Fergus Ferguson has been in hiding the last three years when he is found by one of his alien acquaintances to be used to free another alien he knows. The reason that he is the ransom instead of being turned in for all the bounties on his head is the pirate that wanted him knows about Fergus’ ability to find things that are almost impossible to be found. The impossible job is to find the Pirate’s sister that has gone missing for over a decade. The reward for this is something that Fergus can’t refuse. The plot hinges on Fergus’ run of luck and as usual it is damn entertaining. I don’t want to say what Fergus’ reward is because it is part of a previous book’s plot. A fun read and I really hope there will be more some day.

Action, adventure, friendship, betrayal, and plenty of political intrigue. A space opera according to my heart with the right level of action,, fun, and well plotted characters.
It could be a set anywhere but the space setting defines the story and add fun to the reading experiece.
Well done, excellent closure of an excellent series
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The end of the third book was quite the cliffhanger for Fergus. Meeting him on that beach was very unexpected. Tea Master, seriously? And Tai Chi? How very chill of our most-wanted and reluctant hero. Too bad someone finally finds him and disturbs his piece to drag him off back into space.

I am so happy that we did return to space with this fourth installment. Enceladus was fun as well, but Finder was still my favourite book about Fergus. I might have to re-read it to decide if I enjoyed Ghostdrift more (very likely). Really good. Pirates! Weird aliens! Spaceships! Enough said.

Characters with depth. Quite the trip for Fergus. Great world building, loved the setting on that planet, great imagery. Loved the found family. Loved all the aliens. Sweet ending. Can Palmer please hook up with Becky Chambers and co-write some books with her.

This was absolutely delightful and great fun. All the stars. May Fergus go on many more adventures. I so wish that this won’t be the last book of the series.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

Ghostdrift by Suzanne Palmer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

These adventure SF novels are really kinda everything I need right now. Is that saying a lot? Maybe it's not saying enough.

Fergus just keeps landing in it.

He's got some amazing skills and intelligence, but that doesn't help him when he's always finding a good reason or eight to skip out on all his friends because of SOME KIND of BONEHEAD universe-saving curiosity shtick that proves, yet again, that no deed ever goes unpunished.

Governments hate losing their shiny deadly shit, after all. Fergus is just tends to really sink neck deep in these kinds of new situations -- like being kidnapped by pirates and forced to serve on their crew.

And it doesn't end there. One of the strongest parts of all these Finder novels is the wildly different situations Fergus keeps finding himself in -- and often, it's part of a much bigger alien (or human!) crapstorm than we generally assume it'll be.

Top notch popcorn SF, as usual. Fergus really can find anything -- it's just a shame he can't keep out of all those damn traps he finds for himself.

I feel as though I ought to offer a few disclaimers to start out with: First, I found Suzanne Palmer through her series of incredibly charming bot short stories.
Second:There is a certain character type that is just an absolute pet peeve of mine: the character who is melodramatically haunted by their past, pathologically assumes responsibility for the welfare of those around them--to such an extent that they go sailing past others' boundaries and actually curtail the agency of other adults who should be able to choose to take their own risks--is the only one who can/should endanger themselves while wrapping others in bubble wrap, and generally being a presumptuous ass with a side of masturbatory guilt. (Read: "guilt indulged in compulsively to scratch some psychological itch," not anything to do with literal sexuality.)

If I've learned anything over the last handful of reading years, it is that what people mean by "cozy" varies wildly from person to person. I am being utterly affectionate when I say these books are my personal definition of cozy sci-fi.

I read books 1 and 2 of this series and they were both solid, 3-star reads for me. Fun, lighthearted reads with a few chuckles, where the dialogue is banter-y and glib enough that even purportedly serious situations never feel all *that* immersive or high-stakes. Which is perfectly fine, of course, but it's extra impressive because Fergus Ferguson is EXACTLY that character I try to avoid.* I should say that I liked book 2, Driving the Deep, considerably better than the first book in the series. I skipped book #3 based on some GR friends' reviews telling me all I needed to know about that book leaning into Fergus' "burdened by guilt and plumbing the past" thing and I have no regrets. (Thanks, carol.!)

