Nathan Lowell's A Seeker's Tale From The Golden Age Of The Solar Clipper

Once upon a time there was an author named Nathan Lowell. He wrote Space Opera but it wasn't your typical Space Opera with flashy lasers and big time blowuptuations. No, very little explodes in a Nathan Lowell novel. The crazy thing is, Nathan Lowell's Space Opera is still some of the best I've ever read. I never thought I'd say that, but it's true.

When last we saw our hero, Ishmael Wang, he had rocketed through the ranks of the Merchant Marine, going from a quarter share apprentice to captaining his own ship. It was a rough ride in parts but rewarding for him as well as the reader. This time around it's a little different.

This time, Captain Wang owns his ship. This time, he has a murdered lover to avenge... if he can find the guy who killed her. And while he is searching, he's got some money to make (and a ship that can be repossessed if he doesn't) and some things to learn along the way. There's a whole side of the galaxy that he hasn't seen yet. A series of places where he can make a ton of cash. Places called the Toe-Holds that aren't regulated by the larger government of Confederated Planets. 

I love the concept of the Toe-Holds. Local governance and greater freedom have always been my thing. Less regulation equals more money and more possibilities. I've often stated that government sucks at everything it does and, while that's not totally true, I'm right more often than I'm wrong. My attitude has one hole in it though, and Lowell hits it head-on: Sometimes unregulated things break. That can be a very bad thing when you're on a space station and something critical breaks. Lowell doesn't shy away from the problems with lack of regulation though, and anyone who can remember the Challenger or Columbia explosions knows that the government's record on regulating spacecraft isn't exactly spotless either. 

I also like the way Lowell handles some of the crew members. Ishmael was always in a hurry to learn the new material, take the next exam and get the next promotion. Some of his crew members aren't like that. This is a good thing. We've all worked with someone who wanted to rise to the top, but not everyone is like that. Some people balk at the idea of extra responsibility, even if it means extra pay. To not desire more than one has is a legitimate right and it's one that I'm glad to see Lowell championing. Don't get me wrong. I'm not here hold anyone back. I'm just saying that it's not right to force someone to move forward if they don't want to.

I really need to re-read this and apply a lot of what's here to my own work (yes, I know I have nothing published. I'll get there.) because there is a lot of time spent on things that usually get lost in the novels with flashier setting and big space fights. I mean, at some point we all know that the crew needs to breathe, but how often do we get to see someone working with the oxygen purification gear? I love Honor Harrington. I have since the lady at the book store led me back to the appropriate shelf by hand and put On Basilisk Station in my hand, but how often do we get to see what happens in the galley? I mean, her steward is one of the finest in the fleet and has a service-wide reputation for serving the finest coffee around, but do we really know how he does it? (Shut up, Tom, he might use a different method than you do.) It is seriously the little things that make this series.

I've got to mention Pip, the captain's best friend and a guy Ishmael went to officer school with. Pip is a laid back dude, but he's got some serious brain power. A lot of the money that goes to keeping the ship and, indeed, the idea for buying it, came from Pip. He's got a big brain and a good head, even if he can be a bit pie in the sky sometimes. Add Pip to the list of characters I would like to hang out and have a drink with. My understanding of interstellar economics isn't as sharp as his, but I still feel like I could have a good time discussing his theories. 

You'd think that with the lack of battles and all the little details covered that these books would drag, but they don't. There is always something going on and, if it's not the run of the mill, it's still a good time. Seeing how Wang helps his crew learn their jobs and increase their earnings is a good time. He has a way about him that makes his crew better.

And maybe that's what I like most about Ishmael Wang. He's a guy I'd love to work for. He knows his stuff, communicates well and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. Some of his crew express surprise that their captain started out as a lowly rating and did some of the scut work, but that shows how much they have to learn about their captain. That, in and of itself, is a good thing because there is always a mystique about a successful captain, and part of that is the mystery.

Ishmael's search for the murderer is kind of the point of this story and it's kind of not. It's always there, but sometimes it's just his struggle to succeed that comes to the fore. It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day and the changes in setting between Toe-Holds (and they do vary a lot) and forget that there is a dead woman out there who needs avenging and, I know this sounds weird, I like that. A Seeker's Tale from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper isn't Mel Gibson screaming, "GIMME BACK MY SON!" It was never intended to be. It's a story about a man doing his best to succeed in life while helping others to succeed as well. That's why I love it.  

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Cases of Frozen Food

A Seeker's Tale From The Golden Age Of The Solar Clipper
In Ashes Born, To Fire Called, By Darkness Forged
Nathan Lowell
Self-Published 2015-2018

And folks, I've never done this, but Nathan Lowell is currently suffering from cancer. He could probably use some help offsetting the payments with increased sales of his books. They're worth the time and money. I mean it.

Copies of all three books in the series are available at the links below. If you click the link at Amazon and buy literally anything there, I get a small percentage at no extra cost to you.

