Owner’s Share

56 Responses to Owner’s Share

1. The Captain says:

   August 22, 2014 at 9:45 pm

   Somewhere I have a deck plan. I’ll try to dig it up and get it posted. :)

2. Pingback: Lesetipp: “Solar Clipper Series” – Hier wohnen Drachen

3. C. L. Essery says:

   August 27, 2014 at 4:34 am

   Thanks would love to see it.
4. Björn says:

   December 12, 2014 at 8:51 am

   Just finished the series and it was brilliant! Thank you.
5. Bryant says:

   December 27, 2014 at 11:26 pm

   Best series in my life time (58yrs old sci fi buff) up till the last chapters.
   He helps others heal. He learns from errors. He struggles but doesn’t give up. As he grows he becomes more alone repeatedly torn from friends and relationships as he is pushed on. Finally he gets it right with a woman and a chance to a true soulmate/ happiness. (Like winning the lottery and losing the ticket on the way to turn it in.) Then loses both the soulmate and ship he poured sweat/energy/year of life into.
   Why it is good thing to change whelkies with the woman that also suffered in the same tragedy as he, was severely damaged before he met her and finally senselessly murdered. Personally I would be avoiding that totem like the plague, only value as a memory of her (probably wrought with much pain.)
   I actually had a rotten couple of dark days after owners share, never had any book effect me like that before.
   Felt like “no good deed goes unpunished”, it’s not like the path he is on is a cake walk.
   I mean this wasn’t bittersweet, it was just plain bitter. Like let’s be kind and give the man gun to stop the pain/loss.
6. The Captain says:

   December 28, 2014 at 1:09 am

   Many people have that response, Bryant. I’m gratified that you were so moved by the story that it carried over. It had the same effect on me. I was a mess for months afterwards. The death threats after the podcast release didn’t help much.

   But take a step back.

   Do you think it was accidental? Some whim I had because all the cool kids kill a beloved character? Maybe I had delusions of Whedon or Martin? Was it a violation of the basic rules of a chaotic and dangerous universe? The series has a body count, but mostly – like life – we know about it but we don’t see it until it hits us directly. It’s always something that happens elsewhere to somebody else. We know they died but we’re not faced with them. Even in the Chernyakova, the story that Ishmael told was disassociated from the reality of the horror. Through the whole series the threat drew nearer and harsher until – like life – mortality backhands us against a wall and we can no longer look away.

   As for the whelkies…

   Why do you think he traded his dolphin for the bird? If there is magic in the whelkie, it’s as a guide. Ishmael doesn’t know how Greta got the whelkie nor how it might have helped her in the past, but her connection to it is over. The lore is that a whelkie finds the person who needs it. Ishmael knows this lore and – as he said in Half Share – sometimes the only magic you need is belief. Perhaps he saw trading his dolphin as honoring her memory by carrying her guide…that somehow that guide was meant to come to him, that it found him thorough her death.

   Owner’s Share is all about taking wing. At each step in the journey, Ishmael gains something he didn’t have when that leg started. It’s not just his share.

   Yes, I could have killed him. That would have been easy enough. I could have killed him but that’s not what Ishmael would do, is it? He would have gladly given his life for Greta, but he was never given that chance, was he? Was that just me being mean to him?

   He’s proven he can help those around him. Do you think maybe he needs to find out if he can help himself?

   At every juncture in the series, his actions have be a reaction to the women around him. From the death of his mother to the death of his lover, from his relationship with Alys Giggone to Frederica deGrut to Kirsten Kingsley. Perhaps there’s a new Ishmael Wang who needs to crack open the chrysalis and take wing…

   Just an idea.

   Thanks for leaving the comment and giving me the opportunity to talk a little bit about what the story is really about, what I think it all means.

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