Our Discussion of Finder by Suzanne Palmer

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. Goodreads

Below are a sampling of our comments:

• Fergus was a MacGyver type – everything he tried worked, although he did get beaten up a lot
• It also reminded me of Mission Impossible & Firefly
• The flystick with sparkles was like something from Back to the Future
• It was a true space opera – a rollicking, action-packed yarn
• The setting was similar to The Expanse in that it was mainly bits of metal in space and wasn’t really hospitable to humans
• The map worked and I could follow along
• At first I thought we were dealing with huge distances, but then I figured out it was more like the suburbs – things were close enough that you could string a wire between them
• I liked how the author brought everything together and didn’t leave loose ends
• I was touched by the group that sacrificed themselves to prevent the spread of spore ticks, and that Fergus cried for them
• The story had real friendships and was not predictable or one dimensional
• I enjoyed the voice of the ship that wanted to go home
• I couldn’t tell how much time passed between Fergus going to Mars and returning
• Space operas move at the speed of plot

Please add any additional thoughts or comments you have about Finder. We gave this title the codes CUL, MOB, POL, FEM, SOP & XEN with an average rating of 4.5.