The first six novels in the series were released from 2004 to 2010, and take place in 2002–2004 of an alternate present. The books were later re-released in 2014 as A Merchant Princes Omnibus, a trilogy of three books with each book a combination of two of the original novels: The Bloodline Feud (books 1 and 2), The Traders' War (books 3 and 4), and The Revolution Trade (books 5 and 6).Charles Stross Introduces: The Bloodline Trade The re-release also included a considerable amount of editing and rewriting by Stross, although no major plot changes. A new trilogy began in 2017 with the release of Empire Games featuring new characters and updating the year in-setting to 2020.
