Finder (The Finder Chronicles Book 1)

Great sci-fi! Unique concepts, intricate story lines, and no cliches! The characters are likeable and interesting. The story is fast paced and never boring. There are laugh out loud moments. I love the fact that the author doesn't feel the need to to solve everyone's problems, make everyone fall in love, or explain everything. There are no plot holes, but there aren't any over-explanations, leaving some things up to your imagination, which I really respect!

As best I can tell, Suzanne Palmer’s 2019 novel " Finder Chronicles, Book 1: Finder " is actually her first published novel. And, it’s a pretty amazing one. I’ve really got nothing negative of any substance to bring up. The only small issues I have are that:- The first and second halves of the book feel different. The first half is more tightly written and “realistic.” I found some of the things happening in the second half to be a bit of a stretch.- The amount of collateral damage (both death and destruction) in the book bothers me. It’s not graphic or anything. But, there’s a lot of it.- The introductory scene for the book’s secondary character doesn’t really describe her properly: “The youngest of the Vahns was holding a giant pitchfork, braced and pointed in his direction…” From that, I gathered that she was actually a child who was small enough that a pitchfork seems gigantic in comparison to her. But, from things pieced together throughout the rest of the book, it looks like she’s somewhere around 19 years old. It took me quite a bit of time to figure out why her behavior didn’t match what I thought of as her age.And that’s pretty much it for the negatives. Pretty amazing for a first novel. So, I’m happy to rate the book at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5.

I got interested in the characters and their survival. Always enjoy some sarcasm and left handed type humor. A very good read

I enjoyed reading this and for several reasons.It’s different from a lot of the other sf novels in sensibility and style. The worldbuilding is great. Though set in a familiar trope of tin can type habitats in space, there’s a wonderful sense of humor and quirkiness in the unique ways each habitat has developed. To me, this lends authenticity as well as often providing some fun plot assists. There’s a wide range of these micro cultures, all held together by cooperation to survive in an extreme environment. I especially enjoyed the oddest bunch, the tribe living in the sun shields.Another classic trope is the gangster/warlord culture on the edges of civilization. What sets Finder apart is the way these characters are developed with unique points of view and motivations, beyond the usual and ordinary greed, lust, ambition etc.This could have been a quicker, shorter, simpler story. I love books that surprise me, and this one did. Other reviewers didn’t like some of the plot twists; I thought they were great! The side trip to Mars to me made total strategic sense, and only someone capable of thinking outside the box would have thought of it. Fergus is that type of thinker and for him not to have thought of this would have gutted his character.There’s one chapter where Fergus has a series of memories and relives experiences. This is another trope along the lines of life flashing before your eyes. It is really hard to write this type of sequence without getting sappy, repetitive, or just weird. I thought the author handled this not only beautifully, but showed us deep and intricate twists in Fergus’s character that were, to the sensitive reader, heart wrenching.The aliens were really cool. Another hard thing to pull off well. IMHO Aliens are most believably alien when they are not just humans who look funny. Sf is full of cat people, Bear people, octopus people, bug people, androids etc etc etc who have thoroughly human psychology, motivations, prejudices and assumptions about power and gender. So boring.Humor is sprinkled throughout this book, both verbal and situational. Refreshingly, very little dialog was purposed to make us admire how funny the author is. Instead, Fergus has flair all his own that includes his darkly humorous attitude on life.The writing is easy to read and understand except in a couple of small places which quickly became clear through context.To me the best sf shows us what it means to be human. This novel did this in a big way, and did not stop at what it means to be human now, today, but took us into the future to what we can so easily become if we let ourselves continue on our oblivious way.

I read Finder when it was first released. I had forgotten the high body count, which made me sad the first time and on this reread. But without the deaths, the stakes would not be as high, and Fergus's story would be very different. The world building is phenomenal with an incredibly unique setting. Finder has humor, suspense, mystery, a tiny touch of horror, and a main character I love.

This was good but not My cup of tea if that makes sense Something about the Writing style just didn't hit right

I recently started getting into Amazon Kindle books and reading along with the Audible narration. Finder was my first book and is an excellent read. The story lines aren't too complex to follow, but that's exactly what I want in a space travel fantasy book. The story resides around Fergus Fergus and his space repo man adventure, which turns into a much larger journey. The snowball effect that happens because of his actions grows and grows, making for quite an exciting ride. I just purchased the second book by Suzanne, and am very much looking forward to it.

Great read. Lovely writing, fun, witty, fast paced, great dialog and universe. Bravo Ms Palmer, I enjoyed this a lot. The villains could have had a notch more texture (what is Gilger's endgame hopes? he is so apocalyptic!), but then again we are mostly following the main characters. Will jump to the next book in the series as soon as I finish to write this review. If you like the murderbot novels, this book is a little bit in the same tone/color.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, Suzanne Palmer's debut from 2019!She has a deft touch in creating the kind of space-adventure story that quickly drew me in and kept me turning the pages. She introduced me to our protagonist, a likeable rogue somewhat reminiscent of Harrison Ford's many characters, or at least painted with the same colourful brush strokes. And then peppered the story with the wild assortment of his allies and antagonists during his efforts at completing his main mission: to find and return a stolen spacecraft called Venetia's Sword.With equal measures of humanity and humour, suspense, swashbuckling action, and perhaps what may even be called a soupçon of potential romance, if he was looking for that sort of thing, we follow along and almost become one with our hero, Fergus Ferguson.Yes, the alliteration is intentional and it works really well.Finder is the first book in The Finder Chronicles, and the adventure continues. I had the distinct pleasure of enjoying Suzanne's company as the featured Guest on my podcast (The Speakeasy: Conversations with the Writing Community), along with the wonderful Ray Nayler (author of The Mountain in the Sea) as my guest Co-host, and who kindly brought Suzanne onto the show. Have a listen to hear more from them directly about books, writing, their projects, and life in general!Make sure you give "Finder" a read soon, and jump into the splendid world-building that Suzanne Palmer has done to give Fergus Ferguson and his adventures a place of their own! Cheers.

Nice to see a mass market space opera it reminds me of what I grew up with. Flows really well and the characters are likeable and entertaining. Somebody compared it favorably with the Stainless Steel rat series, I'll go along with that and maybe Bob Shaws who goes there? Anyway I've preordered the next book so that says it all.

Sehr gut geschrieben, sympathische Figuren und spannend von Anfang an. Ich werde mir definitiv die Fortsetzung holen.

Enjoyable caper/heist story. Some bad guy has stolen a mindship and Fergus is sent by the ship builders to find the ship and steal it back. His trip takes him to a conglomerate of human habitats surrounding a Dyson sphere* and a hodge-podge of humanity, post-humans, arms dealers, religious lunatics, asteroid miners and then some. With him he brings his own personal baggage. Shortly after jumping in-system, things start to seriously go wrong and from that moment onwards Fergus is on the run and trying to McGyver his way through a complicated and dangerous power struggle, while trying hard not to get attached to anybody. Oh yes, there are some mysterious aliens as well, looming in the background over everything. There is quite a lot of Depressurization or Alien Interference.*reading some other reviews I am increasingly unsure about the Dyson sphere.I enjoyed the beginning of this book very much. Great fun. The rest was good as well, but I started to slow down, struggling just slightly to keep up my initial enthusiasm. Well written, but I could have done with a slightly shorter book. Perhaps it was the pacing and maybe there was just one too many plot developments. Still, good book! Extra points for making me laugh.I love Palmer‘s three bot stories: The Secret Life of Bots, Bots of the Lost Ark, To Sail Beyond the Botnet.

The characters were interesting and the plot was full of intrigue and much action.