A good captain protects his crew. Who protects the captain?
A shuffling of cabins puts Ishmael Horatio Wang in command of the worst ship in the fleet. He learns that being captain doesn’t make you infallible and that life in the captain’s cabin is filled with new kinds of challenge as he tries to keep the ship moving, the crew out of trouble, and turn a profit to earn his Captain’s Share.
In a … Share.
In a ship where the officers outnumber the crew, can he keep everybody happy? Welcome to the SC Agamemnon.
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I recommend starting with the first book, I think it’s “Quarter share.” The series is an extended coming-of age story, but told from a space merchant-marine perspective. Truly different, and truly entertaining. The hero has real, believable problems, and overcomes them in reasonably practical ways.
Great series of books start with the first one
Read them all, all the side quests too.
I literally have read EVERY BOOK Nathan has written. As soon as it comes out. He never disappoints with his stories of everyman or everywoman
This is the first series in my list of Go-To Books. I loved it on my first read, now when I finish a series by a different author and have that “Nothing looks good” problem, I reread this series before selecting a different author. Ishmael, the main character, is a likeable guy who faces problems a bit differently from everyone else. He wasn’t born a spacer, so he doesn’t know how things are supposed to be done. It gives him a step up on everyone else who is stuck in, “that’s not how we do it”. His stories are entertaining and sometime funny. Nathan Lowell is my favorite author.
Read the first three books up to this one and just could not put them down. Got to this one and wondered how the author was going to pull off that dead zone where it’s just cut and past. Seems to be no problem with this author, I think someone deleted the cut and paste option from his brain and/or his typewriter (thank heavens!) Picked up the book and ate it up like ambrosia thinking surely there has to be more, why did it end? I got excited, yes there is more to come.
Although I am a huge fan of Nathan’s Tanyth Fairport Series, I am even more ridiculously a fan of the Solar Clipper series. I was introduced to them via John Ward, the great collector of interesting people, who suggested the Quarter Share podcast to me. A couple years later, and not only have I thoroughly enjoyed devouring the entire series on a regular basis, but I’ve also roped my family into the fandom as well. I’m pretty sure my mother has listened to the first six books at least a score of times. I’m not kidding. My children have listened in rapt attention to Quarter Share at least five or six times. We use them as road trip entertainment. They’re published in series of three, each trilogy focusing on a different phase of Ishmael Horatio Wang’s life.
Captain’s Share is MY favorite of this particular trilogy. Because not only does Ish affect great change, but the problems he resolves aren’t systemic abuse. Which I think is the main problem I have with Double Share. Ish still makes a huge impact and changes the lives of many people. But those people would have at least been living still if Ish hadn’t entered their lives. But the tragedy of the Chernyakova is introduced here, which sets us up for the third trilogy. The companion novel A Light in the Dark should be read after this.
To read my review on every book in the series, check out my full review at adrielwiggins.com/solar-clipper.