Customer Reviews

Finders Keepers

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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!

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!??!

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.

This book proves that Sci-Fi can indeed exist in union with Futuristic Romance. And that-gasp!-a good space adventure can document two people falling in love. It even has room for well-done sexual tension. In addition to the romantic plot, FINDERS KEEPERS has: disreputable freighter pilots, `droids with attitudes, Heroes that are beyond human but are also endearingly human, space battles, asteroid fields, battleships and space stations, trans-galactic jump gates, arrogant corporate scum, and inter-galactic politics. You want it? It's there.

Ride with Trilby and Rhis on a roller-coaster of political and financial machinations and against an amazing backdrop of life in deep space. Author Sinclair's prose is tight and intense. You'll feel as though you are in the cockpit, the ship's controls in your hands, speeding through space with your hair on fire. It's firmly placed on the shelf marked, "Touch this and Die."

Sometimes I'm wary of cross-overs. I like Romance just fine, but I've got to be in the mood for one (usually am just looking for a light, easy read). I don't mind reading the SF-themed romances, but if I'm in the SF section of the bookstore, I really would prefer something a bit more hefty.

Well... These books have a LOT of Romance in them, but also enough story and action and complexity to be satisfying on the SF level as well.

I have to admit I used to really enjoy the Space Opera genre of past decades. I think Catherine Asaro is doing her job to keep that alive single-handedly. Sinclair's books have a lot of the old Space Opera feel. Good space adventure with battles and intrigue and interplanetary travel mixed in--with good characters and personal relations mixed in.

This particular story also has quite a Star Wars like feel (first trilogy, 4-6), which was odd at times, but also good. (Most of it was due to the term "droids" and the presence of a protocol droid that talked too much.)

The heroine is a rough and tumble girl from the wrong side of the tracks, running solo in her own rust-bucket of a ship, engaging in suspect trading runs. The hero crash-lands almost in her lap, a dangerous military type engaged in an interstellar war. And of course, these two opposites attract when they find mysterious plots against their peoples --and involving them personally.

So if you like Romance mixed with your SF, or even just a good old-fashioned SF adventure, I'd give this a try!

Independent freighter captain Trilby Elliot has parked her ancient ship on an uninhabited planet to make repairs with the help of her robot, Dezi (who reminded me a bit of C3PO). When a ship crashes into the forest nearby, Trilby plans on salvaging the ship... FINDERS KEEPERS. Along with salvaging useful parts, she 'salvages' the pilot who is inconvenient though intriguing.

The arrogant pilot, Rhis Vanur insists Trilby immediately return him to his squadron as it is a matter of intergalactic security. Inadvertantly, she finds out that Rhis is really "T'var the Terrible", Senior Captain in the Imperial Fleet. Although his staff and crew are loyal to him, Rhis is a Superman-type character who has special skills but not 'people skills'.

Trilby is a 'people person' and used to running her own life. She experienced life in the "school of hard knocks" which has made her tough, given her a strong sense of right and wrong but weak self-worth. Trilby unwittingly finds herself a pawn in a political intrigues which involving her former boyfriend, both Intergalactic Alliances and their enemy the `Sko.

I can highly recommend this book as it has something for all fiction readers. FINDERS KEEPERS is NOT a typical "futuristic romance". The plot can be compared to a space opera, with suspense, computer hacking, space battles and galaxy-wide threats. This is part of the new 'romantic science fiction' genre that has solid scientific fiction and action and adventure that drives the story. Star Wars and Star Trek fans will appreciate this book and other books in this growning genre. Romance fans will not be disappointed as the 'happily ever after' comes after much excitement. Action and adventure fans will appreciate the intrigue and skillfully written adventure.

Reviewed by Cy Korte for eBookIsle

When a friend suggested I read this book I wasn't too interested. Not much of a fan of what I now know is called space opera, like Star Trek and Battlestar Gallactica, I really didn't want to read it, but didn't want to hurt her feelings.

WOW. By the third page I was hooked. Sinclair writes great characters, plot, storyline, and her dialogue flows like fresh spring water - corny, but true. She built an incredible world in space and even squeezed in a true love story.

I can't wait to read Sinclair's next book.

In case I've failed to mention it in the past, I love romantic science fiction. For my own personal taste, there's always been a sorely lacking amount of good books in this genre. That's all changed, I'm happy to say! FINDERS KEEPERS by Linnea Sinclair takes romantic sci-fi to an all new level-a book that's equally balanced in the amount of science fiction, fantasy, high-tech gadgetry, plot, and romantic subplot that perfectly suits readers of both the male and female sex.

