further, into the world of superpower rivalries (both within and between timelines), revolutionary politics, and counter-espionage. Dark State develops that, while also bringing to the fore the possibility of conflict with a scarily advanced civilisation from yet another timeline - one which would make events so far look like neighbours arguing over an unruly hedge. That may come in book three, or be the focus of a future trilogy - let's wait and see.

So much for context. What is Dark State like? As with the previous volumes, it's an assured, well-written story about competent people playing for high stakes. Rita Douglas, the daughter Miriam put up for adoption and who was brought up by Franz and Emily Douglas, is proving a capable agent for Homeland Security although the clash between the personal and the political is about to hit her hard. She has an additional resource to draw on in being part, via her adoptive parents, of the Wolf Orchestra, an East German spy ring stranded after the end of the Cold War. In Empire Games Kurt put the Orchestra on standby and now it's tuning up to play a final symphony.

Rita's counterparts in the New American Commonwealth (across several factions) and the regime in exile of the pseudo British kings are equally effective, making this book a game of chess played between very high ranking players. Almost everything is on the board from the start (Stross does reserve a few pieces) and the way the games goes very much reflects the character of the protagonists. By that I mean that while one's first impression is that Stross is doing a lot of telling not showing, that isn't in fact the case - what these people do is who they are, so we are learning about how a well imagined and diverse set of characters see their world(s).

For example, we have Elizabeth Hanover, a doubly exiled princess brought up among emigres and dreamers in Europe, apparently a minor piece on the board but very much taking her fate in her own hands. By the end of this book we have a clear picture of her and Stross is obviously reserving a big part for her in Book 3. If Merchant Princes was in part about deconstructing the "exiled nobility" trope in fantasy, Dark State takes that to a whole new level since Elizabeth is, literally, exiled nobility - in fact royalty - but won't be defined by that. In what may be a two fingered gesture to SFF conservatives, Stross explicitly makes Elizabeth and Rita women of colour (and yes, the context of the story totally allows for that).

Given Dark State's focus on espionage, tradecraft and general chicanery, it's not surprising that a lot of space is dedicated to surveillance (and how to mitigate it). All of the protagonists are playing this game on different levels to such a degree that tiny advantages or disadvantages make a big difference in the outcomes. It's clever, engaging, well thought through and fun to read (as well as potentially useful - "every phone was, by definition, a wireless bugging device", "orient, observe, and decide before you act"). I do have a slight reservation which is that we get something close to a stalemate: it all rather cancels out and the resulting plot turns in a number of key places on essentially chance developments. But maybe that's just true to life! ("The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but time and chance happeneth to all...")

There's a wider point beyond this. Dark State is a world - a universe - a set of universes - which make political points about such matters as democracy, economic development, and the surveillance society. Stress has thought long and hard about this stuff (as readers of his blog will be aware) and offers plausible, and often troubling, conclusions. For example, the New American Commonwealth is about to lose its First Man (its equivalent of its President, although it's more of a "guardian of the revolution" role). Will a newly established democracy manage this transition or will factional rivalry turn into civil war?

The author gives us few outright heroes or villains: I would have said "no" but there is Rita's boss Col Smith who seems to have been responsible for the nuking of the Gruinmarkt in Merchant Princes. We may sympathise with the survivors of the Clan because they're Miriam's people, but they are, as one sceptical figure here notes, an aristocratic-minded sect within an egalitarian society (in the same way as they formed a state-within-a-state in the Gruinmarkt). At the beginning of the book Stross illustrates, using the Wolf Orchestra as an example, how such a sect can survive and keep itself safe within a wider society. He's essentially set up a situation where an alternate timeline (the New American Commonwealth) introduced as an apparent refuge for the world-walkers when their own was nuked by the US becomes itself an active and interesting project which the reader will want to see survive, Clan or no. Given Col Smith's record that seems an iffy proposition and if I were one of the Clan's opponents in the Commonwealth, I'd be pointing out that the hostility from the US is primarily directed at the Clan and that they might be becoming dangerous guests...

Individuals may be in shades of grey but there is however a clear denunciation of the extent to which, in this timeline, Ubiquitously Surveilled America has descended into an authoritarian state: the Fourth Amendment is a dead letter, one character here is spirited away into "night and mist" (and may face "destructive debriefing and recycling), we're told that "everything is terrorism these days: downloading, uploading, jaywalking with intent to cause fear", a sinister sounding "Defense of Marriage Act" is in force. At one point, visiting a club with Angie, Rita welcomes "the comfort of public affirmation, of having a lover whose hand she could openly hold (at least in safe spaces like this), of having someone she could get sweaty on the dance floor with and who would take her home afterwards..." It's an excellent flash of personal experience and anguish to juxtapose against the grand themes of politics and espionage, even if we suspect Angie may find herself used by the spooks as leverage to control Rita.

