89 of 91 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great in Small Press, and Better with the Re-Release, July 24, 2003
Captain Trilby Elliot has parked her rattletrap ship on an uninhabited planet to make repairs when an enemy `Sko ship hurtles into the forest nearby. Istead of salvaging useful parts from the crash, she salvages a Z'fharian man, Rhis Vanur, who turns out to be both very useful and very inconvenient. Rhis is useful in that he can help her repair her ship. Rhis is inconvenient in that he insists she change her schedule to return him to his squadron a.s.a.p, which Trilby is not about to do, not when she has a badly needed commission waiting for her at Port Rumor. However, there's more to Rhis than Trilby knows, and between the two of them they manage to get involved in a huge political scandal involving Trilby's sleazy former boyfriend, the `Sko, and Rhis's secret identity. And before everything blows up in their faces, they manage to get involved with each other, which complicates matters greatly.
Trilby and Rhis are well-rounded characters of the type you don't consistently encounter in futuristic romances, or any romances, for that matter. They don't fall fully into romance stereotypes, being more reminiscent of inhabitants of the novels of Anne McCaffrey or Tanya Huff.
More specifically, Trilby is tough, capable and independent and doesn't need Rhis any more than she needs another hole in her spaceship. This makes it all that much more convincing when she begins to fall in love with him, plus her character doesn't morph from Space Amazon.com to Space Bimbo once S-E-X enters the picture. Rhis isn't a foil for Trilby, as they are alike in many ways, which allows them to respect and understand one another. I have few complaints with Trilby and only a minor one with Rhis -- he's such a hard and rather cold man that I wasn't entirely convinced when he lost his head over Trilby.
The plot is pure, rollicking space opera, with suspense, computer programming, backstabbing, space battles and galaxy-wide threats galore. The secondary characters are neither too few nor too many, and the author doesn't write any of them in such a way that you can tell she intends you to be intrigued and "demand" the next book. The worldbuilding is satisfactory, if focused on spaceships and technology instead of exotic climes and sexy alien men with psychic powers, but this novel is refreshingly stand-alone. Sometimes you just want to read a good space adventure instead of get trapped in a family saga.
We don't get to know much about "the enemy," the `Sko, but how much did you get to know the giant insects in the movie Starship Troopers? You didn't care about the bugs; you just wanted the good guys to shoot bug heads until green goo flew everywhere. Finders Keepers is that kind of good time, without the tragic loss of the most interesting female character prior to the end of the work. A recommended read.
ETA: Has been re-released from Bantam Spectra -- track it down!
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86 of 95 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Romance, yes, but lots of action and adventure too!, April 8, 2003
I know the word romance is trumpeted all over this book, but this is far from your typical "futuristic" romance book. It is NOT 200 pages of groping and heavy breathing with 3 pages describing a generic SciFi setting.
Yes, there is a terrific romance between the two main characters with lots of sparks and verbal sparring, but there is also a good solid SF plot filled with intrigue, deception, and danger that drives this novel. The characters really come alive and there are even some edge of your seat battles in space. This author has got all the elements just right for a really fun read!
I would recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed the Liaden books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
Also try her other books: Destiny's Game (wonderful even though it was too short!!)and Command Performance (I want a furzel!) She also writes under the name Megan Sybil Baker, and I look forward to reading those with anticipation! Why hasn't a major publisher checked this lady out!??!
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book!!!, April 23, 2006
I am an EXTREMELY picky reader. I don't want all romance and I don't want all SF. I want a combo of the two genres which is SO hard to find. Finders Keepers gives you both.
Plus, for a book to work for me, the storyline has to be layered and I have to feel total immersion in the book. With Finders Keepers I got that and more.
Simply said: I LOVED this book. It combines funny and fun retro Star Trek stuff (like "communicators" they wear on their chest and have to hit with their hand to speak & listen, something created decades before wireless earpieces were even a sparkle in their inventor's eye) with a nod to Star Wars with a robot Dezi that acts and talks just like C-3PO with some TRULY AMAZING world-building in Linnea's freighter world. As an airline pilot doing the long-haul flights, I thought it rang true and my pilot-hat's off to the author for pulling that off. So many times I read SF books that take place on spaceships that everyone raves about and as a commercial pilot and former military pilot I just groan when I read many of them: pilots just don't act that way, or the flying just isn't done that way. But Sinclair either through personal experience or research GOT IT RIGHT. Brava! An added bonus was having a female SF heroine who wasn't a "man with [...]." She was feminine but she could kick [...]. The touches like the stuffed animals humanized her.
Finders Keepers is one of the best books I've read this year. Count me as a new fan of this author.
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