Empire Games - Empire Games, Bk 1 Author:Charles Stross The 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 Intertemp... more »oral Research and Intelligence -- the paratime espionage agency tasked with catalyzing the Commonwealth's great leap forward -- has a problem. For years, she's warned everyone: "The Americans are coming." Now their drones arrive in the middle of a succession crisis.
In another timeline, the U.S. has recruited Miriam's own estranged daughter to spy across timelines in order to bring down any remaining world-walkers who might threaten national security.
Two nuclear superpowers are set on a collision course. Two increasingly desperate paratime espionage agencies try to find a solution to the first contact problem that doesn't result in a nuclear holocaust. And two wome -- a mother and her long-lost daughter -- are about to find themselves on opposite sides of the confrontation.« less