Even if your heart doesn’t thrill to the skiffy excitement of a bunch of asteroid-mined fun-gals bringing success and profit in the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper Series  you won’t want to miss Quarter Share (Trader’s Tales book 1).

Now, you might be the kind of womyn who thrills to the moment when your Ultimate Victimhood forces the local authority to uphold your Polly Purebred awesomeness and come to your rescue. This is not your book.

If you are the kind of guy who is triggered by a Dick Francis or Dave Freer story where guys (and gals) strive, succeed, and do interesting things. This is not your book.

On the other hand, if you loved the Andre Norton Solar Queen novels, you might want to check out the story of the poor sap named Ishmael Wang (his parents were Academics: They do things like that.) who is about to head off to college when agents of the Neris Company, who own the planet, show up at his door to tell him his only parent has died in an accident. He has 90 days, (slightly less when Neris takes its cut of the settlement) to find a job or a way off-planet. Oh: and Neris isn’t hiring. Long story short the young man finds a last minute berth on an intersteller trader. It’s not much: He’s second assistant to the guy who runs the galley. But it’s better than starving, or debtors’ prison. And if you like seeing what young folk can do with “just a start” when given anything like a decent chance, against the backdrop of interstellar commerce–?

This is your book.

I can promise you three things:  In addition to being a generally fun, page-turning read, where each individual who shows up on the page is a fully-realized human being, you’d want to know (or possibly avoid. Or laugh at.) there’s a spot where if you have any kind of heart you’ll get a lump in your throat and a wet spot around the corners of your eyes. No spoilers, but Lois McKendrick is involved.

When you finish reading this, if you have any discretionary funds, you’ll hit BUY! NOW! when your e-reader pops up this “Do you want the next fix book in the series?”

If you aren’t already hitting AccordingtoHoyt’s Free Range Oyster posts to find great new e-books? You’re missing out. Yes, we thought Codex would be doing book reviews + cartoons on a monthly basis. Codex was smoking dewberries.

Update: Got the links and the spacing fixed. Very odd how it went all buggy.

Also: Although I don’t have a master link to the Free Range Oyster Posts in toto there is a link to the Hoyt’s Huns authors’ page at Goodreads (which has a lot of overlap) here