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sisteray's review against another edition
2.0
I just couldn't take it anymore. This book, for all the high concept, outlandish scenarios, weirdo sci-fi elements, freakish characters and embrace of the bizarre, this is just flat out boring. Dull as rocks. There is story to be had, but the pace is glacial, and finding out what is happening or going to happen feels like a chore.
It is just page after page of seemingly random shenanigans mixed with flaccid domestic conversations. For as much parlor talk that the book has, I never felt that I ever really got the characters, despite several conversations giving us a barrage of pertinent exposition on what various characters were supposed to be like. Everyone was just remarkably uninteresting to me.
To top that off the storytelling is really disjointed, but not such that it lead to suspense, or intrigue, or yielded any curiosity. No, it just comes across as confusing.
Then there is page after page of useless script that overwhelms each frame. I admit, this is likely my thing, but if the words are there I read them, so all the written background conversations, all the signs and posters, all the lyrics to the music playing, everything is read and it is exhausting when you start to sum up how little content is in the totality of all the words included in this book.
I made it halfway through the first story (which is really quite long). Then I skipped ahead and almost finished the second story, but realized it just wasn't worth it any more.
The only reason why I gave it two stars is that the art can be very good.
It is just page after page of seemingly random shenanigans mixed with flaccid domestic conversations. For as much parlor talk that the book has, I never felt that I ever really got the characters, despite several conversations giving us a barrage of pertinent exposition on what various characters were supposed to be like. Everyone was just remarkably uninteresting to me.
To top that off the storytelling is really disjointed, but not such that it lead to suspense, or intrigue, or yielded any curiosity. No, it just comes across as confusing.
Then there is page after page of useless script that overwhelms each frame. I admit, this is likely my thing, but if the words are there I read them, so all the written background conversations, all the signs and posters, all the lyrics to the music playing, everything is read and it is exhausting when you start to sum up how little content is in the totality of all the words included in this book.
I made it halfway through the first story (which is really quite long). Then I skipped ahead and almost finished the second story, but realized it just wasn't worth it any more.
The only reason why I gave it two stars is that the art can be very good.
kjboldon's review against another edition
5.0
Here is how to figure out if this comic is for you. Go to a comic shop or library. Pick up the collection of the story Finder: Talisman. Start to read. If you're not engaged, put it down and move along. If you are, finish reading Talisman, then buy this lovely edition of the first 22 issues of the series to find out more (and, tantalizingly, never all) about this wondrous cast of characters. Aboriginal science fiction that's sometimes scary, sexy, satiric but always interesting.
librarycobwebs's review
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
lonecayt's review against another edition
4.0
There is so much stuff in this book. I don't think my brain can process it all just yet. This definitely deserves a reread.
jasonmehmel's review against another edition
5.0
Finder Volume 1 Review:
Sometimes the inability to easily synopsize a work is a sign that it's not being clear. But that's not the case here. It feels like Carla Speed McNeil (CSM) is telling exactly the kind of story they want to tell.
Some general notes? It's set in a distant future, where much of history has been forgotten. There's high-tech computers, and there are itinerant traders riding enormous pseudo-dinosaurs, probably part of a kind of genetic manipulation experiment in the past. There are people with animal features; there are lion people. Very little of this is explained, it's simply presented as part of the world... you just accept it and move on.
The title: Finder is a role or group in this world, but we only learn about it obliquely. One of the main characters, Jaeger, is one, but he doesn't talk about it much.
I've heard that this is a work exploring indigineaity, though by setting this in an unexplained future, CSM avoids trying to take any particular tribe's stories inside this narrative, which is probably for the best.
This aspect of the book itself isn't delivered directly, but it is present. There is a kind of quiet wisdom of both the book and it's characters, and this feels drawn from the traditions CSM is connecting to.
CSM is a storyteller focused on the characters and lived-in nature of her world. As strange as it all is, the characters feel so naturally fit within it. The feeling is that the story happens to be observing the moments in the lives of these characters, instead of something deeply orchestrated as part of an overt plot.
Jaeger as a character is a great example. We follow him through much of this volume but I hesitate to call him a 'main character' so much as one we happen to be following... his reluctance to explain himself or his choices helps us lean deeper into the world because we want to know more about how everyone else interacts with him.
