I'm a big fan of the Share series, but, honestly, this one was probably my least favorite. I found much of it predictable -- especially about the antagonists -- and the main character, Ishmael's, obtuseness about the dangers involved got irritating after a while. He also came across as passive and easily manipulated by friends and foes alike. This was not the case for me in previous books.
The first part of the story was stronger and more enjoyable by far. NL seems to have a strange strength/weakness combination wherein he can make the ordinary seem exciting, but the exciting ordinary. Still, he's doing it full time now, and he's given me many hours of listening pleasure, so even I could argue for his artistic success here.
I heard an interview with him a month or so ago, and he said that he had to chop out something like 100k words from his first draft of "Owner's Share" for the sake of the eventual printed book size (since he's getting dead tree deals for all his books now). That may explain why the second half felt a bit rough to me. Still, I eagerly awaited every part as they were released, going so far as to chase them down at his own site when podiobooks.com was offline for a week or so there, so I must have really liked it, despite all! | 
but it kind of shows how good it was. 
Linear Mode
