Space Opera Fans discussion

The May 2020 Themed Pick is Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell. The theme is Favorite. We read this book back in 2016 and want to reread it! The previous discussion is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time. You can also use the previous discussion thread, particularly if you are responding to a comment made on that thread.

Official description:
THE GOLDEN AGE OF SAIL HAS RETURNED -- IN THE YEAR 2351

When his mother dies in a flitter crash, eighteen-year-old Ishmael Horatio Wang must find a job with the planet company or leave the system--and NerisCo isn't hiring. With credits running low, and prospects limited, he has just one hope...to enlist for two years with a deep space commercial freighter. Ishmael, who only rarely visited the Neris Orbital, and has never been off-planet alone before, finds himself part of an eclectic crew sailing a deep space leviathan between the stars.

Join the crew of the SC Lois McKendrick, a Manchester built clipper as she sets solar sails in search of profit for her company and a crew each entitled to a share equal to their rating.

This is one of my comfort reads. I reread it every year or two, frequently continuing with books 2 and 3 of the series. I look forward to rereading and discussing.

This book is available online as ebook and paperback and audiobook. It is unlikely to be found in brick and mortar stores. The first three books of the series are also available in the omnibus The Lois McKendrick Omnibus: Trader's Tales 1-3, which was free for a few days in mid April but is back to full price. It is also currently available on Kindle Unlimited.

I agree, definitely one of my comfort re-reads. Though I usually just end up doing a massive binge re-read of the entire series once I get started. This time around, my re-read was predominately via Audible. Jeffrey Kafer is a good narrator, and unlike some who want Mr. Lowell to be the only reader for his books, I'd much rather he focus on writing. Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed his podcasts of the Solar Clipper series, but I find Jeffrey Kafer equally as good, if different.

I find books 4 and 6 much less comfortable - I have to be emotionally stable to reread them (and even then I tend to skip the painful part of Owner’s Share). I am more likely to jump to In Ashes Born or Milk Run and continue from there.

I’ve started my reread. It’s odd that with as many times as I have reread this, I don’t have any quotes highlighted....

This is also one of my comfort reads. I've read it many times. I'm not sure I'll manage to reread it this month.

Ishmael is just so likeable. Although I do find it a little hard to believe that an 18 yr old raised without much contact with his peer age group would be as self-confident as Ish is. Maybe. But it doesn't matter. It's still an excellent story.

I'm not sure how I missed this series - but this is my first time with Ish and I love him. As an old lady, I look back so long ago and can really relate to the young boy who is doing so well. I also did well on tests but hated my classes. I am enjoying all of this so please - don't spoil any of it for me.

Finished rereading. Didn’t find any quotable lines - all the good parts required the context. I do still enjoy rereading this book, although I’ve do it so many times that it’s no longer the page turner it used to be.

Highly recommended for those who prefer characterization instead of violence.

Finished and binge reading the series. Love how everything moves showing life in the future

I’m rereading Half Share now, and will do Full Share as well. There are some GREAT scenes in Full Share.

I'm fifty pages into Quarter Share and finding it quite compelling. Will comment in more detail later.

This is my first introduction to 'Shares' stories. I got the box set that has the first three in them. I am now into the Full Share so I am almost 75% through with the set and I love it. What an imagination and a great ride. To see the hero change in a believable way is fascinating way makes me not want to put the stories down. I guess you all know I will reach out to read the rest.

Finished rereading Half Share. Good book but I don’t enjoy it as much as Quarter Share and Full Share.

Now rereading Full Share, which I know has great scenes in it. I found a quote from it that I’d marked too:
“You obviously have mistaken me for somebody with a clue. Unfortunately, I don’t even know where to buy a clue, and if I had one, I’m sure it would be to a different puzzle.”

I'm nearly 3/4 done with Quarter Share, and I have a few questions.

First, about time. Stanyers are fairly well pinned down as roughly equivalent to years, and stans as hours, but I'm having trouble with ticks. They don't seem to be used consistently. They usually seem to be longer than a second and less than a minute, maybe in the 10-20 second range, but I can't pin it down because of the inconsistency.

Second, what is the purpose of the Lois? Is it just a trading ship, shuttling goods from one port to another? If so, you'd think they'd have a real trading expert on board to be managing "extracurricular" trading to maximize profit given space and mass constraints, but they didn't seem to be doing that at all before Pip, an amateur, started looking into it. Am I missing something?

I had assumed a tick was a minute but that most people used it loosely. For example, at work a coworker of mine will say just a minute, and that often means he gets back to me 15 minutes later......

