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Hade Debaillie

'Nothing happens', and yet, I can't get enough!

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2018

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Other reviewers have written that 'nothing happens' in Quarter Share. I would argue that 'nothing happens' to Ishmael in Quarter Share the same way 'nothing happens' to most of us in real life. All sorts of things happen; they're just things that could happen to any of us, except we don't live in 2351, in a version of the future where humankind has gone exploring for profits' sake, rather than just for curiosity's sake or to wage war. A crash makes our protagonist an orphan, and our eighteen-year-old hero -- 'just a guy', he calls himself, but most people who know him would disagree -- ships out on an interestellar bulk freight hauler, into a world he knows next to nothing about. Somehow, he makes that world a better place by doing incredibly simple things. Like making better coffee for his shipmates. Or organising them into working a booth at the flea market together. Or helping a friend pass a test that has been eluding him for a long time. It feels somehow magical and attainable at the same time. It says to the reader: you don't have to be or do anything special to make a difference in the world. You just have to get off your butt and do *something*. That's what makes the story so engaging. That's why I keep coming back.

Sometimes, Nathan Lowell leaves me wondering why nobody else ever thought of doing some of the incredibly simple things that can make such a world of difference in Ishmael's life, and particularly in that of the people around him. But then I get into a conversation about it with other readers on the author's Facebook page, and we, sometimes with a bit of help from Mr. Lowell to steer us in the right direction, always come up with some pretty good ideas about why things were the way they were before Mr. Wang came along. Every time we do, we discover new depths to a story nobody (maybe not even its writer) ever suspected of having so many depths to discover.

If you haven't read any of Mr. Lowell's work yet, now is a good time to start!

Codex

So much fun even the second time around

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2020

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Feel good SF. Good people dealing with interesting challenges in a dangerous world that they are well -equipped to handle: What's not to love?

Ishmael Wang is left stranded on a cut-throat corporate planet after the unexpected death of his mom. He's got nothing, no-one and no future - the corporate lawyers are suing him for the property damage caused by his mom's air-car blowing up. He takes the only way out that shows up - a two year indentured contract with an interstellar freighter as a lowly galley worker.

And he finds his feet and builds a future for himself. I'm re-reading the whole series, and it's as satisfying as I remembered. If you need a break from the relentless awfulness of everything get this book.

Paul Meyer

The author who brought Kindle Unlimited back from the brink for me

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2019

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I wrote more extensively about how much I love these books in my review of _In Ashes Born_, which starts the second series about this character. Rather than copy and paste, let me just say that these books are so good that I voluntarily paid for them instead of rereading them on Kindle Unlimited every couple of years.

This is, IMO, the best book to start with from the larger set of Solar Clipper books. While the Seeker's Tale books have enough of the backstory about Mr Wang that you can read them without these, it's more fun to stick with the charactger's chronology. I'd suggest you read all of these, then all of the Seeker's Tales, then the Smuggler's Tales.

Bo Zimmerman

Fantastic First Act

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2021

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This story has an amazing first act -- a good hook to build sympathy with the main character, the establishment of character traits that will define the direction of events, a passible setting. It has all that.

The problem is, the first act never ends.

I was so pleased with this book, and then halfway through I began to realize it was going nowhere.

I see this is book 1 of a series. Perhaps the plan was to tell a single story, split into several books. If so, this is the wrong way to go about it. It needs Sub-Plots, please; conflict and resolution, mystery and discovery. Something. Anything.

Either way, I won't be finding out if anything changes in Book 2 because, after Book 1, I no longer care.

bookaholic536

Fascinating view of everyday life on a trading ship

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2017

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If you are expecting high adventure or heroics you will be sorely disappointed, but if you are looking for a well plotted view of what life as a crew member on a trading starship over three centuries in the future might be like, you have found a real gem.

The protagonist falls into his new life as one of two possible options when he is left an orphan on a company world with no support. His willingness to work hard and learn could be a lesson for all of us. We get to learn about his new life at the same time he does and I for one found it as interesting as he does.

The characters are well drawn and very believable. The minutiae regarding day to day life, duties and trading theory are surprisingly engrossing. These characters are people I would enjoy working and living with. I plan to continue the relationship by purchasing the next book in the series, Half Share.

Top reviews from other countries

Nils Ödlund

Plain and pleasant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 5, 2019

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I picked this up after an online conversation with the author where he said he's writing about everyday people, but in a sci-fi setting.
I found this idea intriguing and picked the book up. It's really just what he said. Fortunately, he does a good job of it. The story is well written and the characters are appealing. There's no big drama or action, but more of a slice-of-life tale about young man in space.

