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Just Finished 'Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper' series by Nathan Lowell...

Just Finished 'Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper' series by Nathan Lowell...

Six books: Quarter Share; Half Share; Full Share; Double Share; Captain's Share; and, Owner's Share...

all in earbook, switching between the podcast version narrated by the author, and the earbook version narrated by Jeffrey Kafer, depending on how many free spotify earbook hours i had available.

I like, but do not love, 'cozy fantasy'. I did not know 'cozy scifi' was a thing but should have expected it to be, and similar to the fantasy version in the right time and brainspace it's kind of exactly what i want to read (hear). Halfway into an especially grimdark read and looking to break up the grim, i saw a mention here of Trader's Tales and gave bk 1 a try - free is free, no reason to hesitate - and ended up pausing my original read to marathon the rest of the series.

Briefly, zero spoilers - Ishmael Wang (yes, 'call him Ishmael') is 18 years old, newly orphaned, and needs a job. He finds a berth on a solar sail freighter and works his way up from crew to captain to full owner of his own ship. Along the way he (and the reader) learns about life on the solar sail spaceships, meets a fun/interesting supporting cast, and gradually grows as a character. I call it 'cozy' because there is a distinct lack of serious conflict in the series. Sure, there are challenges, relationship issues, stress points, moments of danger, but there is never a sense that the MC is genuinely at risk for his life. Failure, disappointment sure, but never grueling screaming death in the Deep Dark. There are no ravening alien bugs or battling fleets or space ninjas or asteroid swarms or even a devouring black hole. Despite the relative lack of any of the classic space threats, Ishmael's story is very engaging, and if the stye works for the reader then his wide eyed trying to learn everything approach carries you along very nicely for the ride to a satisfying conclusion.

I did wish at times there was a slight bit more conflict or risk, but the author's pacing is solid and the story doesn't linger w any one stage or challenge to the point that low-stress becomes boring. The author also does good work w Ish's interpersonal relationships and the supporting cast offer enough distraction and engaging side stories to keep things moving. The author also writes his MC as a bit of a horny guy, albeit a well behaved honourable one, so occasionally his inner monologue 'appreciation' of female characters is a bit much, even as the author tries to balance it by having them be just as low-key horny. It's never over the top or gross, but a few times it read as trying too hard.

It's not hard sf. The nuts and bolts of the ships, the sails, and the wormholes aren't explored in depth. There's a fair amount of technical detail about the ship layouts and operations and such, but the actual way they travel from place to place isn't the focus. It works well enough, the odd description the author did include left me wishing he had gone further w it rather than frustrated.

Both the author and Kafer's narrations are effective, good pacing, clear, distinct enough different voices including female voices, no breathy/swallowing/whatever issues.

I enjoyed the series, it was exactly the kind of read i needed when i needed it and it held my attention right through. If you want more Red Rising, or The Lost Fleet forget it, this isn't for you. If you enjoyed the quiet moments in The Expanse when the crew socialized and planned and ate together, this might be worth some braintime. And just to reiterate, the author's version of the entire series is a free podcast (give or take some ads), so low risk if you decide to try it. I'll be checking out the sequel series in the near future.

Energy innovation challenges are characterised by the kinds of problems AI is good at solving. For example, only 0.01% of next-generation solar PV materials have been experimentally produced, leaving a huge set of possible materials still to be explored. AI could allow scientists to dramatically accelerate the process of finding and testing promising materials, battery chemistries and carbon capture molecules.

https://www.iea.org/...ecutive-summary

Iran is the size of like all of continental Europe.

Now that you mention it, he could conceivably make massive concessions, possibly in secret, get Iran back to the table and get the same deal Obama had but pronounce it massively superior and better for everybody and his biggest triumph yet as president. His usual suckers would buy it, the rest of the world would roll eyes and move on.

Irony, the biggest impediment to that is Iran doesn't care about its people and has realized they just need to hold the line and let trump be trump. And if they do sit down to the table, Netanyahu will probably bomb somebody and ruin it anyways.

Tiste Simeon, on 29 July 2026 - 05:49 PM, said:

The latest I heard is that AI is scraping warehouses full of of old books for their data and then destroying them after.

I dunno who needs to be told at this point but "The people burning books" have never ever been on the right side of history.

EDIT to add the LINK

Honestly the only people who wholeheartedly support AI are the awful tech bros who are desperate to rinse every penny they can put of it before the bubble bursts and who are currently sucking up to trump to get hefty government contracts out of it, or immoral sleazebags who are fine with art being stoped and are making their own money out of it by becoming "artists" themselves with their crappy stolen soulless slop.