After getting a bit darker in the last book, Lowell decides to spread it a little more gray this time. It's not always "best possible outcome" with a wink and a grin, but it is pretty close. Ishmael continues to work his charm captaining a new ship, the Agamemnon. While it might be the worst ship in the fleet, it's crew isn't nearly as troubled as in Double Share. There are certainly call backs to Ishmael's earlier ships and he pays those lessons forward with good results.
I was most disappointed in Ishmael's personal storyline aboard Diurnia Station, particularly the middle visit in the book. I had a different outcome in mind and was a bit surprised at how it played out. There keeps being a hint about the identity of a person 'off-screen' and I truly expected a big reveal in the last visit to Diurnia Station just to re-anchor the story there. I'm anxious to continue on with the next book, but don't see how that character would help or hinder Ishmael after the events in this book.
I was a bit confused about some character details. It seemed like one character was revealed to be homosexual early in the story, but ends up involved in an opposite sex relationship later.
I was also slightly disappointed we didn't get another appearance of the welkies in any shape or form.
On the plus side, this book continues with very compelling characters, situations and dialog. It doesn't feel like the story should end after the next book.

I love listening to Nathan Lowell's narrations. He does excellent work.

There wasn't as much plot as I seemed to remember from previous books in the series. However, I didn't care, as I was quite taken with the characters and how they developed. I was a bit disappointed with the ending, until I found out that Owner's Share is on it's way :)

At times I find myself cynically thinking that there just aren't any real Ishmael Wongs around. Then I realize that I'm dating a man who, while not a spacer, has quite a lot in common with Captain Wong. No, that probably isn't relevant to a book review. Hopefully you'll find it in your heart to forgive me :)

The next in the long line of Lowell's Solar Clipper series is just as an enjoyable listen as all the rest, and well worth the hours I spent listening.

Our protagonist remains hyper-capable, which is perhaps a bit unbelievable, but I continue to enjoy having fictional role models I actually have a dream of emulating.

The credulity meters did spike a bit more this time, though, as our protagonist manages to fix all his personnel problems simply by treating people well. It that were truly the way the world worked, we'd see a lot more sunshine and rainbows, I think.

But again, this was well worth the listen.

4 of 5 stars.

[6/28/2014]
Who says you have to have battles and danger to have suspense? In this continuing saga of Ishmael Horatio Wang, our hero takes over as captain of the Agammemnon, the worst ship in the commercial fleet of the company. There is plenty of suspense as the unflappable Ishmael tries to figure out how to get his dysfunctional crew to work together and turn a profit.

An easy quick and very enjoyable read. However, in the Kindle edition which I read, there were more errors than are usual with Lowell's books. Errors that wouldn't be caught by spell check -- like a missing word, or and instead of any. Errors that cause a jarring break in the read. I was tempted to drop to 4 stars because of it, but I enjoyed the book too much and will definitely read it again.

[28 August 2018]
On this third read I didn't notice the errors at all. And I enjoyed the book every bit as much as I did the first time.

With the exception of the abrupt ending, this is my favorite Trader's Tale so far.