Review:
Ghostdrift, by Suzanne Palmer
| Series: |
Finder Chronicles #4 |
| Publisher: |
DAW |
| Copyright: |
May 2024 |
| ISBN: |
0-7564-1888-7 |
| Format: |
Kindle |
| Pages: |
378 |
Ghostdrift is a science fiction adventure and the fourth (and
possibly final) book of the Finder Chronicles. You should definitely read
this series in order and not start here, even though the plot of this book
would stand alone.
Following
The Scavenger Door, in which
he made enemies even more dramatically than he had in the previous books,
Fergus Ferguson has retired to the beach on Coralla to become a tea master
and take care of his cat. It's a relaxing, idyllic life and a much-needed
total reset. Also, he's bored. The arrival of his alien friend Qai, in
some kind of trouble and searching for him, is a complex balance between
relief and disappointment.
Bas Belos is one of the most notorious pirates of the Barrens. He has
someone he wants Fergus to find: his twin sister, who disappeared ten
years ago. Fergus has an unmatched reputation for finding things, so Belos
kidnapped Qai's partner to coerce her into finding Fergus. It's not an
auspicious beginning to a relationship, and Qai was ready to fight once
they got her partner back, but Belos makes Fergus an offer of payment
that, startlingly, is enough for him to take the job mostly voluntarily.
Ghostdrift feels a bit like a return to
Finder. Fergus is once again alone among strangers, on an
assignment that he's mostly not discussing with others, piecing together
clues and navigating tricky social dynamics. I missed his friends,
particularly Ignatio, and while there are a few moments with AI ships,
they play less of a role.
But Fergus is so very good at what he does, and Palmer is so very good at
writing it. This continues to be competence porn at its best. Belos's crew
thinks Fergus is a pirate recruited from a prison colony, and he quietly
sets out to win their trust with a careful balance of self-deprecation and
unflappable skill, helped considerably by the hidden gift he acquired in
Finder. The character development is subtle, but this feels like a
Fergus who understands friendship and other people at a deeper and more
satisfying level than the Fergus we first met three books ago.
Palmer has a real talent for supporting characters and
Ghostdrift
is no exception. Belos's crew are criminals and murderers, and Palmer does
remind the reader of that occasionally, but they're also humans with
complex goals and relationships. Belos has earned their loyalty by being
loyal and competent in a rough world where those attributes are rare. The
morality of this story reminds me of infiltrating a gang: the existence of
the gang is not a good thing, and the things they do are often
indefensible, but they are an understandable reaction to a corrupt social
system. The cops (in this case, the Alliance) are nearly as bad, as we've
learned over the past couple of books, and considerably more insufferable.
Fergus balances the ethical complexity in a way that I found satisfyingly
nuanced, while quietly insisting on his own moral lines.
There is a deep science fiction plot here, possibly the most complex of
the series so far. The disappearance of Belos's sister is the tip of an
iceberg that leads to novel astrophysics, dangerous aliens, mysterious
ruins, and an extended period on a remote and wreck-strewn planet. I
groaned a bit when the characters ended up on the planet, since treks
across primitive alien terrain with jury-rigged technology are one of my
least favorite science fiction tropes, but I need not have worried. Palmer
knows what she's doing; the pace of the plot does slow a bit at first, but
it quickly picks up again, adding enough new setting and plot
complications that I never had a chance to be bored by alien plants. It
helps that we get another batch of excellent supporting characters for
Fergus to observe and win over.
This series is such great science fiction. Each book becomes my new
favorite, and
Ghostdrift is no exception. The skeleton of its plot
is a satisfying science fiction mystery with multiple competing factions,
hints of fascinating galactic politics, complicated technological puzzles,
and a sense of wonder that reminds me of reading Larry Niven's Known Space
series. But the characters are so much better and more memorable than
classic SF; compared to Fergus, Niven's
Louis
Wu barely exists and is readily forgotten as soon as the story is over.
Fergus starts as a quiet problem-solver, but so much character depth
unfolds over the course of this series. The ending of this book was
delightfully consistent with everything we've learned about Fergus, but
also the sort of ending that it's hard to imagine the Fergus from
Finder knowing how to want.
Ghostdrift, like each of the books in this series, reaches a
satisfying stand-alone conclusion, but there is no reason within the story
for this to be the last of the series. The author's acknowledgments,
however, says that this the end. I admit to being disappointed, since I
want to read more about Fergus and there are numerous loose ends that
could be explored. More importantly, though, I hope Palmer will write more
novels in any universe of her choosing so that I can buy and read them.
This is fantastic stuff. This review comes too late for the Hugo
nominating deadline, but I hope Palmer gets a Best Series nomination for
the Finder Chronicles as a whole. She deserves it.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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