29 thoughts on “Western Annex

  1. Just out of curiosity, is the Sigler quadrant by any chance named for Scott Sigler, author of Ancestor, Infested, Earth Core, etc? 🙂

  2. I also loved the Sigler reference, and the new crewmember C.C. I kept waiting to hear the AH theme being sung!

  3. I bet the SC Scott Sigler is known for its bunk bunnies.

    Was Mitch Fitzroy a Sigler/Earthcore reference too? Not too bright, but stumbles on a great idea?

  4. Hey. Actually the Sigler is known for “lots and lots of violence.”

    And not intentionally. : )

  5. I was just trashing Scott because it’s what we junkies do (I’ve been listening since episode 6 of Earthcore). But more importantly, Nate, thank you. I had surgery earlier this month, and instead of being in the hospital for 3 days, complications kept me in for 10. I had Quarter and Half on my smartphone, and I must have listened to them for the 6th, 7th and 8th times while stuck in there. I absolutely love the universe you’ve created. Ish is a wonderful hero. Can’t wait for Double Share.

  6. Funny – After going through most of Sigler’s podcasts I found Quarter Share and just moments ago finished Double Share. They are at opposite ends of the spectrum but I have greatly enjoyed them all. Nate, I feel that your presentation skills are much better though. It’s a pleasure just listening to you narrate.

  7. Nate,
    I love the idea of a space merchant marine. I have friends who serve on Great Lakes ships and their “sea stories” run in similar paths. It is nice to see something other than star trek or star wars line of thinking. You have a wonderful voice combined with an extremely well written story. Please give us many more.
    Thanks
    Merritt
    PS Cant wait for Captains Share and it’s sequel Owners Share

  8. OFten times when I hear the names of people I know used in a fictional setting, like you have…Sigler, Welliver, Ellis, Jett, Baddings, and more, it shakes me out of the story. But for some reason, it’s never happened with the Traders Tales. Yeah, I smile at the name/reference, but it just flows by like any other. I’m not sure if it’s your writing or your delivery in the audio, but regardless it’s your doing. So, nice work and keep it up!

  9. I worry about that all the time. These last two books have been just FILLED with ’em.

    Some of the names you wouldn’t recognize, but others are obvious. I wonder if one reason that they don’t jump out is that I use so MANY of them 🙂

  10. I like hearing familiar names crop up in the stories. It brings a smile to my face.
    Plus, I have a little game I play with myself, how many references I can recognize. I start on the assumption that every ship, planet and person is a reference, and see how many I recognize.
    I like that all of the tractor ships are heroes from the Trojan war. On both sides.

  11. it be interesting to see a galactic map including all known systems and it would be cool to hear about earth a little. one thing i loved about the whole series is that there are no aliens in it no green guys or slugs or all that and i love the use of heavy worlder and the difference in people instead of beings. oh and is there and race specific planets like the japanese have there own place and maybe sweds and all that.

  12. I personally enjoy references in ship names. I’ve personally seen a cargo ship by the name Ken Ryu (yay street fighter reference). I think that this tradition will hold into the future, and will only grow in diversity as more private and company owned vessels ply the stars.

  13. I would like to know which quadrant the Newmar System is in. It is given as a few weeks away from Dunsany Roads in the Bad Penny at the end of Full Share, and as 6 days and 3 jumps “in the between spaces running through the unpopulated middle of the Western Annex” from Newmar System to Diurnia System at the beginning of Double Share. However, there is no reference I have found that tells where it really is.

  14. Is Port Newmar really in the Gretna Quadrant? In DoubleShare on page 2 (location 71) Ish mentions that “last I heard [Brill] was somewhere over in the Gretna quadrant on a Federated Fright clipper…” Seems odd for him to refer to the quadrant where he was located (since he was waiting to leave Port Newmar) in a “somewhere over there” sense. Also in DoubleShare on page 24 (location 403) Ish mentions that “summer cruises had taken me to several of the orbitals around the Ventiz quadrant…”. If traveling between quadrants takes even a portion of the time it took him to reach Diurnia from Port Newmar than I don’t see how summer cruises from Gretna to Ventiz would work. The cadets would use up much of their summer just moving between quadrants, unless those cross-quadrant trips were the summer cruises.
    I would have assumed Port Newmar was in Venitz not Gretna.

  15. Nate, I haven’t found any sector references that are off in the books so far. I think it was just the comment here. I’m working my way through CaptainsShare now so I’ll let you know if I find anything.

  16. looking at the map of the western annex a question came to me where on the map would the core worlds be the right side or left?

    1. Think of a map of the US.

      If you look at .. say, Kansas City, where would the west coast be? The east coast?

      Now look at .. say, Los Angeles. Where is Kansas City in relation to LA?

      Now. Think of a cube. It has six faces. (Roll a D6)

      If you’re looking “down” on the cube, west is to the left, east to the right, north is up, and south is down. The “Core Worlds” represents the roughly cubic space (it’s not that regularly shaped, but work with me here) taken up by the original Great Diaspora. Therefore, like the relationship of Los Angeles to Kansas City, the Core Worlds would be “to the right” on the map.

      Does that help?

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