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Finder

(Finder Chronicles #1)

Suzanne Palmer (Goodreads Author)

3.86 · Rating details · 1,666 ratings · 327 reviews

From Hugo Award-winning debut author Suzanne Palmer comes an action-packed sci-fi caper starring Fergus Ferguson, interstellar repo man and professional finder.

Fergus Ferguson has been called a lot of names: thief, con artist, repo man. He prefers the term finder.

His latest job should be simple. Find the spacecraft Venetia's Sword and steal it back from Arum Gilger, ex-nob ...more

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Kindle Edition, 400 pages

Published April 2nd 2019 by DAW

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Jan 24, 2019 megs_bookrack rated it really liked it

Shelves: arcs-read

Fergus Ferguson is a repo man, IN SPACE.

In this incredibly action-packed tale, we follow Ferguson on a mission to recover the stolen spacecraft, Venetia's Sword.

Ultimately, he is able to track it down in the farthest reaches of human-inhabited space, but due to complications, is unable to commandeer it as quickly as he had hoped.

Arum Gilger, the bad guy who stole the ship, transported it to a harvesting colony called Cernee.

There he functions as a sort of criminal overlord and the locals a ...more

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Jul 29, 2019 carol. rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: fans of Leviathan Wakes

Shelves: male-lead, fast-and-fun, sci-fi, thriller

A bit of a slow start that required a reboot, then once I reached chapter seven or so, became very hard to put down.

It didn’t occur to me while reading, but when I set out to review, well, there’s this Scottish Earther-turned-Martian-rebel repo man, Fergus Feguson, far out in the farthest reaches of the human-occupied galaxy on a run to reclaim a stolen starship for some Shipmaker friends:

description

He meets up with a friendly, feisty, elderly lichen farmer who turns out to be a good person to know in a p ...more

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Apr 19, 2019 Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, space-opera, arc

Adventures of a space-age repo man! Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:

Fergus Ferguson, a large, redheaded man from Scotland by way of Mars, has made a “career out of chasing things and running away.” He’s running away from his past, for reasons that gradually become clear. But right now he’s focused on chasing something: an expensive, sentient spaceship, Venetia’s Sword, that was stolen from its makers by Arum Gilger, a criminal mob boss. This repo mission has led Fergus to Cerneken or Adventures of a space-age repo man! Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:

Fergus Ferguson, a large, redheaded man from Scotland by way of Mars, has made a “career out of chasing things and running away.” He’s running away from his past, for reasons that gradually become clear. But right now he’s focused on chasing something: an expensive, sentient spaceship, Venetia’s Sword, that was stolen from its makers by Arum Gilger, a criminal mob boss. This repo mission has led Fergus to Cerneken or “Cernee,” a haphazard space colony consisting of a ring station surrounded by a of hundreds of marginally-habitable rocks, metal cans and dead ships, all tied together with a web of cables, with cable cars running passengers between the various habitats. Here Gilger has his home base, one of the “big five” powers on Cernee.

Fergus has a plan and a secret method of taking control of Venetia’s Sword, shared with him by the shipbuilders. But things go wrong for Fergus right from the start, when he almost gets killed in a cable car explosion in the space colony. It looks like Gilger isn’t willing to share power much longer. Fergus allies with Gilger’s enemies, who have their own issues with the power-hungry boss, and puts his plan into play, but there are complications … including some mysterious aliens with their own agenda.

Finder is part heist story and part rescue mission, as Fergus finds that he needs to return to Mars to save a kidnapped young woman who’s being used as a pawn in one of Gilger’s plots. Fergus is a hero who’s still finding himself, carrying wounds from his childhood on Earth and his participation in a rebellion on Mars years ago. He comes up with farfetched but brilliant plans on the fly, and it’s great fun to watch him run various cons on his enemies. One creative plan involving foil wrap, sticky candy, tennis balls, and vibrating sex toys is a can’t-miss experience.

The brisk pace and almost non-stop action will keep readers engaged, but Finder has more depth than one might think from the plot description. The characters have interesting (and often mixed) motivations, and Suzanne Palmer has clearly put a lot of thought into her worldbuilding. Cernee is a complex setting, with memorable details like “flysticks” that enable riders to jet between the different habitats (Fergus manages to steal a flystick that fills the space around him with sparkles and glowing holographic cartoon images). The interlude on Mars shows us glimpses of a richly imagined society there as well, peeking around the edges of the main plot.

I’ve been enchanted by Palmer’s short fiction, especially the Hugo award-winning novelette “The Secret Life of Bots.” I was expecting the same type of whimsical humor here, but Finder is more of a straightforward SF action/adventure tale, which disappointed me, although there’s frequently humor in the dialogue and descriptions.

Everyone stood as a woman strode into the room, visibly armed, dressed in a spotless Authority uniform with no rank insignia except a yellow X embroidered on the stiff upright color. She was short even among Cernee natives but built like a tank, if tanks were constructed entirely of muscle and disapproval.