They do have a cargo master on the ship. Due to the way people can be promoted, you don’t have to be creative to get rank and a position. Possibly no imagination, possibly laziness or just not enough time and not enough incentive to improve.

Of course the most likely explanation is the author needing to have things Ish could trigger happening. ;)

BTW the author has admitted to making mistakes with metric system conversions. He wanted Ish to be on the short side for a man, but thought 1.5 meters would do that as a sort of roundish number. Oops...

Full Share chapter six. The captain saying “we are in no immediate danger”.

Avoiding spoilers, but this chapter and the immediately following ones are my favorite part of the whole series, with In Ashes Born and the sponges a close second.

Alright, I'm not fully convinced, except by your most likely explanation.

Another thing I forgot to mention was the names. First, Ishmael. I'm not familiar with the Bible. Can anyone speculate why Ishmael might have his name? And how do you explain the reactions he gets to it?

And how about Carstairs? Quite the name there, too.

Call me Ishmael is the first line in Moby Dick. His mother was an ancient literature professor. The Horatio for the middle name is from the Horatio Hornblower series.

Oh and Pip might be a reference to Great Expectations by Dickens. Main character in that book was a Philip who went by Pip. That’s a bit harder to nail. The Ishmael coming from Moby Dick was made very obvious in Full Share.

It occurs to me that I should note here that those who prefer action and/or violence likely won’t like this series. There is more of that in books 4,5,6 but probably not enough to keep fans of military SF happy. Ish even gets into a space battle eventually in book 9 but I wouldn’t call it military SF.

I remember reading this back in 2016 (has it really been that long?) and really enjoying it. I need to really read the rest of the series.

How was the booth manager problem solved toward the end of the book? The captain said to "split the commission between the booth and the managers." I don't get this. Can someone explain? I'm unclear on the definitions of commission and consignments in this context.

The total commissions amount (the part that the sellers give the booth) gets cut in half. Half goes to the cooperative to cover expenses. The rest is divided among the booth managers. The details are vague because they don’t really contribute to the story.

Thanks, that makes sense.

I never read this book before, but I decided to give it a try. So far, enjoyable and well written.
I got the first 3 book set when it was free. I am up to the point where Ish has decided to take the tests for all the specialties to make himself more marketable. Ambitious young man.

Truly it is an amazing feat to write so gripping a story with such carefully measured issues.

There is an active group on Facebook "Golden Age of the Solar Clipper" with the author and crew.

Ryan wrote: "I'm nearly 3/4 done with Quarter Share, and I have a few questions.

First, about time. Stanyers are fairly well pinned down as roughly equivalent to years, and stans as hours, but I'm having troub..."

yes exactly as you say, it becomes a very large part of the series later.

Teresa wrote: "I had assumed a tick was a minute but that most people used it loosely. For example, at work a coworker of mine will say just a minute, and that often means he gets back to me 15 minutes later........"

Ryan wrote: "I'm nearly 3/4 done with Quarter Share, and I have a few questions.

First, about time. Stanyers are fairly well pinned down as roughly equivalent to years, and stans as hours, but I'm having troub..."

For a tick, "Forty-five crew needed a hundred and twenty of these little buggers [sushi rolls]. I thought it would take a long time, but it took less than a stan once we had a rhythm going. We’d done them at a rate better than three a tick." So if a stan is an hour, a tick seems to be about a minute and a half.

I laughed at "What in the name of anti and uncle matter do you think you’re doing?"

If a tick is a minute and a half, that's really awkward, as Horatio uses the term - there are more than a few times where people just stare at each other for a tick!

I thought of "tick" as it is used in British speech. A "tick" is a short but indeterminate amount of time. I've heard people say things like "This will just take three ticks." In the US we might use a "moment" or an "instant."

Interesting, I didn't know that about British speech (I'm American). So then, there is essentially no difference between a tick and a few ticks? That would make a lot of sense for how it's used in this book.

I went ahead and read Half Share and will read Full Share, too, once I catch up on a few other books in my reading pile.

Same. I had to finish the 6 book series. Now I'm starting the 2nd book in the follow up seeker series.

Did the same. Finished first 6 books and then finished the seeker series. Author promises more to come

Jo (Mixed Book Bag) wrote: "Did the same. Finished first 6 books and then finished the seeker series. Author promises more to come"
The trilogy starting with Milk Run takes place in parallel with some of the Ish books, and ends when the seeker series ends. Pip makes some spot appearances too. That series has a bit more action than the Ish books. Odds are good you will enjoy them.

I'm on Milk Run too! Looking forward to the forthcoming trilogy where Ish, Pip, Natalya and Zoya merge!