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June 2020 READER Finder by Palmer
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Locus has put Finder on their 2020 awards finalist list under First Novel: https://locusmag.com/2020/05/2020-loc...I liked the book quite a lot, but I’m more impressed now that I know it’s a debut novel.
I really enjoyed reading this book. Cernekan was such a unique world. I had trouble visualizing it - not because the author didn't describe it well, but due to my own lack of mental visualization and imagination. I loved that map at the beginning of the book. Not only was it interesting to look at it, but it also helped put some of the missing pieces together for me on how the world worked.The story was fun and entertaining and the characters were great. And as far as plot goes, I really liked the sense of more than one climax within the story. About half-way when the big fight occurs to get the ship back you get the impression that this type of action and purpose could have easily been the end of the story, but instead there is more to go and you get another climax again at the end.
I looked for other “spaceship repoman” stories but only found one, and it sounds so over-the-top with its political commentary that people on the left and the right both think it’s a hit piece from the other camp.Which makes this book even more unique. Seems like an unexplored subgenre ripe for more entries.
Finally finished June selection well into July. Enjoyable book especially for engaging escapist pandemic reading. Can’t say it was quite five stars but a satisfying read, and though it took me awhile to warm up to, I did get into it. I likely will go on to #2. Thanks for the nomination!
Official description:
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-nobleman turned power-hungry trade boss. He'll slip in, decode the ship's compromised AI security, and get out of town, Sword in hand.
Fergus locates both Gilger and the ship in the farthest corner of human-inhabited space, a gas-giant-harvesting colony called Cernee. But Fergus' arrival at the colony is anything but simple. A cable car explosion launches Cernee into civil war, and Fergus must ally with Gilger's enemies to navigate a field of space mines and a small army of hostile mercenaries. What was supposed to be a routine job evolves into negotiating a power struggle between factions. Even worse, Fergus has become increasingly--and inconveniently--invested in the lives of the locals.
It doesn't help that a dangerous alien species thought mythical prove unsettlingly real, and their ominous triangle ships keep following Fergus around.
Foolhardy. Eccentric. Reckless. Whatever he's called, Fergus will need all the help he can get to take back the Sword and maybe save Cernee from destruction in the process.