Finder is an imaginative and action-packed tale. The ending leaves a few open questions, like, what are those aliens planning anyway? And why did they do … that particular thing they did to Fergus? There’s plenty of room for more adventures and exploits to come for Fergus Ferguson, and Palmer has more books in this series in the works.

Thanks to the publicist and Daw Books for the free review copy!

Initial post: Whoa! I just realized that this just-published SF novel - which has been languishing on my bookshelf of unrequested review copies - Is by the author of two of my favorite recent short stories: The Secret Life of Bots ( which won a Hugo award last year) and Thirty-Three Percent Joe. Guess I know what I’m reading next! ...more

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Jun 19, 2019 Manuel Antão rated it liked it

Shelves: 2019

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

Lacking in SFional Meat: "Finder" by Suzanne Palmer

One of the biggest problems with SF is that from the 30s to the 70s the ideas are almost always better than the writing. The drive to fill the pulp magazines meant that an awful lot got accepted into print that would have not have been allowed in any other genre, except maybe cowboy stories. Even Detective fiction managed to keep respectability despite the crime pulp boom. Couple this ...more

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May 02, 2019 Mogsy (MMOGC) rated it really liked it

Shelves: arcs-and-galleys, science-fiction, review-copy

4 of 5 stars at the BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2019/05/12/...

If you’re ever in need of something to brighten your day or give you a nice shot of energy after you find that a string of heavier, ponderous books has sapped your all your motivation, Finder by Suzanne Palmer is exactly the kind of pick-me-up the situation calls for. It’s nothing too deep or fancy, but it sure as hell gets the job done.

This is a tale set in the far-flung future, following the escapades of our protagonist 4 of 5 stars at the BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2019/05/12/...

If you’re ever in need of something to brighten your day or give you a nice shot of energy after you find that a string of heavier, ponderous books has sapped your all your motivation, Finder by Suzanne Palmer is exactly the kind of pick-me-up the situation calls for. It’s nothing too deep or fancy, but it sure as hell gets the job done.

This is a tale set in the far-flung future, following the escapades of our protagonist Fergus Ferguson. A self-described finder, it’s his job to chase down some of the galaxy’s most notorious criminals to retrieve lost or stolen items, a position which hasn’t earned him much popularity, though the same cannot be said about the number of his enemies. His latest gig is a mission to steal back a spaceship from a egomaniacal ex-nobleman turned crime lord named Arum Gilger, who has been making a big splash lately with his ever expanding sphere or influence and power. However, as Fergus makes his way to the remote system called Cernee where he has located Gilger and the stolen ship, the cable car he was traveling in is attacked. Fergus barely escapes with his life, but his fellow passenger, a kind and pleasant older lady with whom he had established a friendly rapport in the introduction to the novel, does not make it.

Little does he know, that brief connection they shared will lead to much deeper and wide-spread consequences. Recovering from the attack, Fergus finds himself tangled up with the locals and their plight. Cernee is now plunged into a civil war, and our protagonist will have no choice but to fight alongside his newfound allies against Gilger and his dastardly plans to seize control over their colony. Meanwhile, the fight is further complicated by the emergence of a mysterious alien species that was long thought to be a myth, adding another layer of action and intrigue to an already compelling mix.

Finder was a boatload of fun, no other description really required. It’s the kind of book where you can let your thinking mind take a backseat while you break out the popcorn and indulge in a breakneck, high-octane space adventure. But most impressively, despite all the nonstop action, Palmer still manages to set aside some time for world-building and character development, creating in Fergus Ferguson a well-rounded and likeable protagonist you just can’t help but root for. Although he was born on Earth (hailing from Scotland, naturally), Fergus blew off the earth at a young age and has been bouncing around the galaxy ever since, making a name for himself as a kind of space repo man. As far as sci-fi scoundrels go, I love the direction the author has chosen with our main character, and his personalities traits and life experiences are as interesting as you’d expect.

Then, there’s the humor. Featuring a mixed bag of genuinely laugh-out-loud comedy combined with a healthy dose of groan-worthy jokes and cheesy slapstick, this novel is guaranteed to have something for everyone. The lightness also keeps this one from becoming too gritty and dark amidst all the explosive violence and action. Fergus has a talent for getting himself into tight situations again and again, but tensions are lessened by the slick dialogue and the story’s easy ability to make you laugh.

Fergus’ interactions with the other characters also deserve a mention. No matter how endearing or charismatic they are, few characters can carry a story on their own, and to be sure, much of the entertainment I derived from Finder was thanks to Fergus’ personality and background being bound up in the lives of the other supporting characters he meets. The people of Cernee felt real, and so did their problems. Palmer’s world-building skills are on full display here, when you consider the sheer effort that must have gone into the creation of this intricate little community and their role in the wider network of systems beyond. The emotional connection I felt towards Fergus’ new friends came very naturally, and consequently their relationship dynamics and interactions also felt well-written and believable.