The US Administration here is also riddled with conspiracy theorists, adherents of fringe religions and so forth, so much so that Rita is tasked, alongside obtaining valuable intelligence about the Commonwealth, with verifying a whole range of bizarre beliefs and theories the need to pander to which hinder Col Smith's operation at times (contrary to popular belief, fascism is not "efficient", and Stross highlights this in passing).

Some of this is genuinely funny, and as ever, Stross also makes the reader smile knowingly at some of his references: in this world, Ruritania is apparently a real country (one can travel to Strelsau but Elizabeth would rather not), there's mention of the "game of Empires" which must go one better than one of thrones, a Slaveowners' Treasonous Rebellion which was NOT THE SAME AT ALL as the US Civil War (even if it it is an excellent description...), there's a warning against curiosity because it is "felicidal" (think about it!), we have Brilliant unironically echoing Bogart when she says "Play it again... Play it Sam". More soberingly, there's a description in the historical Appendix of what happened after the French invasion of Britain which placed customs barriers on the canal system, "breaking up what had hitherto been the largest free trade zone in Europe" and causing economic disaster. (Hmmm...)

To sum up: this is an intelligent, sharp SF-espionage-thriller which nails some dark tendencies in present day politics and use of tech while building up an even more nightmarish threat in the depths of the timelines. Strongly recommended. ...more

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Jan 15, 2018 Balthasaar rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, rogue-spy-nior

Stross's America from timeline #2 is the scariest distopia that I believe that I've read because it's so firmly anchored in our own reality. Just one additional big terrorist attack in 2003 (i.e. the previous Family Trade books) & the country went full-on Authoritarian Police state by 2020.

Was frustrated when the Appendix hit because I was not ready for the book to be over with the cliffhanger it had. After calming down, I found Stross's history of Timeline #3's differences to our own a FASCINA ...more

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Mar 29, 2018 James rated it it was ok

Shelves: sf, fiction

Another cliffhanger ending with an info dump at the very last to fool you into thinking there might be hope of at least an intermediate resolution of some of the many threads. Wait for the last book before reading this series, Stross tosses a bucket of balls in the air and expects you to track them all over a two year publishing cycle.

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Jul 26, 2017 Eric rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, alternate-history

Low rating by other people, but odd there's any rating at all, book's not out yet at this time (7-26-17) ...more

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Jan 11, 2018 Mark rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the second book in the Empire Games trilogy, which is itself a loose continuation of the earlier "Merchant Princes" series. Stross is applying his fearsome imagination to a scenario of alternate timelines where a limited number of people are able to switch between worlds. Being Stross, this isn't a facile "but what if Hitler won?" scenario but a deep exploration of how small differences in technology and politics could have had spectacular effects. Also, being Stross, having come up with ...more

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Feb 01, 2018 Paul rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-read-2018

Picking right up where Empire Games left off, Rita the world-walker is back in her home America. Her handlers are slightly disturbed that she was picked up so quickly and the message that she has returned with has allsorts of ominous overtones. The politics of that country are beginning to crack as the health of the leader reaches a certain point, and Miriam Burgeson sees that there might be an opportunity to get a high-profile defector on her side and diffuse the situation.

After an intense deb ...more

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Jan 14, 2018 Jonathan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Charles Stross remains true to form in the middle entry of the Empire Games trilogy. I'm trying to review everything I read this year, which puts me in the awkward position of reviewing a single book far into the series.

I definitely find myself preferring Empire Games to the Merchant Princes series, mostly because, while well written and still enjoyable, the medieval court intrigue just wasn't quite as much my cup of tea, though it might benefit from a re-reading now that I know what twists to e ...more

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Jan 23, 2018 Katie rated it really liked it

Don't bother reading this one if you haven't read Empire Games. If you DID read Empire Games, and enjoyed it, then you definitely want this one. It's maybe a little technical-stuff heavy, there is one self-evidently lolarious coincidence that I saw coming, and it ends on a cliffhanger, but I think this is basically a solid middle book in this series. I want to know what happens next!

