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A review by loonyboi
Finder Library Volume 1 by Carla Speed McNeil
5.0
Complex, dense and utterly fascinating. I can't remember the last time I was so taken aback by a graphic novel.
The Finder Library: Volume 1 collects the first three books of the series Finder, originally self-published by author Carla Speed McNeil. The series has been running since 1996, but somehow I managed to go all this time without ever hearing of it.
Finder is science fiction, but it's not of the spaceships and aliens type. It's not even any kind of high-concept sci-fi, although there are lots of recognizable tropes to be found in the background.
What McNeil has done is rather than go about world-building in the traditional science fiction sense, she's focused her story like a laser-beam on a handful of characters, and lets the world develop around them.
This being the first volume (or really the first three) it does take a little while to get going. The first story is very different from everything that follows, and is a little muddled. But once she gets going, it's really quite amazing.
The protagonist for most of the book is Jaeger, the titular Finder. He's half Ascian, which is a sort of native american tribe. Then there's his friend and frequent lover Emma and her extended family. Sometimes the story is told from Jaeger's point of view, sometimes it's Emma's or her psychotic ex-husband and sometimes it's one of her three children.
The story is so dense, that's extremely difficult to summarize in just a few sentences. Needless to say, this is a very human story, and the sci-fi elements are there to add flavor, not to distract from it.
If you like deep, complex storytelling, you owe it to yourself to read this book.
The Finder Library: Volume 1 collects the first three books of the series Finder, originally self-published by author Carla Speed McNeil. The series has been running since 1996, but somehow I managed to go all this time without ever hearing of it.
Finder is science fiction, but it's not of the spaceships and aliens type. It's not even any kind of high-concept sci-fi, although there are lots of recognizable tropes to be found in the background.
What McNeil has done is rather than go about world-building in the traditional science fiction sense, she's focused her story like a laser-beam on a handful of characters, and lets the world develop around them.
This being the first volume (or really the first three) it does take a little while to get going. The first story is very different from everything that follows, and is a little muddled. But once she gets going, it's really quite amazing.
The protagonist for most of the book is Jaeger, the titular Finder. He's half Ascian, which is a sort of native american tribe. Then there's his friend and frequent lover Emma and her extended family. Sometimes the story is told from Jaeger's point of view, sometimes it's Emma's or her psychotic ex-husband and sometimes it's one of her three children.
The story is so dense, that's extremely difficult to summarize in just a few sentences. Needless to say, this is a very human story, and the sci-fi elements are there to add flavor, not to distract from it.
If you like deep, complex storytelling, you owe it to yourself to read this book.