All told, Suzanne Palmer has brought to life a surprisingly developed and well-layered space adventure, considering how strong the emphasis was on delivering fast-paced action and thrills. A novel debut for her, Finder clearly shows that making the jump from short stories to long form fiction is not a problem for the author. While you won’t be getting anything too deep or sophisticated with this one, there’s no denying that it’s a lot of fun. ...more

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Apr 01, 2019 Gary rated it really liked it

One advantage of being an accomplished short story writer is knowing how to get the ball rolling. It doesn’t take Suzanne Palmer long to ingratiate readers to Fergus Ferguson, the hero of her debut novel Finder: he has an appreciation for ironic self-deprecation and for little old ladies who can survive out in “The Gap”, a sparsely populated region of space near the outskirts of the galaxy. Being nice to old ladies may be a cheap ploy for sympathy by the author, but it works, and it’s undeniably One advantage of being an accomplished short story writer is knowing how to get the ball rolling. It doesn’t take Suzanne Palmer long to ingratiate readers to Fergus Ferguson, the hero of her debut novel Finder: he has an appreciation for ironic self-deprecation and for little old ladies who can survive out in “The Gap”, a sparsely populated region of space near the outskirts of the galaxy. Being nice to old ladies may be a cheap ploy for sympathy by the author, but it works, and it’s undeniably efficient. No sooner are Fergus’ profession (a kind of interstellar repo man called a “finder”) and goal (to retrieve a stolen ship called Venetia’s Sword) and prospective enemy (small-pond robber-baron Arum Gilger, who stole the ship) established through his salty banter with tough-as-nails native Mattie “Mother” Vahn, than a escalating sequence of obstacles come cascading down in front of Fergus, and the novel picks up the breathless pace it sustains through the end. This narrative formula serves Palmer’s celebrated shorter works well, as her Hugo-winning novelette “The Secret Lives of Bots” can attest. Palmer’s writing doesn’t sacrifice subtlety or nuance, she just knows how to use such tools without disrupting the tempo. The pace she sustains in Finder mostly benefits it, and it’s so entertaining that the ways it falls short are easy to forgive.
Fergus is a Scotsman, Earth-born but allied to the generations of Martian émigrés living under harsh earther occupation. He’d rather avoid bringing up his past: people know him as a hero of the Mars resistance even as far out as anarchic Cernee, a rock ruled by a loose confederation of chieftains and the loyalists in their employ. He doesn’t see himself the way others do, but he has a penchant for executing outrageous schemes to achieve his ends. The heist he must pull off to retrieve Venetia’s Sword is akin to jacking a smart car with a keyless entry, though getting past the ruthless Gilger and his enforcer Borr Graf prove to be the most harrowing part of his task: Gilger has chosen the day of Fergus’ arrival to make a play for total domination of Cernee. Now Fergus and his allies—Mother Vahn’s family of identical offspring who swear they’re not clones and Gilger’s longtime rival Harcourt—find their plan to put the squeeze on Gilger turned into a brutal fight for survival. Further complicating matters are the Asiig, a mysterious and terrifying alien race who mostly carry out ominous flybys over Cernee in their black triangle-shaped ships, abducting random citizens then returning them days later in, shall we say, a different state from how they found them. And the Asiig have taken an interest in Fergus and the conflict on Cernee.
It would be an understatement to say Palmer has a gift for piling on the plot factors. That she can sustain such an approach over the course of a story that is something like a dozen-fold longer than the stories she usually writes is impressive. She takes a block-by-block approach to building her world and her characters’ back stories, distributing little bits of context clues and expository statements to brace up the larger context. This combination of depth and efficiency elevates Finder above the rabble of space operas that crowd the current SF marketplace.
The story stretches out like a rubber band from Cernee back to Sol System and Mars, then snaps back to Cernee for the grand finale. This is the only element of the novel that didn’t sit well with me. I understand the author’s need to reconnect Fergus emotionally with his past on Mars, and while the reason she contrives to get him there is integrated into the plot early on it still came across as forced. There was perhaps also a sensible desire to liberate the action from the confines of a single location. I felt that the mcguffin Palmer uses to lure him back to his roots isn’t developed well enough beyond its functional purpose and is a non-factor once Palmer returns us to the main storyline.
None of that changes the fact that Finder is a thrilling space adventure from an expert hand who loves the art of genre storytelling. There is so much happening with this setting and so much potential for growing it even more. It's also a welcome slice of madcap fun, full of rich, fully realized characters and delightful far future odds and ends.

Many thanks to DAW Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. ...more

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Apr 01, 2019 Sherwood Smith added it

Shelves: space-opera, sf

If you've ever been to Disneyland and ridden the original Star Wars ride (the one that seats you in a kind of cable car, and you begin floating along, then suddenly it jerks and takes a wild turn, begins to fall . . .) well, you'd have my visual image of this book.

It starts out so pleasantly, as Fergus Ferguson, a big red-head, rides a cable car with an elderly woman who is carrying a bunch of crates of lichen to sell.

