Captain's Share

Ishmael is now given the opportunity as a captain but it is for the worst ship in the company fleet. He must find a way to engage the crew and find a way to turn around the entire situation on his ship. In his usual charismatic way, he works to find common understanding with the elements of the crew that are belligerent and the downtrodden. Using a contest on cargo picking as a catalyst to spur interest and excitement with a couple members of the crew spills over to the rest of the crew in morale. Another very good read in this series.

The series is back on track with this book. Once again we can follow the steadfast Ishmael Horatio Wang in his almost-adventures across the Deep Dark. Will he face danger? Not quite. Will he struggle against enemies? Not really. Will he risk life and limb for amazing profits? Um, probably not. That's not very prudent.

Somehow this series still excites me despite having none of the characteristics of enjoyable genre fiction. I can't explain it and that's okay.

The series is back on track with this book. Once again we can follow the steadfast Ishmael Horatio Wang in his almost-adventures across the Deep Dark. Will he face danger? Not quite. Will he struggle against enemies? Not really. Will he risk life and limb for amazing profits? Um, probably not. That's not very prudent.

Somehow this series still excites me despite having none of the characteristics of enjoyable genre fiction. I can't explain it and that's okay.

I didn't finish this episode. This particular combination of juvenile writing style and adult themes has worn out its welcome with me and I quit about 2/3 of the way through.

Perhaps it's that older Ishmael isn't as appealing as he was as a younger man and the supporting cast in this episode isn't as likable. Perhaps it's that I find the content extremely unbalanced when the upheaval caused by adultery in the life the protagonist gets less page space than a discussion of cleaning a coffee urn did a few volumes back.

Whatever the reason, I had picked up the first five as a group and gave them a good run, but 4½ of them is as much as I can manage. I won't be continuing on to Owner's Share.

The stakes take another leap as Ishmael advances in grade, now facing some challenges he has to admit he is not completely equipped to master. As always, the supporting cast is nicely depicted in a low-key way. There are a few conflict-laden settings which we haven't seen before in this series which do well to break up the routine which has been established.

Anyone who's made it this far into the saga should know pretty well whether this is the kind of storytelling they like or not.

Having solved his last ship's problems, he now gets another problem ship to fix - but at least this time he's the captain and doesn't have to work around authority. Lots of interesting characters. Little sex, mostly because he won't "screw around with crew" - which causes some problems itself.

Reread - Again, not a lot happens. Well, Ish turns another "worst ship in the fleet" around mostly by paying attention to what's actually going on instead of making assumptions. Once he's got that underway, it's a lot of port-to-port runs; excitement of good cargo with a deadline, a side trip to rescue some people on an overloaded ship, but nothing major. His marriage falls apart, which... Kind of was expected from the beginning of the last book show more (at least by me, and I don't think it's because it was a reread). I know what happens in Over Easy, and every time he goes there I'm tensing up - but not in this book. Ends with one new shipmate and yet another trip into the Deep Dark. Next! show less

One of the best books in the series up to this point. An excellent example of how effective leadership can impact individuals which has a further impact on creating well functioning team. Oh ya, and a good story at the same time :)