I'm thrilled to say that Ghostdrift was a delight! If, like me, you come to this, the 4th installment in the series, not having faithfully read every preceding book, you'll be fine. I definitely got a benefit from knowing some of Fergus backstory and knowing how he got some of his physical quirks and his history with the (very) alien race known as the Asiig, but there is enough included in the text to keep a new reader from being lost. Fergus still has his "rogue with a heart of gold [and pile of guilt stuff]" going on, and it's still the kind of book where you just know things are going to turn out mostly okay for all the good guys, but the plot felt richer and moved along faster, and Fergus has done quite a bit of growing up since the first book (and he didn't require a romantic relationship or female muse-figure in any form to achieve that--hallelujah!).
Though now that I'm thinking about it, I'm actually not 100% sure how much my changed feelings about Fergus (compared with the first book) are attributable to his growing up vs. wearing me down to being charmed by him like everyone else is.

Even the pirates are pretty rogueishly adorable and charming (see: cozy) and despite this being the official end of this series, I found it gratifying that the end leaves things open for further adventures, if Palmer ever decides to return.

I hope she does; her craft has developed with each book, and I'm positively partial to Fergus by now.

I was given a digital ARC by DAW and Netgalley. My opinions are my own.


*In Palmer's defense, Fergus comes by his issues re: attachment and reckless disregard of his own safety very honestly, but they didn't make him less incredibly annoying for this particular reader.

I couldn’t resist. Even though I knew going in this was one of those situations where you don’t know whether to cry because it’s over or smile because it happened, I had to find out just what happened to Fergus Ferguson that led to Ghostdrift being the final book in the utterly awesome Finder Chronicles.

Over the course of the series (Finder, Driving the Deep, The Scavenger Door and now Ghostdrift), Fergus has proven to be the consummate survivor. Not because he’s particularly good at any one thing except finding the stuff he’s been contracted to find, but because no plan seems to survive contact with Fergus – not even his own. No matter how big and how scary the villains are, no matter how many layers within layers of plans they have to get away with whatever it is they think they’re getting away with, the minute Fergus happens to them Murphy’s Law arrives in his wake and the shit keeps hitting the fan – both theirs and his – until he emerges from the wreck of everything they expected.

It’s a gift. It’s also a curse. A judgment that does not depend on whether you are on the side of Fergus or his enemies. As I said, Fergus’s own plans don’t survive contact with him either.

But it does explain why his friend (or sometimes frenemy) Qai doesn’t feel all that terrible about kidnapping Fergus and delivering him – alive and unharmed, along with his cat Mister Feefs – into the custody of notorious space pirate Bas Belos in exchange for the safe return of Qai’s partner Maha – yet another of Fergus’s friends.

Qai knows Fergus can handle himself and knows that Belos’ plan isn’t likely to survive Fergus either. She’s basically delivering her revenge on Belos for kidnapping her partner in a Fergus Ferguson shaped form and isn’t sorry about it in the least.

She’s sure she’s brought Belos more trouble than even an interstellar space pirate can handle. And she’s right. It’s the way in which she’s right and the places that right takes the pirate, his ship, his crew, Fergus AND Mister Feefs, that makes the whole entire story.

Fergus’s story. Belos’s story. And quite possibly the whole damn universe’s story – again – if Fergus doesn’t manage to pull off one more doggedly determined find.

Escape Rating A+: June is Audiobook Month, and this final book in the Finder Chronicles was the perfect audiobook to listen to this month, particularly as I listened to the first book in the series, Finder, in June of 2019.

Even though I didn’t want this story to end – I desperately needed to know how it ended, so I started alternating between audio and text just past halfway – as much as I hated to miss out on the totality of narrator Paul Woodson’s perfect read of Fergus Ferguson’s universe-weary, ‘been there, done that, got all the t-shirts’ voice.

(Fergus really does have all the t-shirts – and he wears them throughout the series. The man has definitely been around.)

The series as a whole rides or dies on that voice, to the point that if you like Fergus you’ll love the series but if he drives you as insane as he does the people he runs up AGAINST you probably won’t. Also, if you like a universe-weary, first-person or first-person focused protagonist, you’ll probably also love Michael Mammay’s Carl Butler in his Planetside series. (I digress, just a bit.)

What about this particular entry in the series? It combines some really classic tropes into one single terrific story.