A jerk, and things rapidly begin going wrong, setting off a wild adventure tha ...more

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Apr 21, 2019 Skip rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Fergus Ferguson is a swashbuckler: born in Scotland, running away to Mars where he starts an uprising against the fascist colonial authority, then running away again his problems/guilt to become a repo man. He is supposed to steal back a spaceship that was stolen by a gang leader, Arum Gilger, living in a backwater planet called Cernee. As he arrives, his cable car is attacked and he is saved by a grandmother. Fergus then finds himself in the middle of a civil war among gangsters and the governm ...more

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Jul 07, 2019 Lata rated it really liked it

Shelves: scifi-fantasy, x2019-read, auth-f

This story was fun. I thoroughly enjoyed main character and repo man Fergus Ferguson (who likes alliteration). He's in a region of space to repossess a spaceship, and becomes embroiled in a civil war, tangling with the local government and a local baddie, an arms dealer, clones, and a bizarre and mysterious alien race. Who are fascinated by him.
I've only read one short story by Suzanne Palmer ("Secret Life of Bots") before this, and am glad to say that moving to a long form doesn't diminish her ...more

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Aug 09, 2019 Peter Tillman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: friend-recos, science-fiction, at-bg-pa, on-reserve

Finder is a solid debut novel by Suzanne Palmer. It’s a classic life-in-space adventure story, with enough novelty to keep it interesting. You’ve read the publisher’s blurb, right? The primary setting is Cernee, a distant solar system with no inhabitable planet. Instead, people have built a strange jerry-rigged series of habitats, some of reused spaceship hulks, some of mined-out asteroids. And linked by cableways! — a future revival of the old aerial tramways that were once common in 19th centu Finder is a solid debut novel by Suzanne Palmer. It’s a classic life-in-space adventure story, with enough novelty to keep it interesting. You’ve read the publisher’s blurb, right? The primary setting is Cernee, a distant solar system with no inhabitable planet. Instead, people have built a strange jerry-rigged series of habitats, some of reused spaceship hulks, some of mined-out asteroids. And linked by cableways! — a future revival of the old aerial tramways that were once common in 19th century mining, and 20th century skiing. Heh.

The political setup in Cernee is more standard, and less interesting. I’ll let you discover that for yourself. I liked Fergus, the colorful Scots repo-man. I liked the Martian arms-dealer, an honorable man. The weird sort-of cloned lichen farmers were . . . . interesting. Anyway, the plot rocks right along, with more unlikely coincidences than I prefer, plus some first-novel rough spots. But, basically, the charming part is the found-family bit, that Becky Chambers brought back to SF recently.

Oh, and here's terrible-teen Mari meeting an alien spacewoman at Crossroads, her first: “You’re not human!” . . . “I’m sorry, that’s rude.” . . . . “So few people are.” Rimshot!

I liked the alien ball-roaches (with a painful bite) and the related(?) spore-ticks, which are deadly. And an important plot-twist hangs on them. I was less enthused about the mysterious Asiic aliens, who take people and sometimes return them, changed. Advanced technology as magic, I suppose, and likely we will learn more about them in the sequel. Which I look forward to. Recommended reading. My rating: upgraded to a full 4 stars, 8/11/19.

The review to read here is Moggsy's, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
"If you’re ever in need of something to brighten your day or give you a nice shot of energy after you find that a string of heavier, ponderous books has sapped your all your motivation, Finder by Suzanne Palmer is exactly the kind of pick-me-up the situation calls for. It’s nothing too deep or fancy, but it sure as hell gets the job done." ...more

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Sep 08, 2020 Eva rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-aty-challenge, five-stars

4.5 stars: If you're looking for a novel that will remind you of what you felt when watching Firefly, this is it. It was much better than I was expecting, and I loved all the quirky characters and humor.

What it's all about: our Scottish protagonist, Fergus Ferguson, wants to save/repossess an intelligent ship from its current unlawful owner, who's one of the big powers in a small colony which is a collection of habitats surrounding a gas giant in a far-off system. This is the kind of grimy, make ...more

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Mar 21, 2019 Dianne rated it really liked it

Shelves: 03read, netgalley, arc-read, own, action-and-adventure, sci-fi, space-opera

Looking for a swashbuckling hero who is part daredevil and part rogue with his own brand of charm? Meet Fergus Ferguson, now on a mission to recover (read that steal back) a certain spacecraft on a remote space settlement. Hang on tight as Suzanne Palmer blasts us of into a space opera adventure that plays out at the speed of light!

FINDER is fast, fun and furious as Fergus attempts to con the conman and retrieve the ship while escaping with his life. All in a day’s work for Fergus, but can he ou ...more

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Jan 24, 2019 Beth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, netgalley, own, berkley-publishing, scifi, fantasy, daw

Finder was not my typical read but I found myself captivated by this imaginative space adventure.

Fergus Ferguson is tasked with retrieving a sentient space craft that was stolen from its creators and he finds himself thrust into a space war that only a mastermind could possibly survive.

Lets just say nothing goes as planned by Fergus finds some amazingly loyal companions and some major life lessons along the way.