(Mostly because I love Rita and Angie. RITAAAAAAAAA.) ...more

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Jan 12, 2018 Sean Randall rated it really liked it

Obviously, there’s a lot more action to come in this series. I very much enjoyed the first of these books last year and this follow-up didn’t disappoint. It’s a very cleverly-plotted series without a doubt.

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Jul 19, 2018 Peter rated it liked it

I really wanted to score this higher than three stars. I've enjoyed pretty much everything that Stross has written and this is still excellent quality.... but every single plot thread was left on a cliff hanger ending. I am normally happy when authors that I enjoy write multi-book series. But they generally give us some sense of closure at the end of each book. Please close off a sub-plot or two while leaving the overall arc open. Otherwise readers like me will not buy books until the whole seri ...more

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Jan 18, 2018 Shhhhh Ahhhhh rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi

Interesting twist. I think that this will, in time, be recognized as one of the better works of sci fi ever made (as a series, if and when he completes it). It takes a premise, one that's even been done before, and runs with it in a way that never has. Most importantly, the sequel didn't suck, which seems to be some sort of litmus test for how good an idea really is (IME). I'll be waiting on baited breath for a full year for the next one. ...more

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Feb 07, 2018 Mitchell rated it liked it

Shelves: three-star, published-2018, liked-reviews

A bit confused. Too many story-lines and not enough progress on any of them nor enough depth. And in the end nothing was resolved. But lots of potential. I wish we got to know the pov characters more. The next book looks pretty set up though so might be quite a bit better. 3.5 of 5.

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Sep 03, 2018 Thomas rated it really liked it

Stross, Charles. Dark State. Empire Games No. 2. Tor, 2018.
Historical fiction is usually based on a “what if” premise. In 1814, Sir Walter Scott asked in Waverly what if we could see the Jacobite Rebellion through the eyes of a romantic young man. In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court Mark Twain asked what if Yankee ingenuity and materialism were introduced into Medieval culture. Twain’s time traveler, though, does not affect the flow of history. In Alternate histories, science fiction ...more

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Feb 26, 2018 Cale rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a bridge novel; Stross's book series usually go through a three-volume format: book one introduces the main characters, book two gets them into place, and book three is where everything hits the fan. Most of this volume is all about getting the pieces into their places. There's not a whole lot of action, just a lot of conversation and politics (especially in regards to Rita). All of that is interesting but not particularly motivating. But then the last 50 pages of this book... everything ...more

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Jul 15, 2018 Johan rated it really liked it

Shelves: scifi, politics

Amazing. I started reading the Merchant Princes series a decade ago and it is getting better and better. The first book, The Family Trade, was good but not spectacularly so. If was only after the first six books got republished as a trilogy that I got hooked. This series is spectacular in its complexity: different timelines (parallel universes), science fiction, espionage, (nuclear) war, political thriller, a bit of romance, factions within factions, ... The only downside is that I probably will ...more

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Dec 27, 2018 Gfl rated it it was ok

Better than its predecessor, "Empire Games" (Merchant Princes #7) this book at least moves the plot along a bit. We are left hanging at the end and various sub-plots appear to have nothing to do with the mainline plot of this or previous novels. The third in this sub-series (due January 2019, we're told) will be masterful if it's to tie off the various sub-plots. For it to explain away the plot and factual inconsistencies to date would be a ridiculous expectation.

Like its predecessor this novel ...more

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Apr 12, 2019 Balkron rated it did not like it

Shelves: adventure, phone, fantasy, reviewed

My Rating Scale:
1 Star - Horrible book, It was so bad I stopped reading it. I have not read the whole book and wont
2 Star - Bad book, I forced myself to finish it and do NOT recommend. I can't believe I read it once
3 Star - Average book, Was entertaining but nothing special. No plans to ever re-read
4 Star - Good Book, Was a really good book and I would recommend. I am Likely to re-read this book
5 Star - GREAT book, A great story and well written. I can't wait for the next book. I Will Re-Read th ...more

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Feb 04, 2019 Helen rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, science-fiction

Fascinated by Mr. Stross' worlds and very much afraid that the US is definitely headed in this direction. Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether Stross is exaggerating, making things up, or just reporting on the way things are. It sounds as if everyone is trying to make sure proper talks take place but things keep moving as if there is an inevitability to things.
The book ends with nothing resolved, dangerous events about ready to blow up, the princess in danger, and nothing resolved.
Boo, hiss! ...more

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Jun 12, 2018 Tony rated it liked it

Charles Stross is a writer producing very readable and enjoyable books and this continuation of the Traders Clan is no exception. Unfortunately, the book terminates partway through the stories of its protagonists and now, annoyingly, I have to wait till the next instalment arrives. That explains the rating.

