Owner's Share

by Nathan Lowell

Summary from PodioBooks

When Diurnia Salvage and Transport undergoes a change in management, Captain Ishmael Horatio Wang finds himself adrift in a sea of red ink, and intrigue. He dives in only to find that he is over his head in a universe where cut-throat competition takes on an all new meaning.

What price will he pay for his Owner’s Share?

Thoughts on the Book

This is the last book in the Trader Tales series.  I've loved the previous 5 books, Ishmael Wang is awesome, I'll never get tired of hearing stories about it.  I waited a long time to finally give this one a listen, mostly because I knew it was the last one and I didn't want it to end.  I also would listen to these stories with my dad when we commuted to work together.  Since we both left that company I didn't feel right listening to it without him.  He did not have those qualms.  So I finally sucked it up and listened.

My Review

Ishmael has finally worked his way up through the ranks from quarter share in the first book to the owner in Owner's Share.  As with most of his advancements this one was thrust upon him in a whirlwind of politics and business.

Lowell did a fantastic job with series continuity in this book.  Characters from earlier installments come back, some in a very large role, others in smaller roles.  Some long running mysteries are solved, one of which was the biggest unknown in Ishmael's life, which drove him at the start of Quarter Share.  Even minor events in Ishmael's travels came back, which concluded the series.  I really hope he shows up in Shaman Tales...

I love the way Lowell writes in a slow meandering fashion.  It really brings out what is important to Ishmael.  Most of his meals are described beautifully, whether he's cooking or not, while other more mundane aspects are not so detailed, like the cleaning.  Although, it is still mentioned quite frequently.

Near the end of the series I was jaw-dropped and close to tears.  The way Lowell wrote out the climax was amazing.  Everything is told through Ishmael's perspective, and the state he was in while everything was happening was just too much.  My heart broke for him.  I wanted to jump into the orbital and help him, try to save him from what was happening.

I've listened to the audio books for the entire series, the ebooks didn't come out until after Captain's Share, I think.  Nathan Lowell is the narrator as well as the author and he does such a fantastic job.  I briefly considered reading Owner's Share but promptly decided against it because Lowell's voice is Ishmael's voice.  Ishmael wouldn't be Ishmael without Lowell narrating.

I absolutely loved this installment, a great end to a wonderful series.  I give it a 10/10.

Lowell writes under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 license.  Which means I can happily say read Owner's Share or start from the beginning of Ishmael's travels with Quarter Share.  Or even take a look at all of Lowell's work here.  Some of his stuff (like Trader's Tales) is available as an ebook, but I highly recommend listening to the audio book, even if you don't usually like listening, try it with this one, Lowell does such a fantastic job reading you may surprise yourself and start to love listening to Ishmael!