Like I said earlier, the plot was nothing like I expected but I really enjoyed Palmer ...more

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Oct 03, 2020 Silvana rated it liked it

Shelves: 2020-sf-novel-novella, 2020-wotf-challenge, space-the-final-frontier, female-nonbinary-authors, sci-fi, kindle-google, sff-2020-reading-challenge, mine-mine-mine, reading-with-friends

3.5 stars. It's a quick, fun read. Maybe I did not give it a higher rating because while I don't have specific critics or nitpick, I also did not find many things that made me think ''Oh wow this is fantastic!". What I can say is that it's so fast-paced I somehow auto-skimmed some of the action-y parts just to see where the plot would take me. I really think it works better in visual format so as to see all the mechanics.

Overall, it reminded me of Dark Matter, Killjoy, Firefly, eh you get the g ...more

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Oct 07, 2019 The Captain rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi

Ahoy there me mateys! I didn’t know that this was the first book in a series but y’all I be so glad cause dang this was fun. The book follows Fergus Ferguson who is sent to repossess a sentient AI ship from Arum Gilger the man who stole it. Gilger lives in a backwaters colony called Cernee. It is supposed to be a slightly tricky but doable job for Fergus. It so isn’t. It’s a mess.

This is one of those stories where Fergus should die multiple times and doesn’t because of zany things that are impro ...more

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Aug 13, 2020 Tracy rated it really liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction, humor, space-opera, environmental, alternate-history, my-copy, totally-fun-read, totally-fun-to-read, hard-science-fiction, first-contact

This was great. Often funny. Very twisty. I loved so many of the characters, Ferguson, Mari, Bale and Harcourt in particular. The aliens were very interesting as well and so was the Martian politics. I loved the map at the beginning of the book (I adore books with maps) and the place names were awesome: Bugrot, Humbug, Rattletrap to name only a few. Just a really enjoyable book.

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Aug 28, 2020 Soo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, reviewed

10/10/2020 Notes:

Rating Raised from 3.5 Stars for Characters to 4 Stars

I decided to use my Amazon credit to buy Driving the Deep ebook & audio bundle. Following my current trend, I re-read #1 before diving into the next book. I thought the details for characters and setting were well done. That was reinforced during the re-read and I enjoyed taking it all in for the second time.

It's too easy for a large cast to become two-dimensional and not stand out as individuals. I enjoyed the away Palmer m ...more

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Oct 02, 2020 AndrewP rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books, read-in-2020, science-fiction, group_sword-and-laser

A pretty original story about a futuristic repo man tasked to recover a stolen space ship. This is a fairly light read with space based action, adventure, humor and enough science to maintain the suspension of disbelief. It's not a hard SF book by any means, but better than quite a bit of what passes as SF nowadays.
Overall, if your a fan of John Scalzi or Dennis E Taylor then you will probably enjoy this book, it has a similar tone and feel to it.

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Oct 06, 2020 Lee (the Book Butcher) rated it really liked it

A genre mashup with sci-fi themes and settings. strongly reminded me of the westerns i read as a kid. where a "drifter" like hero gets mixed into local unrest and revolves to solve it for everyone's benefit. fans of the show firefly and star war will enjoy this because if any label can be attached here it's gritty sci-fi you see in those.

Fergus Ferguson, yeah that's the MC name, is in Cernee to do a job. Cernee is a satellite space colony on the edge of human occupied space Standard in sci-fi. A genre mashup with sci-fi themes and settings. strongly reminded me of the westerns i read as a kid. where a "drifter" like hero gets mixed into local unrest and revolves to solve it for everyone's benefit. fans of the show firefly and star war will enjoy this because if any label can be attached here it's gritty sci-fi you see in those.

Fergus Ferguson, yeah that's the MC name, is in Cernee to do a job. Cernee is a satellite space colony on the edge of human occupied space Standard in sci-fi. think western mining town. Fergus is a jack of all trades drifter standard in westerns. He prefers the term finder. think Han solo. i could go on in this manner. There is a farm full of women (western) who happen to be clones (sci-fi). there is a Threating outside presents no one understands like native Americans (Western). who adduct and modify Fergus like classic ET aliens (Sci-fi). well they serve the same purpose in either genre anyway so you can flip that to: Menacing Aliens no one understands seen in sci-fi. that take in and heal Fergus like native American do in westerns. you see the theme of this review already WESTERN IN SPACE! if you're down for that pick this up.