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Jan 14, 2018 Jennifer rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, alternative-history

I want the next one right now. I couldn't stop until I finished. ...more

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Aug 18, 2019 Dev Null rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, near-future-sf, parallel_worlds

Still really enjoying this series. I like (for values of like including "enjoy reading about" but definitely not including "hope to see some day") the elements of parallel-America-as-a-high-tech-police-state. And the elements of old-school coldwar-era spycraft. And the whole convoluted parallel-history Europe. And the stories of Rita and her birth-mother and her grandfather and them all meeting and being a bit screwed up but eventually coping, etc.

But.

(You knew there was a "but" in here somewher ...more

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Feb 27, 2020 Dan Drake rated it it was amazing

Let's begin with Varley's Slow Apocalypse: it's present-time or near-future science fiction. As fiction -- as a novel/story -- it's nothing too special. (You might say it's...ahem...nothing to write home about.) But the "science" part is brilliant: it made me think about the world around me, about our civilization's dependence on fossil fuels, and how technology and science influence and are influenced by our society. That part of the book has really stayed with me.

Stross' Merchant Princes books Let's begin with Varley's Slow Apocalypse: it's present-time or near-future science fiction. As fiction -- as a novel/story -- it's nothing too special. (You might say it's...ahem...nothing to write home about.) But the "science" part is brilliant: it made me think about the world around me, about our civilization's dependence on fossil fuels, and how technology and science influence and are influenced by our society. That part of the book has really stayed with me.

Stross' Merchant Princes books are just as good on the "science" part as Varley's book and much better with the "fiction" part. I would characterize the "fiction" part as a typical spy thriller, brilliantly executed.

For the science part, Stross has set up a world in which you can start from the 9/11 terrorist attacks and subsequent erosion of civil liberties (or: preservation of our freedom and safety, depending on your point of view) and push it even further. More pervasive and effective surveillance technology; more power for the government. (As The Onion put it: more freedoms curtailed in defense of liberty.) As Slow Apocalypse makes you think about climate change, the Merchant Princes series makes you think about civil liberties, geopolitics, and democracy.

A couple thoughts on the particulars:

Stross started this series in the wake of 9/11 during the George W. Bush administration, and reading those books in 2019 and 2020, I was struck by how quaint and nostalgic those times seem now. Yikes! Remember the protests against going to war with Iraq? Remember the "worst president ever" googlebomb for George W. Bush? Remember how shocked we were about the Patriot Act? I look back at those times and they now seem quaint and nostalgic -- and am shocked to find myself thinking of them as quaint and nostalgic. How far we've come.

It's also interesting to contrast the real 2020 with the 2020 of Dark State. In Stross' world, it's governments that are surveilling and tracking people; in our 2020, it's corporations -- Facebook, Google, Tencent, and the like. But: what's the difference? Think of the Russian government sponsoring groups that make fake Facebook ads trying to control the outcome of US elections. Think of China, where the distinction between companies like Huawei, the government, and the Communist party is very fuzzy.

I can't wait for Invisible Sun! ...more

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Jul 06, 2018 Ken Richards rated it really liked it

'Dark State' picks up where 'Empire Games' left off. This is now the eighth Merchant Princes book and as a consequence the backstory and history is increasingly Byzantine. As always, the tale is well constructed and generally well paced. In this volume, Stross leaves the recounting of the historical underpinnings of the 'Commonwealth' timeline, in which most of the action is focused in this installment, to an appendix after the cliffhanger conclusion, thus avoiding infodumps which to an extend b 'Dark State' picks up where 'Empire Games' left off. This is now the eighth Merchant Princes book and as a consequence the backstory and history is increasingly Byzantine. As always, the tale is well constructed and generally well paced. In this volume, Stross leaves the recounting of the historical underpinnings of the 'Commonwealth' timeline, in which most of the action is focused in this installment, to an appendix after the cliffhanger conclusion, thus avoiding infodumps which to an extend bedevilled the prequel.

The scope of the story is broadened by the introduction of a new piece on the board of the 'game of Empires' in Elizabeth Hannover, heir to the North American absolute monarchy overthrown by the revolutionary Levelers (with world walking assistance from the refugees from the nuclear destruction of the 'Gruinmarkt' timeline). Elizabeth, seeking escape from an unwelcome dynastic marriage, conspires with Commonwealth agents to defect. A plan is made, a truly cunning plan, of which Baldrick would be proud. It might just involve multiple transitions between timelines, secret message drops and safehouses, eluding secret police and sundry security forces and piloting light aircraft between universes into chancy weather whilst suffering splitting migraines or worse. Nothing could possibly go wrong, could it?

