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From: Titus G <noone@nowhere.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Recent good reads
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2025 17:57:37 +1200
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On 8/03/25 10:15, -dsr- wrote:
> Stuff I liked:
snip

> Suzanne Palmer: the Finder quadrilogy.
> 
> Finder (2019)
> Driving the Deep (2020)
> The Scavenger Door (2021)
> Ghostdrift (2024)
> 
> These are spectacular space opera, as reasonably self-consistent as we can allow
> for a fictional universe with at least three methods of FTL travel. Our
> protagonist, who is nearly a hero, is Fergus Fergusson, or perhaps Jon James or
> Bill Baugh or any number of other alliterative temporary identities. He is
> self-employed as a retriever of lost things - starships, kidnap victims, alien
> artifacts - and has a remarkably bad time doing so. But the universe also grants
> him a ridiculous amount of luck -- that is his key stat. Palmer plays fair with
> her audience: anything that Fergus relies on is explained in advance.
> Unfortunately for him, his plans aft gang aglay before finally resolving.
> 

I began "Finder" but did not finish it. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it
if I had read it after something from a different genre but I had just
finished a reread of the five book Exordium space opera by Sherwood
Smith and Dave Trowbridge and the contrast was too great. Exordium was
so rich in poetic metaphor, had so many varying protagonists and unique
characters, and was missing lots of detail to keep the reader alert.
Finder, (keep in mind that I read less than a third), was about a single
protagonist whose thoughts and actions were explained in straightforward
detail with no pseudo science, limited world building and the story
beginning with a completely implausible situation. The humour did not
appeal to me. I don't have any serious criticism; it was just not to my
taste at the time.