What I liked:
Good prose. Relaxed vibe. No drama.

What I could have done with a little less of:
There were some things that were explained in a little too much detail, like the shares system, and some of the economic/business side of things.

Will I read the next part?
Yes.

pepe

Hornblower in space - but without the excitement

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2018

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This is the first in a series of books about Ishmael Horatio Wang who starts his career in space as a cook's assistant and works his way up to through the ranks. The ship is pretty much like a clipper of yore, in that the crew sleep in bunks, eat meals in the galley, load cargo etc., except that it has a jump drive that allows a ship to instantaneously travel anywhere in the galaxy once it is far enough from any strong gravity field - so ships are out of port for several weeks at a time. If you're looking for space battles, look elsewhere, this book is about the characters, cooking and the import/export business. So, if you want a well-written book that provides a 5 page description of how to make a good cup of coffee, tips on the perfect omelette and a complete instruction manual on commercial trading, with some likeable characters thrown in, then this is for you. Personally, I was hoping for a space pirate about halfway through but had to read about how to set up a market stall instead. Pity.

Big Dave UK

Just a nice easy read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 26, 2021

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Its true what others have said, in that there are no big drama's or space battles. But do you know what, I really, really enjoyed that.
I purchased this book after a recommendation from my boss at work, I am working on writing my own science fiction novel, so after saying that I need more sci-fi to read, he told me to take a look at Nathan's series. I am very glad he did.
You really get to know young Ishmael Wang, an orphan with nothing to his name, pushed into his only viable option after losing his mum, and with it his place on his home world; life basically being a skivvy aboard a space ship.
Being a genuine person and a hard worker, he uses knowledge passed down to him from his mum, to progress on from doing a good job in the kitchen, to seeing how far he can push his ambitions.
It's the kind of book where you just coast along, not really knowing how far through you are, when it just ends.
You genuinely feel like you could carry on reading more. Which you can, its the first in a series, so I will be.

Nigel Thorpe

Nice change from action based space sagas

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 23, 2021

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Who’d have thought that a young lad going to sail the stars in a futuristic clipper ship could grab your interest solely by getting along with his life & his shipmates? No battles, here; simply a lad forced to make his own way by circumstances, who decides to ship out as generations have done before. Learning his way as a spacefarer and finding his way into trading is what this series is all about - hence the series title.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read and look forward to the rest of the series, not least because the author writes like an adult with good grammar, punctuation and humour.

One (very) small, carping, criticism is that there are no unsympathetic characters, here. Everyone is likeable. Sometimes an antagonistic character can add a bit of grit to what could be a certain blandness. Maybe this will happen in future episodes. It is for this reason that I downgraded from 5 stars to 4.

A. Butler

For such a quiet book, it's engrossing!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 23, 2015

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The book is the story of a young man who lives on a faraway planet, which is owned by the company that is being allowed to exploit it. After the death of his mother, he has to leave the planet as he's no longer allowed to stay. nice little treatise here on the wonders of corporate mentality and greed if you scan the sub-text.

Anyway, off he goes, to space, aboard a space freighter, as one of the lowest ranked crew. This is where the book gets its title, a quarter share is the bonus amount paid to said lowest rank crew.

So, there he is, working in the galley of a spaceship, trying to make his way in the world. When ... nothing happens.

No, I mean that. Nothing actually happens. No pirtates attack, no jurisdictional problems requiring him to take over the ship by force and head to any badlands. Nope. He just goes where the ship is pointed.

Yeah, I said this book was odd didn't I? Well this oddness pervades. No fights or killing, or being let out of airlocks. No damsels in distress, nor dragons either. No aliens wanting to probe him or torture him. It's just the story of his first few months on the voyage.

And, despite this lack of violence, the book has a plot line. It's all about this young man and his journey. And it's actually engrossing. I actually hated to put the book down. I wasn't looking forwards to any unique plot twists that had lasers blasting away, I really was enjoying the story.

The characters are neat, straight edged, honest and true. They learn from experience in the right kind of way and they progress nicely. The plot, despite lack of obscure twists and violence, moves steadily and painlessly from situation to situation. And to most of this, our young man seems to be a passenger rather than a hero. Things happen, he does things, they turn out well, or not. But our young man isn't a truly great mover or shaker, he just is. And there is nothing wrong with this. In fact it's brilliant!

Ok, there are little bits in the book that annoy, characters change their minds about how they view things and people when faced with new evidence and they say (in their minds) they were wrong. This is something that doesn't happen so easily in real people in my experience, we normally just adapt and move with the flow of new information, we don't generally reappraise ourselves so instantly and honestly.

So, final word on this book? Go get a copy, it's well worth it!

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