Nathan Lowell's The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper

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Listen folks. I have, indeed, been known to wax poetic and speak eloquently (in my mind at least) about works of fiction with major space battles with huge body counts, gigundous missiles and massive blowuptuations that render entire star systems into piles of spare parts. I have praised authors for their talents in describing battles and the bonds of those who fight side by side. Let's face it. I like that stuff. Having said that, there is room in science fiction and fantasy for works that don't center on  violence and it’s practitioners. A world where a peaceable man can do his best to make a buck by honest trading and working his way up the ladder and across the space lanes. A series that takes an honest look at the people who sail the high seas in the real world, only putting the story IN SPACE so we’ll all read it.

Nathan Lowell has written that story. It’s called The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper.  It’s a really awesome series about a guy named Ishmael Wang and his journey from a raw youth just trying to survive to a ship owner (and no, that’s not really a spoiler when the title of the last book is Owner’s Share). It’s a story of personal struggle and sacrifice and love, both between and his ship, a man and space and a man and a woman. 

The series was recommended to me by a good friend with similar tastes in books, but I was still a bit skeptical when I found out that there were really no battles, no derring-do and nothing a hardcore action junkie would expect. It turns out that I was dead wrong to be concerned. There is plenty going on here. It’s just non-violent. Seriously, one of the most important moments in pretty much every book in the series is the first time Ishmael makes coffee. Yeah, I know that sounds lame but it’s true. When the coffee starts brewing, so does the story. Trust me here. It works.

The story is richly woven and surprisingly well rendered. It’s weird how little of this series I was able to predict and how much sense it made. Nothing went quite the way I wanted it to but I was happy with how things turned out. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but it’s true. This series would have gone very differently if I had written it, so maybe it’s a good thing that I didn’t. Lowell finds ways to make things work that make tons of sense after they’ve unfolded. It’s pretty obvious that he spent a lot of time planning and editing to make it all work, but it had to have been worth it for the story to turn out this well. 

Of course, Ishmael isn’t alone in his mad dash (or slow poke) across the stars. He has friends along for the ride and maybe one or two people he just doesn’t seem to get along with. The friends all serve a useful role in the story and the one or two enemies may serve a bigger one. Watching who a man associates with is always useful in telling what kind of person he is, but seeing what he’ll risk himself to oppose may tell you more. Ishmael Wang is the kind of guy I sometimes wish I could be. He does the right thing even when it may technically not be the smart thing. This is one character I can respect.

Ishmael’s first friend is a fellow youngster named Pip. Pip is unstoppable, irrepressible and just a fun dude. He comes from a long line of spacers and knows more about interstellar trade in the  Golden Age series than anyone besides Nathan Lowell, who probably spent a long time thinking “I wonder what Pip would think” while trying to make his universe work. Pip’s ideas are not conventional, but they seem to work and it’s weird how well that mimics some of the things I’ve studied in history classes.

You have to really read the series to get a sense of the character arcs present. Along the way, things move kind of slowly and you never quite notice how much our heroes are changing. But then you finish Owner’s Share, the last book in the series, and reflect and it’s just like “Wow, how did THAT KID do THAT?!?!?!?!” I mean that in a good way though. It makes sense if you followed the story but when you try to consider it all together it’s just like “WHOAH”.

Uh-oh. Lowell quotes famous works of literature throughout the series and I just quoted Joey from the 90s sitcom Blossom. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be very proud of me right now. Whatever. I loved that show when I was in the right age bracket for it to be relevant.

At any rate…

The method of space travel as described in the Golden Age series is not at all reminiscent of Trek  or Wars or anything else you’ve read. The term space clipper really does apply here because there are elements of technology that were common during Earth’s Tall Ship Era that are in play while traversing the stars. Throw in a bit of jump technology ala Battletech and you’ve got a pretty close match for how things work. It was fun and the fact that it takes a bit longer to get places than it would in many other franchises works given the internal logic of the setting and also helps set up some things that wouldn’t make sense in other universes. Longer trips provide more opportunity for tension and thus drama and entertainment.

My only complaint really is that Nowell likes to start off each book with a line directly lifted from a literary classic that is no longer subject to copyright. This threw me for the first couple of books, but once I got past the first sentence I was good. Most of the other literary quotes throughout the books are spoken directly by Ishmael (his mother was a literature professor) and make sense, but those were a bit weird. All in all though, if my biggest complaint is about six sentences in a six book series, I suppose I should get over myself. Oh, and if the lack of action has made you feel put off of the series, just trust Lois. And if you don’t know what that means READ THE BOOKS.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Precious Cargoes

Quarter Share/Half Share/Full Share/Double Share/Captain’s Share/Owner’s Share

Nathan Lowell

Durandus, various years

The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper books are available at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage of your purchase at no additional cost to you.