I will also note that Jaeger became something of a personal inspiration while reading this. Not fully, because the life he lives is too far beyond where I'm comfortable, but there is a calm and focus this character has, and a sense of living in a very present, mindful experience. As someone who often gets lost in overthinking and being distant, trying to channel a little of that element of his character really helped me.
I haven't even talked about the art... CSM's art is stunning. All rendered in black and white, it is by turns incredibly detailed (with lots of cameos and references buried in the backgrounds) and very simple. The characters are incredibly distinct yet with minimal linework. Part of the setting involves whole clans of people who look alike, and CSM's ability to both represent this WHILE making important characters be instantly recognizable is very impressive, and probably deceptively hard to do.
Much like my note about their skills as a storyteller, the art is such that it tries to avoid getting in the way of the narrative. It's a simple style, elegantly used to create a lot of expression, but never so expressive as to clumsily guide the emotions of the audience; always to help us get deeper into the story and world.
I think making a book like this takes a lot of work: thinking through all the characters, how they fit, the details of the world, etc. and then the artwork, representing all these details and qualities with a detailed craftsman's touch. It's the kind of work of a modelmaker, trying to get every detail perfect, so that it seems it could turn alive when you turn your back. The work is clear, but it doesn't feel overwrought or too much, like they're dragging you through every detail they've thought up. It's that every bit of that effort feels like someone who cares deeply for their world, and your passage through it.
A new favourite and a deeply loved reading experience.
Sometimes the inability to easily synopsize a work is a sign that it's not being clear. But that's not the case here. It feels like Carla Speed McNeil (CSM) is telling exactly the kind of story they want to tell.
Some general notes? It's set in a distant future, where much of history has been forgotten. There's high-tech computers, and there are itinerant traders riding enormous pseudo-dinosaurs, probably part of a kind of genetic manipulation experiment in the past. There are people with animal features; there are lion people. Very little of this is explained, it's simply presented as part of the world... you just accept it and move on.
The title: Finder is a role or group in this world, but we only learn about it obliquely. One of the main characters, Jaeger, is one, but he doesn't talk about it much.
I've heard that this is a work exploring indigineaity, though by setting this in an unexplained future, CSM avoids trying to take any particular tribe's stories inside this narrative, which is probably for the best.
This aspect of the book itself isn't delivered directly, but it is present. There is a kind of quiet wisdom of both the book and it's characters, and this feels drawn from the traditions CSM is connecting to.
CSM is a storyteller focused on the characters and lived-in nature of her world. As strange as it all is, the characters feel so naturally fit within it. The feeling is that the story happens to be observing the moments in the lives of these characters, instead of something deeply orchestrated as part of an overt plot.
Jaeger as a character is a great example. We follow him through much of this volume but I hesitate to call him a 'main character' so much as one we happen to be following... his reluctance to explain himself or his choices helps us lean deeper into the world because we want to know more about how everyone else interacts with him.
I will also note that Jaeger became something of a personal inspiration while reading this. Not fully, because the life he lives is too far beyond where I'm comfortable, but there is a calm and focus this character has, and a sense of living in a very present, mindful experience. As someone who often gets lost in overthinking and being distant, trying to channel a little of that element of his character really helped me.
I haven't even talked about the art... CSM's art is stunning. All rendered in black and white, it is by turns incredibly detailed (with lots of cameos and references buried in the backgrounds) and very simple. The characters are incredibly distinct yet with minimal linework. Part of the setting involves whole clans of people who look alike, and CSM's ability to both represent this WHILE making important characters be instantly recognizable is very impressive, and probably deceptively hard to do.
Much like my note about their skills as a storyteller, the art is such that it tries to avoid getting in the way of the narrative. It's a simple style, elegantly used to create a lot of expression, but never so expressive as to clumsily guide the emotions of the audience; always to help us get deeper into the story and world.
I think making a book like this takes a lot of work: thinking through all the characters, how they fit, the details of the world, etc. and then the artwork, representing all these details and qualities with a detailed craftsman's touch. It's the kind of work of a modelmaker, trying to get every detail perfect, so that it seems it could turn alive when you turn your back. The work is clear, but it doesn't feel overwrought or too much, like they're dragging you through every detail they've thought up. It's that every bit of that effort feels like someone who cares deeply for their world, and your passage through it.
