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A review by ethancf
Half Share by Nathan Lowell
3.0
In a lot of ways better than the previous book, but in a few very important ways, significantly worse.
In my review of the first book I compared it to Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind. If you've read Rothfuss' incomplete series, you might remember that in the second book, we spend an inordinate amount of time learning how great at sex Kvothe is. Lowell follows that almost beat-for-beat, but replaces the faerie god of sex with, uh, an expensive tailor. Yes, it's just as stupid as it sounds.
Eye-roll worthy escapades aside, there were some interesting long-term developments here that kept me engaged. I wish we had gotten to know Ishmael's replacement in the galley more, but I also actually enjoyed his new (admittedly very boring) job. There's still basically no conflict and no meaningful obstacle to overcome, so reading about Ishmael going "yep, still making a lot of money with zero effort". At least in book one he had to worry about his mass allotment and was still broke, now everything has been handed to him already. Oh, and he's a super genius too, studying way above his level without realizing. It's a little tiring, but not so much that I haven't already downloaded book 3...
In my review of the first book I compared it to Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind. If you've read Rothfuss' incomplete series, you might remember that in the second book, we spend an inordinate amount of time learning how great at sex Kvothe is. Lowell follows that almost beat-for-beat, but replaces the faerie god of sex with, uh, an expensive tailor. Yes, it's just as stupid as it sounds.
Eye-roll worthy escapades aside, there were some interesting long-term developments here that kept me engaged. I wish we had gotten to know Ishmael's replacement in the galley more, but I also actually enjoyed his new (admittedly very boring) job. There's still basically no conflict and no meaningful obstacle to overcome, so reading about Ishmael going "yep, still making a lot of money with zero effort". At least in book one he had to worry about his mass allotment and was still broke, now everything has been handed to him already. Oh, and he's a super genius too, studying way above his level without realizing. It's a little tiring, but not so much that I haven't already downloaded book 3...