Cernee breaks in civil unrest and Fergus is trapped in the middle as the unknow quantity. Everyone is out to get him or at least get him on there side. Obviously if I'm comparing Fergus to Han solo he is a good character. but the other characters are, ya know, how do i put it. "just locals" you never remember western side characters for a reason. there is no real love interest/romance which i really did not need but found kind of weird. There is a possible love but she really is not interested in Fergus. In fact she hates him. everyone hates him and i don't know why. made him a galvanizing figure. I was rooting for him all the more because those around him weren't. Lagged a lot in the middle with a random trip to mars that added nothing to the plot for me. like to know why it was so important to add to the story from the author's POV. Never would happen in a western must be a sci-fi thing. Westerns tend to have streamlined simple plots. Sci-fi have a little more complex arcs. my only guess is Palmer was seeking a balance here. There is a noticeable turning point involving the aforementioned aliens/native American analogs that changes the story. the series will be built from this i believe. The ending had a dramatic showdown because it had to be being a sci-fi western mashup. That showdown had a bit of originality that i really enjoyed. in the end Fergus rode off into the distance (western) albeit in his self-aware smart spaceship (sci-fi) to the next adventure.

i originally gave this 3 stars because the writing was kind of run of the mill. it was fun but i never fully engaged. it also told very heavy event in a lighthearted way. which is a plus. i think i will check out the sequels in my own time but I'm not feeling compelled to. kind of a lets check back in with our good buddy Fergus type of thing. instead of a OMG what will happened type series. good for marketing. bumped it to 4 stars because it was my kind of thing if westerns or sci-fi not you're type of book than there is not enough here to hold your attention IMO! ...more

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Aug 13, 2019 Kara Babcock rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, space-opera, 2019-read, from-library

It’s fashionable among a certain throwback segment of science fiction fans to claim that the entrance of so many new women writers to the field has somehow diminished the quality of stories being published. This, despite the fact that women have always been writing in science fiction from its inception. But whatever—all I have to say is I don’t know what SF they’re reading, because much of the best SF I have read in recent years has consistently come from women. This is particularly true of spac It’s fashionable among a certain throwback segment of science fiction fans to claim that the entrance of so many new women writers to the field has somehow diminished the quality of stories being published. This, despite the fact that women have always been writing in science fiction from its inception. But whatever—all I have to say is I don’t know what SF they’re reading, because much of the best SF I have read in recent years has consistently come from women. This is particularly true of space opera, a subgenre I’d largely given up hope on, until I discovered established titans like Bujold and Moon and newcomers like Dunstall. Finder isn’t technically space opera, I don’t think, but it has many space operatic elements to it. Suzanne Palmer continues to prove that not only are women not diminishing this genre; they are actively bringing fresh stories that make it more of a pleasure to keep reading. So there!

The premise of Finder is incredibly simple, which is always a good sign: Fergus Ferguson (it’s a whole thing) is the eponymous finder. In this case, he has already found his object: a stolen spaceship. He’s going to have to steal it back on behalf of his clients, the rightful owners. But it’s in the hands of a particularly nasty piece of work, a warlord/gang leader who controls a part of a backwater solar system. Fergus inadvertently stumbles into the middle of cold war that he quickly ignites into a warm war—oops—and, oh, there are aliens involved too. Somehow.

The charm of Finder lies in how Palmer takes this simple premise and blows it up into a system-wide civil war without somehow losing the reader in all the chaos. Fergus is a likeable rogue type, and Palmer manages to balance perspicacity with errors in judgment. He comes up with a clever plan, executes the plan … and it goes horribly wrong, so he has to improvise, and come up with another clever plan. This formula repeats for about 300 pages, and it works quite well. We never spend too much time in one place or on one subplot before Palmer redirects us into another new adventure. I wouldn’t exactly call Finder “cinematic” in the sense we often mean when we use that word, but there are screenplay-like elements to this story that for some reason I find quite appealing here.

There’s also a good cast of minor characters who revolve around Fergus and offer alternatively comic relief, sidekick help, or sheer badassery. Fergus has a badass background, what with being a reluctant hero/rebel type on Mars, and a “particular set of skills,” but Palmer makes it clear he is more of a jack of all trades than a master of many. So he acquires various support characters throughout his quests, coalescing into a rag-tag crew for the final assault on the Big Bad.

This is where Finder kind of falls down for me. The Big Bad doesn’t seem all that imposing or, crucially, interesting. He’s an upstart warlord exiled from his home system for not being the right kind of religiously wacky. He’s supposedly this Xanatos gambit genius of a villain who is always one step ahead of all the other leaders, and indeed, he packs a serious punch throughout this book. Yet as a character he remains a frustrating, off-page cipher for almost the entire book. We only ever really hear about him through others. I’m not trying to say he’s misunderstood, just that as far as villains go, he’s boring. I want a villain who is convinced he’s not the bad guy and is doing this all for “good reasons,” or I want a villain who, while irredeemably cruel, nevertheless chews the scenery with the best of ’em. This guy … is neither of those things.

I’m also not on board with the alien subplot. It’s well-executed in terms of how Palmer integrates it with the rest of the story. It feels like a setup, though, for something that will run through the rest of the series. I guess I can see why that might be desirable, but as far as this one book goes, the reveal at the end regarding the aliens is frustratingly cryptic instead of charmingly cryptic. But that could just be me.

Overall, I’d say that I found Finder to be an entertaining, almost captivating work of science fiction. It kept me interested in reading from page 1 to the end, which is not something I can say for every book, and I really did enjoy both the characters and the situations in which they found themselves. None of the elements of the plot are, individually, all that novel or fascinating. Nevertheless, Palmer crafts them together into a coherent story that serves its purpose well. I would maybe read a sequel and would definitely check out other stories Palmer offers up in the future.

