Sunday eBook Review: Half Share

Nathan Lowell, Half Share

Product Details Format: Kindle Edition File Size: 486 KB Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited Publisher: Ridan Publishing (December 19, 2010) Sold by: Amazon Digital Services Language: English ASIN: B004GUSA02 Lending: Enabled Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  (73 customer reviews)

1. Short review:  

2. Long review:
2.1. What I liked:  Half Share was light and easy to read.  When a book is easy to read, much effort has gone into making it so.
     Roller-coaster or walk-in-the-park?  Walk-in-the-park.
     This book gives good value for your money.

2.2. What I did not like:  Typos and typesetting errors.  The editors dropped the ball again.  ( See my Sunday eBook Review of Quarter Share.)  This does not speak well for Ridan Publishing.

2.3. Who I think is the audience:  Science fiction and sailing fans.  Readers of C S Forester, Patrick O'Brian, and David Weber will feel at home reading the Solar Clipper series.

2.4. Is the book appropriate for children to read?  Yes, I think so.  No overt sex. 

2.5. On the basis of reading this book, will I buy the author's next book?  No, but on the basis of Quarter Share and Half Share together, I will buy Full Share.

2.6. Other:  The hero of the Solar Clipper series is Ishmael Horatio Wang (Ish).  In Quarter Share, he shipped aboard the Lois McKendrick, a space-going freighter.  With his crewmate Pip, he set up in-port flea market operations that profited the crew.
     In Half Share, Ish transfers from the galley to the environmental section.  The first two-thirds of the book is taken up with the transfer, the galley replacement, some flea market activities, settling into the environmental section routine, and buying a suit of clothes for Ish.
     But the final third of Half Share is taken up with Ishmael's sexual adventures.  And he is just too good at seduction.  He's 18 going on 35. 
     When Ish shipped aboard the Lois, he was eighteen.  He has been aboard 7 months.  At most, he would be nineteen.  By his own admission, he had few friends planetside; but he handles himself with women -- older women -- like a man with many years of experience.
     I will suspend disbelief for warp jumps in space.  I will not suspend disbelief when an eighteen year-old sweet talks older women like a practiced Casanova.

2.7.  Links:
Nathan Lowell @ http://nathanlowell.org/
Trader's Diary @ http://solarclipper.com/

2.8.  Buy the book:  Half Share at amazon.com