Mercantile adventures in the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper is an entertaining listen and the audio book is free. Be warned that this is a really capturing story, when you begin listening to it you might not stop until you listen to all the books in the series as I am doing.
Title: Quarter Share
Author: Nathan Lowell
Genre: Mercantile Science Fiction
Audiobook: Podiobook (Free Online Audio Book) | iTunes
Paperback: 282 pages
Publisher: Ridan Publishing, 1 edition (April 10, 2010)
Order: Amazon US
The Golden Age of Sail has Returned — in the Year 2352
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 a marvelous story, I like coming of age stories and this is a mesmerizing one. It is also a nice change to have an everyday story about a young boy learning the ropes in the mercantile fleet in the 24th century during the golden age of the solar clippers. It’s a workplace tale where Ishmael plunge into a world he doesn’t know anything about and he has to learn it from the bottom as a quarter share mess boy. But he is not without talent and he finds he loves it there out in the deep dark. His way to assure he can stay there is endearing and ambitious.
The characters is at the center in story, they are detailed, warm and easy to love. I wouldn’t mind at all working on the SC McKendrick it seems a nice place to be in much like the company I work at myself.
World building is not very extensive outside the ship and the trade but it isn’t any problem, you feel that the important part is the enclosed ship society, everything outside change as the ship moves and are not really important to the story.
Quarter Share is available for download now (Podiobook). And I am happy it is a series so I can enjoy it long time (I am listening to chapter 4 of Half Share book two of the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper). As of today you can also get it as a paper back.
Quarter Share is a mesmerizing tale of a young man coming of age and finding his place as a crewman aboard a solar clipper. Call me Ishmael works real well and makes me smile every time Nathan says it. Make sure you have free time and download the book is my recommendation.
The series:
- Quarter Share
- Half Share
- Full Share
- Double Share
- Captain’s Share
- Owner’s Share
Science Fiction Podcasts
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