...more

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Jan 10, 2019 Minx rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, space-opera, read-in-2019, netgalley-arc-2019

Finder was one of those books that just grabbed my interest and fascinated me from the start. It was filled with action, intriguing alien races, and the main character, Fergus Ferguson, was a regular space MacGyver. Many times when he found himself in a tricky situation, and only had what was available around him, he had to come up an immediate solution to his problems. There were some pretty inventive and hilarious solutions that he constructed that were quite memorable and I loved seeing how t ...more

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Apr 02, 2019 Lukasz rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, space-opera, published-in-2019, ai

I am Fergus Ferguson, and I find lost things. I’m going to bring Venetia’s Sword home because I said I would, and if I have to go through Gilger and the Asiigto do it, so be it.

While not exactly a law-abiding do-gooder, Fergus has enough charm to make readers like him. He specializes in chasing things, getting into trouble and running away. When he tries to recover a sentient spacecraft stolen from Shipmakers of Pluto by a ruthless crime boss Airun Gilger, someone makes an attempt at his life. He barely survives, and what was supposed to be a routine job devolves into a disaster. Fergus’ actions may start a civil war, and to make matters worse, dangerous aliens seem interested in him as well.

The action-packed plot sucked me in fast and never let go. Ferguson escapes one dire situation just to find himself in even more trouble. When you start to think he can’t handle more, Palmer proves you wrong. Watching Ferguson getting out of a mess thanks to his quick wit and ingenuity entertained me, and his resourcefulness impressed me. We all recognize lasers and light-swords as standard tools used to fight in space, but how many of you thought about using vibrating alien sex toys as space weapons (of sorts)? Just a few, I guess. And Fergus is one of you.

Luckily, quick thinking and insolence are just the outer layers of his nuanced and well-developed character. His many flaws and upbeat attitude coupled with intriguing backstory delivered through occasional flashbacks make him relatable. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about secondary characters who lack depth. They’re well rounded and fun, I’ll give it to Palmer, but they’re here mainly to make Ferguson shine. That said a good dialogue, evocative descriptions and interesting tech make up for this. And let’s not forget about aliens. They’re cool and they make Fergus’ life more interesting, heck, they make him more interesting :)

Breakneck-paced, action-packed, and character-driven, this story is powered by thrilling plot twists that kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. Well worth a shot. ...more

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Apr 17, 2019 Jamie rated it liked it

3.5 stars. Good story, generally well told, fun and engaging, though somewhat uninspired. The most interesting element is the setting - a deep space colony consisting of various sized asteroids, spinning wheel habitats, derelict ships and other structures, all surrounded by a sun shield and linked together by an extensive system of cables. The colony is loosely controlled by a centralized administration, as well as a set of rival, and sometimes enigmatic, factions. Palmer does an admirable job w ...more

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Sep 27, 2019 Kaa rated it liked it

Shelves: group-buddy-reads, challenge-reads

There were some very entertaining parts, but the story was a little too disjointed for me, and I never really connected with the humor.

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Apr 07, 2019 Sarah (CoolCurryBooks) rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, 2019-release, protag-male

TW: Suicide

A Scottish, interstellar repo man encounters mysterious alien spaceships, Martian weapons dealers, a family of near identical women and more in this wonderful debut from the Hugo-Award-winning Suzanne Palmer.

Fergus Ferguson is a finder, sent to retrieve stolen items. His latest job? Steal back the spaceship Venetia’s Sword from ganglord Arum Gilger, who is slowly taking control of an entire section of space, a colony called Cernee ruled by five rival fractions. As soon as Fergus arriv TW: Suicide

A Scottish, interstellar repo man encounters mysterious alien spaceships, Martian weapons dealers, a family of near identical women and more in this wonderful debut from the Hugo-Award-winning Suzanne Palmer.

Fergus Ferguson is a finder, sent to retrieve stolen items. His latest job? Steal back the spaceship Venetia’s Sword from ganglord Arum Gilger, who is slowly taking control of an entire section of space, a colony called Cernee ruled by five rival fractions. As soon as Fergus arrives, Arum attacks his cable car. In a fast-acting chain of events, civil war soon follows. Even worse, an unknowable and dangerous alien species keeps doing flybys.

Finder was so much fun! The pacing is great, very fast but never feeling too fast. Like, it keeps you turning the pages and still finds space for character development. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump but I think Finder got me out. I also appreciated some subtle moments of humor — like Fergus’s tendency towards alliterative cover names.

The world building is also so great. Finder takes what’s a huge universe and basically narrows the focus to a small, distant patch of human habitats connected by power lines. These power lines also serve as transport cables connecting the different habitats, hence the cable car Arum attacks. I’ve read so many books set in space, but I’ve never seen anything like the set-up Suzanne Palmer has going here. I love the smaller-scale. Cernee is a complex community but also closer knit than what we tend to see in science fiction, which usually operates more on a planetary/galaxy type scale.