A new favourite and a deeply loved reading experience.
philipf's review against another edition
5.0
Finder is one of my favorite comics, which is why I bought this even though I had purchased the contents twice before (in single issues and previous, smaller collections). McNeil has created some great characters and set them in a complex, well-thought-out world. She has done some of the best world building I've ever encountered.
While the entire book is great, an especial highlight is the final story, Talisman, which will feel familiar to anybody who has been a bookworm since childhood.
I cannot recommend Finder highly enough. Get it and read it. You'll be glad you did.
While the entire book is great, an especial highlight is the final story, Talisman, which will feel familiar to anybody who has been a bookworm since childhood.
I cannot recommend Finder highly enough. Get it and read it. You'll be glad you did.
alex_kies's review against another edition
5.0
Believe the hype. Finder is the shit.
Carla Speed McNeil is an incomparable cartoonist, pouring as much detail and pathos and complexity into her drawings as anyone I've ever seen. She is also a beautiful writer, using implication over explication in her incredibly rich world. When she's narrating, or having a longer dialogue scene, her pen rises to the occasion, rendering them in dynamic, visually interesting ways.
You gotta read this.
Carla Speed McNeil is an incomparable cartoonist, pouring as much detail and pathos and complexity into her drawings as anyone I've ever seen. She is also a beautiful writer, using implication over explication in her incredibly rich world. When she's narrating, or having a longer dialogue scene, her pen rises to the occasion, rendering them in dynamic, visually interesting ways.
You gotta read this.
brizreading's review
4.0
Weird, pretty wonderful, slow, frustrating, did I say weird? WEIRD. I missed weird. This book brought weird back. Thanks, book!
We're dropped in media res into a far future weirdo landscape; to make matters worse, the plot is circuitous, characters ambiguous and complicated and ever-changing, and GOD THERE IS SO MUCH CHATTERING MUSIC PLAYING. I could have done without the music. But this was a slow-burn of frustrated "wtf"-ness that then, finally, sublimated into something exciting and fun and strange. There are heaps of endnotes. I'll get to them, maybe.
I kind of DON'T want to explain the plot, since I think the confusion is part of the sell. But this is a fun, very-1990s counterculture super far future sci-fi piece. The author/illustrator/everything-er, Carla Speed McNeil, calls it "aboriginal sci-fi"? Somewhere? Citation needed. It does have lots of mysticism, but also lots of grungy jeans and cigarette smoke. We follow sexy dude, Jaeger, a half-"Ascian" (Native American?) "Finder" (scout, though he feels like a woodsy private eye) as he flits around the weird dome city of Anvard. We meet a family of three sisters and a shell-shocked, traumatized mom, hounded by their abusive, unsettling shell-shocked dad. There are lion people. There was a raccoon guy. There are "clans", which feel like castes, and waaaay too much inter-clan homogeneity, seriously, people, genetic diversity is a good thing. There was some AI. But mostly the world was a broken down mess, kinda post-apocalyptic, and very critiquing of late capitalist USA!USA!USA! It's not really dark, the tone feels mostly cheeky.
We're dropped in media res into a far future weirdo landscape; to make matters worse, the plot is circuitous, characters ambiguous and complicated and ever-changing, and GOD THERE IS SO MUCH CHATTERING MUSIC PLAYING. I could have done without the music. But this was a slow-burn of frustrated "wtf"-ness that then, finally, sublimated into something exciting and fun and strange. There are heaps of endnotes. I'll get to them, maybe.
I kind of DON'T want to explain the plot, since I think the confusion is part of the sell. But this is a fun, very-1990s counterculture super far future sci-fi piece. The author/illustrator/everything-er, Carla Speed McNeil, calls it "aboriginal sci-fi"? Somewhere? Citation needed. It does have lots of mysticism, but also lots of grungy jeans and cigarette smoke. We follow sexy dude, Jaeger, a half-"Ascian" (Native American?) "Finder" (scout, though he feels like a woodsy private eye) as he flits around the weird dome city of Anvard. We meet a family of three sisters and a shell-shocked, traumatized mom, hounded by their abusive, unsettling shell-shocked dad. There are lion people. There was a raccoon guy. There are "clans", which feel like castes, and waaaay too much inter-clan homogeneity, seriously, people, genetic diversity is a good thing. There was some AI. But mostly the world was a broken down mess, kinda post-apocalyptic, and very critiquing of late capitalist USA!USA!USA! It's not really dark, the tone feels mostly cheeky.