Half Share

This is not a book to deeply engage your brain. The main character can apparently do nothing wrong, and the worldbuilding is very shallow. It's fine if you just want to rub your eyes over some words, though, and I do intend to continue reading the sequels. Just a couple of caveats.

Firstly, for a series revolving around trading, the economics often make very little sense (e.g. the subplot where a beginner crocheter could create goods that sold for orders of magnitude more than the raw materials — in the real world, their shawls would have less value than the unused yarn). Also high-end tailoring doesn't work like that — they don't just magically find you ready-made garments that fit you perfectly!

I do generally try to ignore things like the above, since no author can be an expert on everything, and the ability to suspend one's disbelief is an important part of being able to enjoy a book, but it does feel much worse here than average.

Secondly, there's a lot of going on about how great people's bodies are, and how none of the crew are fat. This is not fun stuff to read and I wish the author hadn't included it.

Not as good as the first book in the series. I was actually getting a bit bored but pushed on to finish the book. IMHO, young Ishmael Wang is just too good to be true.
Quick summary: Ishmael gets a new job. Ishmael gets new clothes. Ishmael gets the girls.
2.5 stars rounded up.

Not quite as good as the first, but it still has that quiet appeal. The huge moments of obvious wish fulfillment for the author are not enough to disturb my appreciation of the story.

This was just as fun as the first! My knitting/crochet friends would like this one too!

The characterizations are even stronger in this one, and I laughed out loud close to a dozen times at the various witty things Ish said or thought. Considering the level of improvement from Quarter Share to Half Share, I can't wait to start the next book. Eee!

Volume 2 of the story of Ishmael Wang features him getting a promotion, transferring to a new department, and becoming a bit of a mentor to one of his coworkers. As in the first book, not exactly the kind of stuff you would usually associate with either “space opera” or “science fiction”, but rather just a damn good story in a space operaesque setting.
At the same time, one of the things that Lowell does here is balance the scales of Wang's meteoric rise by having him make some mistakes, especially in his personal life, which was nice - he was starting to feel like he was too perfect of a character at times, so it's good to see he's just as flawed as the rest of us.