Fergus could easily have fallen prey to the tired trope of “man broods over a dead woman in his past.” Fergus left behind a mother obsessed with the past the loche was swallowing for Mars, where he became involved with a resistance movement in which his best friend was eventually killed. But the entire novel calls out that attitude in five seconds flat — his best friend made her own choices. Fergus’s character arc is learning that he’s responsible for his own life, and others are responsible for theirs.

Fergus could potentially fall prey to “man broods over a dead woman in his past” but he gets called out on it five seconds flat. the novel is basically Fergus learning that he’s responsible for his life, and others are responsible for their lives. If the people around him chose to risk themselves, it’s their choice.

Least you think Finder is one of those male-dominated sci-fi novels, the main supporting character is Mari, a rebellious nineteen-year-old girl who longs to escape her confined life in Cernee. Mari’s family is a bit of a mystery — they’re algae farmers who are all women. And all nearly identical to each other, just separated by age. Fergus immediately assumes they’re clones… but a family member offhandedly mentions they’re not. Mari’s family is one of the most intriguing parts of Finder.

Oh, and don’t worry. There’s no romance between Fergus and Mari. They develop a prickly sort of friendship, with Mari fighting to be taken seriously and not as a kid who needs protecting. Actually, there’s no romance or even hints towards it in Finder. Five cheers for platonic sci-fi!

Overall, Finder was a great space adventure. It was just so much fun, and I look forward to whatever Suzanne Palmer writes next.

I received an ARC with the expectation of a free and honest review.

Review from The Illustrated Page. ...more

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Jun 04, 2020 Maryam rated it really liked it

Shelves: ebooks, science-fiction, scififantasy2020

It was a very fun read, reminded me of John Scalzi books or Murdorbot series. Still had its own vibe, its own character set which was very likable and fun to engage with.

If you enjoyed the books I mentioned, pick this one up too.

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Jun 20, 2019 David H. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, mystery-thriller

I wanted to read this book because I loved Suzanne Palmer's short story, "The Secret Life of Bots," so much, and I wanted to see what she'd do with a novel-length story. And what does she do? She writes a super-fun sci-fi story featuring a Scottish-born repo man trying to recover a stolen starship who accidentally sets off a civil war. Fergus Ferguson (yes) is just a fun character to follow as he infiltrates, exfiltrates, and otherwise cause a ruckus throughout at least three star systems. I can ...more

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Oct 04, 2020 Rob rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: author-female, sword-and-laser, 20xx-laser, science-fiction, read-2020, audio-book

Executive Summary: I thought this was a relatively light and quick read. I enjoyed it well enough, but wasn't blown away by it.

Audiobook: Joe Hempel does a fine job as a narrator. Nothing special, but since I'm an audible subscriber I was able to listen to this one for free, so you can't beat that price.

Full Review
This book wasn't on my radar, but it was chosen by Sword & Laser for their October pick. The premise sounded interesting enough and getting a free copy made it easy to give it a tr ...more

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Feb 17, 2019 Jeffrey rated it it was amazing

Shelves: net-galley-free-copy, read-in-2019, science-fiction, chicanery

"Finder" by Suzanne Palmer is a terrific space opera adventure with a very likable main protagonist, an involved three dimensional war and aliens. Some might think the novel is overstuffed (and it is), but Palmer pulls it off by keeping the story moving, the situations fresh and the characterizations true and clear. Light and breezy, full of likable characters and chicanery. It’s a con, it’s a reverse heist, it’s a war and it’s got alien contact and alien meddling. But it’s a big fun read and th ...more

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Nov 26, 2020 Tim Hicks rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

I'm still steaming from one of the reviews here suggesting that because this book doesn't bridge the gap between SF and Fine Lit'rachuh, it wasn't worth reading and probably wasn't worth writing.

Feh. The author gets to choose what kind of book it is, and is under no obligation to any reader. Many authors can't even align themselves with what makes money, because their compulsion is to write the story they want to tell.

Can Palmer write stuff that readers like? Hugo award says yes. Now, her firs ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
The Sword and Laser: FIN: Well, that was quick	26	221	Oct 27, 2020 03:18PM
The Sword and Laser: #396 - Antsy with Mars	18	81	Oct 25, 2020 04:21PM
The Sword and Laser: Fin: Scene Change	4	59	Oct 19, 2020 02:00PM
The Sword and Laser: #395 - Spider Belmont	23	111	Oct 18, 2020 10:44AM
The Sword and Laser: FIN: What to Read Next?	33	121	Oct 10, 2020 08:45AM
The Sword and Laser: Fin: First Contact with the Enemy	8	176	Oct 09, 2020 01:58PM
The Sword and Laser: Fin: October 2020 Pick: Finder by Suzanne Palmer	30	194	Oct 02, 2020 06:58AM

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“F--- that," she interrupted. "If everyone always waited till they felt ready, we'd all still be fish living on trees.” — 0 likes

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