FINDERS KEEPERS was an absolutely brilliant choice of title. In the world of salvage, whether you're talking sunken pirate ships, undiscovered lost cities, or the wreckage from a Trahtark `Sko fighting vessel that has the bad fortune to crash into a planet, first come, first served. For lucky Captain Trilby Elliot, she gets the up-close-and-personal front row seat to the ships destruction, and hightails it on over to be the first to root through the wreckage. With her trusty DZ-9 Droid, Dezi, Trilby prepares to make off with the highly profitable, and somewhat dangerous, intergalactic garbage.

All would have been fine and dandy-and lucrative-if not for the fact that the ship's pilot, Imperial Senior Captain Rhis Vanur, a Zafharian military commander, who gives arrogance a bad name, is still alive, breathing, and kicking. Not to mention cursing. Trilby and Dezi have no idea what a Zafharian is doing in a Ycsko ship, and Rhis isn't in any hurry to enlighten them. Once he realizes that Trilby wasn't, in fact, taking him to the Conclave Security on the Quivera Station, he lightens up-but not by much. He still can't tell her who he really is. If he did, she'd immediately remember all the nicknames that had been attributed to him over the years. Even more so, she might fully understand why he was on that `Sko ship, and what he hoped to accomplish.

Emotions and tongues are both brittle as Trilby and Rhis butt heads over any and everything. Trilby's been doing just fine as an independent trader of the-mostly-legal kind. And as for Rhis, whose been engineered to show no emotion and focus only on his goal, this sharp-tongued she-devil is something he never bargained for. But now, they're both on the run from the `Sko, getting in deeper and deeper over their heads. Not only lives are at stake, but that of nations, as well.

A wonderful book by Ms. Sinclair, FINDERS KEEPERS is not to be missed. Science fiction at its best, filled with delightful characters and a hard-boiled plot, make this book one you'll be glad you found first.

I loved this book; I haven't been writing a lot of reviews lately because many books haven't grabbed me like this one did! Whether or not YOU also like it will depend on your expectations: SF, romance or a blend.... I confess I read hard SF long before I read romance many years ago and now enjoy both. My preference is for a book with strong main characters - a good romance is fine too - in a "world" that will take me away from the everyday - this can be a historical setting or as in this case a good futuristic SF one.

Others have summarized the plot in more detail, briefly the heroine Trilby Elliott is an independent space freighter captain operating on a shoestring, and as the story opens repairing her ship on a marginally habitable planet. Enter hero - Rhis - who crashes his spaceship when escaping from the bad guys. She rescues him, they join forces to get back to civilization to defeat the bad guys, and the plot takes off from there. I found that the issues both have with their personal lives enhanced my enjoyment of the action part of the plot. This book, to me, is a rare blend of plot driven AND character driven focus. It is also an excellent blend of SF and romance. As a bonus there are a lot of secondary characters with excellent details, the `droid Dezi, Doc Vanko, Kospahr, Hana, Farra, Yako, etc etc. None made me feel like they were cardboard cutouts from central casting.

However, if you are expecting this book to be "straight" SF you will probably be disappointed. A lot of the details of the political set up of the galaxy and the scientific details of space flight, communications, etc are not explained in any detail, they are just "there"; also if SF and an exciting action plot are your focus, you will likely be bothered by the romance going on. I think that explains the various mixed reviews this book has. If you are looking for a strong romance, although you probably can cope with much of the SF background, you might get put off by the various language issues as pronunciation (or lack thereof) of the pseudo languages does slow down smooth reading and the heavy action/gore at the end of the book.

However, if a blend of romance and SF is your cup of tea, I strongly recommend Finder's Keepers.

Finders Keepers is a most exciting read. Not a big sci fi fan myself I decided to venture into the unknown and take a leap here and having Finders Keepers a first book read by Ms. Sinclair, I must say I was not disappointed. Having read this book in e-book format it was worth the 5 hours sitting at my computer and reading it all in one sitting. I liked it so much I went back and ordered her other books Gabriels Ghost and Command Perforamce and read them also . Ms. Sinclair uses her wit and charm and her charactors Trilby and Rhis ( a hunk to die for ) and the evil Sko, along with side charactors who add to the book bring sci fi romance off the page and to your door step. Her use of little quips and language gives the reader that persoanl feel that makes you feel your actually there. Hey what can I say, Please call me "Chennka". Its a must read for all romance readers and you will not be sorry. Its a one seater, meaning you won't want to put this books down. I liked this book so much I got it in hard back to add to my fav collection. I for one look forward to her next book accidential goddess and you will find this an entertaining and a most delightful read. Enjoy!