I'm reading this book and I realize that Science Fiction has a sub-genre that I don't think most other forms of fiction have -- Adventures In Small Business Ownership.
In particular, I've read a number of books about starship captains (or people working their way up to starship captain). The key element is that it's the day-to-day business stuff that makes up the bulk of the plot. Sure there are usually other things that happen, but it never takes over from the simple "doing my job" narrative.
Often in mysteries, the detective runs a detective agency, but the bills are an abstracted problem as opposed to whatever mystery is being solved at the moment. Romances are...about the romance and hardly about the prosaic work the protagonists do -- at best it's just a key to set up the romance or cause complications somehow.
In the broader category of fiction, there are legal/financial thrillers that may delve into the minutia of a business, but generally as a subject of study not what the protagonist is really doing. I think the closest we get is Horatio Alger, rags-to-riches stories where hard work and pluck is rewarded.
I just thought it was interesting. And now I wonder if it could be broadened to more jobs in sci-fi. Alternatively, I wonder if it'd be interesting to chronicle a fictitious modern day business. A gaming/comic-book store would be great for the characters, but I'd be curious to see if running a hardware store or lawn-care service could be made interesting. At the very least, I like the idea of these modern-day business stories acting as sort of a template for entrepreneurship and good business practices.
You were telling me about this recently. It's interesting to me that the author is trying to postulate what a current day experience might look like in a "Sci-fi" environment. I've read a similar type of book or two in the past. Looking back, I see it as kind of Old West/Frontier tales of "making it" only in reverse.
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