Nathan Lowell, Quarter Share
Product Details
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1. Short review:
2. Long review:
2.1. What I liked: Quarter Share was light and easy to read. When a book is easy to read, much effort has gone into making it so.
2.2. What I did not like: Typos, typesetting errors, and one odd word choice. Examples: In the first chapter, 'later' was written where 'latter' was intended; there is one instance where closing quotes were given but the same speaker continued in the following paragraph; the one odd word choice was 'acclimating', used where 'becoming accustomed' would have been better. I mention it because it kicked me out of my reading mind-set. 'Acclimate' to me relates to weather and climate, not to shipboard routine; 'accustom' or 'habituate' is better for that.
If you play the pro game, play at the pro level. Were Mr Lowell an indie author, I might be inclined to give him slack. (Probably not.) But Mr Lowell published through Ridan Publishing, a small press. Ridan Publishing had the job of editing and proofreading Quarter Share. They dropped the ball.
2.3. Who I think is the audience: I and others like me. I am an avid blue-water sailor--sailboats, not powerboats. I read science fiction. I have read Two Years Before the Mast, Moby-Dick, and the entire Horatio Hornblower series. When I was young, I read the whole of the Tom Swift and Tom Swift, Jr, series. So did I get the audience right? Lessee . . .
Call me Ishmael. Yeah I know, but in this case it's really my name: Ishmael Horatio Wang. My parents had an unfortunate sense of humor. If they had known what I'd wind up doing with my life, they might have picked a different one--Richard Henry Dana, perhaps.So the book begins. What do you think? Did I get the audience right?
2.4. Is the book appropriate for children to read? Yes. No worries. No profanity; one 'darn'. No sex. Some left-handed hints at nudity but nothing overt.
2.5. On the basis of reading this book, will I buy the author's next book? Yes. Looking forward to Half Share.
2.6. Other: I sampled Quarter Share first by podcast here http://www.podiobooks.com/title/quarter-share. I learned two things: 1) I don't like having books read to me, and 2) I liked as much of Quarter Share as I heard.
To me, there are two downsides to the Solar Clipper series.
The first is the name of the series: Solar Clipper. From that name, I expected tales of lightsailships cruising our solar system. 'Taint so. As mellow as Solar Clipper sounds, I think Stellar Clipper would have been better.
The second--and this is big--is the production schedule. As of today, only Quarter Share and Half Share are available on Kindle. I want 'em all, and I want 'em now.
One last item. Ishmael refers to the space between the stars as the 'Deep Dark'. I like that. It is an evocative image.
2.7. Links:
Nathan Lowell @ http://nathanlowell.org/
Trader's Diary @ http://solarclipper.com/
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