I had high hopes for this title when I saw it compared to Becky Chambers’ lovely Wayfarer series. While the two series do share some commonality in theme, Lowe just doesn’t have Chambers’ knack for creating memorable, relatable characters. The world of Quarter Share also seems lacking in imagination; more than anything, I find Lowe’s vision of such a bureaucratic future depressing. I sort of see Lowe’s intent–with a protagonist whose name hails from Moby Dick, I like the idea of focusing on the minutiae of life in space–but even Melville threw in a few seafaring hijinks in between interminable passages of knot-tying.