Double Share

Wow. The enjoyment I've been getting from this series derives almost entirely from the low-conflict, light-hearted nature of the books. Double Share takes that and throws it out the window. My first reaction was positive. This could be something new, something great. Then reality set in.

Rather than the Lois McKendrick, our protaganists' home in the Deep Dark for the past few books, we now move the setting to a new ship, the William Tinker. This ship is gross. It's filthy, smells, everyone is nasty to one another, and, oh yeah, the entire female crew is being constantly raped.

I absolutely hate rape stories, whether in book, TV, or film. They make me want to throw up, and that's not how I enjoy spending my light-hearted reading time. show more Really, the only way to make it worse is to treat the rape as anything less than horrific. Guess what Nathan Lowell managed to do?

I'm not going to really spoil anything here because this book can't get any more spoiled. In the end, after the dust has settled and things are "resolved", the new female captain (who has witnessed these atrocities happening for years) keeps one of the rapists aboard. The character even manages to explain away what he did by saying "he's a good boy that fell in with a bad crowd". How about we tell that to the women he raped time and time again over the course of YEARS while they had no means of escape except the emptiness of space? How about we go back to the part when we learn that he has murdered women that have tried to fight back or complain?

This book was digsusting. Much more so than the William Tinker. show less

Finally an officer - the whole Academy is skipped over. But he ends up on a bad ship, with a bad captain, and has to solve it...and does, of course. Active sexual harassment and rape (offscreen). And a very bad marriage, though he escapes with minimal damage (to either of them).

Reread - This is a dark book (for this series) - Ish finally runs into some truly nasty people, in authority over him. There's what they do, and the fact that it's all - not legal, exactly, but sheltered from being laid against them officially. He manages to make friends and allies, and give a lot of people a helping hand, nonetheless - and eventually things come to a good ending. Turns out he was being used to solve a problem, though he didn't know it. I do like show more Fredi. And Mel and Arletta, but especially Fredi. The scene in and outside his cabin is deeply amusing (while remaining scary and slightly horrific as well). Good book, possibly my least favorite of the series though. show less

What an interesting and horrifying sideways jump with this one. Gone was the fun books, a whole new group of characters and a story of sexual assault, harassment and abuse. Very serious topics that sadly are still a thing in 2350'ish. This book tells a more disturbing tale and although not everything gets resolved, Ish comes through for his shipmates.

It saddened me when I finished this book to no longer have the companionship of its characters! Like losing friends. Nathan's writing style seamlessly draws in the reader to the world he creates.

The plot of this episode was a welcome change from the last, mainly because it was no longer Ishmael proving how good he is as both a spacer aboard the Lois McKendrick and a Romeo everywhere else. That story line was becoming old.

However, the entire book is centered around rape and assault and it just didn't work. The characters were far too flat. Some of the victims felt trapped and seeing them unable to change things made sense.

However, Lowell populated the ship with others who were competent, decisive and moral to one degree or another. In fact (and now I'm trading on having started the next book before writing this), some of them turn out to be quite upstanding citizens. None of them were physically restrained or under threat of show more blackmail. Yet, they were never able to even articulate a protest, much less drop a word to the authorities or the ship's owner. Or, better yet, to arrange an "accident" in the highly hazardous environment in which they all lived.

Well, until Ishmael comes along and saves the day.

As Lowell reaches for themes that are more and more adult, his characters are remaining simplistic. This doesn't work. show less

This book in the series is a very dark departure from the first 3. Ishmael is put in a very bad situation of abuse aboard a new ship after graduating from the space academy. It is his first berth as an officer and he must now deal with a captain and crew that abuses the crew in very dark ways. He must grow and figure out how to deal with the situation. What can he do, how will he survive and help those being abused including himself. A very different story than the first three but I found it still a very good read. Will definitely continue to read the rest of the series.

My feeling for this book, and for the entire series is that we have one story that has been chopped up amongst all the work of Mr. Lowell. Then stretched with inconsequential filler to try and make a tale book length.

I think that Lowell has reached a crisis point in his writing, and that is to understand that conflict involves making his hero have some skin in the game. His hero, Wang, never seems to be bothered about the circumstances that set him on the road he is on, so there is no growth there, nor does Wang seem to feel particularly challenged by any of the problems he has ever had. He could study for all the different types of ships jobs there are and pass. He could do this with ease, or that.

Never does the hero face a choice show more that could lead to death. So never is there truly any tenseness for the character to face. It is all easy peasy. Lowell has an interesting world. He has an interesting trade protocol, but what he fails at is bringing an interesting story to development.

These could be better served by learning from the story arc. To place challenges and development before us. With that as a goal these could be strong as the Liaden books are. But until Lowell takes a look at his efforts in such a context they aren't. show less