Meanwhile, Miriam Beckstein's daughter Rita Douglas, raised in spycraft by the orphaned Stasi operatives of the deceased DDR continues to serve her new (and duplicitous) masters in Ubiquitously Surveilled America. She was recruited to mess with her long lost mother's head, but circumstances might have changed. At a transition point in the new democracy of the Commonwealth's existence they might have to make peace to buy time. Meanwhile, the back in the Paranoid States of America, folk might just be poking into matters they barely understand, and wake something or someone which might better have been left sleeping.

It is clear that big stakes are there to play for in the upcoming ninth book 'Invisible Sun'. Can't wait to see how it turns out. ...more

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Mar 11, 2018 PJ rated it liked it · review of another edition

Zeppelins.

Frikkin' zeppelins.

I've got no physics knowledge, and a quick Google / Wikipedia failed to enlighten me on any scientific basis for a multiverse / multiple reality theory. But I'm given to understand that there could be any number of universes out there. And according to all the multiple universe stuff I've read / seen, apparently they could be very similar to our own world, or very different but according to some immutable rule they must have zeppelins!!.

Okay, so the zeppelins make o ...more

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Mar 21, 2021 Andy Taylor rated it really liked it

Shelves: alternate-history, alternate-universe, series, speculative-fiction, thriller

Great follow up to the first book in the series. Dark State takes what was outlined in Empire Games and piles on the layers of political intrigue and cross-world high stakes drama as we get more of Elizabeth Hanover's story as a princess in exile and a continuation of Rita Douglas's growing involvement as a world walker working under duress for a secret agency operating out of the Department of Homeland Security in a timeline that has diverged from our own.

Charles Stross does a great job of comb ...more

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Mar 01, 2018 Colin Murtagh rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction, fiction, futurism, politics

This picks up from where Empire Games finishes, so if you've not read it, you really need to go back and read that first, or this will make no sense. Rita is walking between worlds, acting as an intermediary between the US and the commonwealth while still trying to work out the relationship with her mother and grandfather.
At the same time the first man is close to death, with the succession and factional problems that is going to bring, giving Miriam Burgeson her own problems.
Then there is the ...more

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Mar 05, 2018 William Tracy rated it it was amazing

This one is just as good as the first book of Stross' new series. This keeps up the tension, and adds some more depth to the complexities of diplomacy between two superpowers across parallel Earths. The characters continue to be riveting, and the James Bond type schemes that fill this volume make you continually wonder what small hitch is going to bring everything down.
I also really enjoyed the side story (which I'm sure will become major in another book or so) about the research the US is doing ...more

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Mar 27, 2018 Kend rated it really liked it

Shelves: alternate-histories

I did! I did like this book better than the first book, and I think I was right--it entirely comes down to the mood I was in when I first received this series. Stross's braiding of alternate universes takes some investment--of time, and energy, and a willingness to constantly refer to the lists and glossaries and appendices and other materials in the front and back of the book--but that investment pays off. If you have the resources to invest, which I didn't the first time around. This book does ...more

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Jan 17, 2018 James Kemp rated it really liked it

Shelves: owned, fantasy, fiction, espionage, science-fiction

Dark State is the middle book in a trilogy, and leaves us on a multi-threaded set of cliffhangers waiting for the final instalment in January 2019.

The story continues from where Empire Games left off, with nary a beat missed. Paranoia is set to eleventy one and everyone is watching everybody else. We have four major threads to follow.
Rita and her official mission with the US Dept of Homeland Security.
Rita's girlfriend and grandfather and the Wolf Orchestra trying to save Rita from DHS.
Major Hu ...more

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About Charles Stross

Charles Stross

5,003 followers

Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His works range from science fiction and Lovecraftian horror to fantasy.

Stross is sometimes regarded as being part of a new generation of British science fiction writers who specialise in hard science fiction and space opera. His contemporaries include Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod, Liz Williams and Richard Morgan.

SF ...more

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Quotes from Dark State

“Back to my question: is it better to reign in Hell—or should I aspire to be a citizen in the early years of a better nation?” — 2 likes

“America is the place where you cannot kill your Government by killing the men who conduct it. The only way you can kill government in America is by making the men and women of America forget how to govern. —Woodrow Wilson, 1919” — 1 likes

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