By Darkness Forged – Nathan Lowell

This is a satisfying end to the story that begin in Quarter Share. Quarter Share and its immediate sequels followed the young Ishmael Wang - capable, charismatic, a genuinely nice person. “By Darkness Forged” is about the mature Ishmael Wang.

The setup is a bit misleading. The ship is on track of pirates and gangsters and a murderer, and it’s natural to expect the book to accommodate that sort of plot. In fact, that plot is threaded through the book, but the book’s main focus is Ishmael himself.

Ishmael is suffering from depression, in the wake of his wife’s murder, and his interaction with his ship reflects that subtly. He is as competent as ever, but he doesn’t interact with the crew as much as he used to, and he classifies that as staying out of people’s way. The ship is in excellent repair, but when he actually looks, there are many ways it could be better.

The most satisfying part of the book is not the successful outcome of the ostensible plot. It is seeing Ishmael return to living comfortably within his skin.