First there’s the whole ‘White Whale’ angle. Actually, it’s two of those angles. On the one hand, pirate captain Bas Belos just wants to find out what happened to his twin sister and her crew. It’s been ten years since she disappeared, he knows that the ‘Alliance’s’ claim that they killed her and hers was a lie. He’s kidnapped/hired Fergus to lead him towards closure – no matter what it takes.

And then there’s the real Captain Ahab of this story, an Alliance captain for whom Bas Belos is his white whale, and he’ll trail the pirate literally past the end of the galaxy to catch him – even if he’s leading his crew straight to their demise. And wasn’t that Ahab all over?

But then there’s the third corner of this delicious story, the one where Belos and his crew, the Alliance captain and his, all end up stranded in the gap between galaxies, on a little tiny planet that threatens to be their own ‘Gilligan’s Island’ – because it already has.

Together, those three plots, Belos’ need for closure, Captain Ahab – actually Captain Todd – following Belos where no one REALLY should have gone before, or again, and all the crews stuck on their very own tiny Gilligan’s Island planetoid, doing their best – or worst – to get along well enough to get back home.

With Fergus in the middle, knowing his personal goose is cooked either way. Unless he can find a really, truly, seriously out-of-the-box solution for his own dilemma as well as theirs.

I loved this last adventure in the Finder Chronicles. On top of this beautiful layer cake of a story, there was also a bit of marvelous icing in Fergus’ relationship with Mister Feefs that will add extra feels for anyone who has ever loved a companion animal and grounded their very existence on that love. (Don’t worry about Mister Feefs, he comes out of this adventure just fine – it’s Fergus we have to worry about. As usual.)

The only sour note in this whole thing is in the author’s note at the end, where she declares that this really is Fergus’ last recorded adventure. And it could be, she left him in a good place – WITH MISTER FEEFS – and they’ll be just fine. But she also left them in a place where it’s clear that Fergus will manage to make his way back to his own galaxy, one way or another, given enough time and supplies. And he has the supplies. So he could come back. We could come back at some point in the future to see whose plans Fergus is destroying at that point in his life. I don’t expect we will, but I can still hope.

A massively fun, thrilling wrap up to an excellent space opera series. Fergus Ferguson takes us on one last adventure via kidnapping, joining a pirate crew, and helping a notorious pirate captain find his long lost sister. Fergus's adventures with the Asiig are finally brought to the forefront of the series. A fast-paced, but warmhearted conclusion to Fergus's story.

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart


Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

4.5 hearts

I have loved the Finder Chronicles series because I really enjoy Fergus. I love this science fiction, space opera with Fergus being sort of a detective / Equalizer / McGyver kind of guy with a real layer of humor. In Finder, Fergus "retrieves" a lost space ship and returns it to the rightful owner in the middle of a civil war. In Driving the Deep, he has to locate his scientist friends who have been abducted and he deals with some family issues. In The Scavenger Door, Fergus gets a chance to spend some time with his family and save the world.

Fergus has been hiding out since the Alliance and a lot of others are mad at him (want to kill him). But one of his friends comes to ask for help because her partner has been kidnapped. She gets him involved with a notorious pirate who is looking for his lost sister. The Alliance is after this pirate and their own ships which disappeared when the pirate's sister did.

To fit in with the crew, Fergus becomes Vetch. The Captain knows his real story, of course. They go looking where his sister was last seen with her ship and end up being chased by the Alliance ships through the same bizarre to escape. So they end up crashed on an alien planet after being nearly destroyed by other alien ships.

I don't want to spoil the story but know that Fergus is his usual handy and save the world self. He has to deal with Alliance crews, pirates, and multiple types of aliens. Luckily, he is experienced with this. It's a satisfying conclusion to the series but really I want more Fergus.

"I still think you're an asshole." Yolo offered helpfully.

"Thanks," Fergus said. "I do my best."

Suzanne Palmer has a final adventure for Fergus Ferguson, who’s been hiding from Earth Authority since he stole something very important. He is kidnapped and brought to a pirate, Bas Belos, who is searching for his missing sister. The trail leads to a Ghostdrift (hard from DAW) jump point that leads to a solar system in the middle of emptiness that is a graveyard for lost ships. To survive Fergus has to somehow bring two warring species together that never even tried to talk to one another. It's a fun ending to a series that started with the excellent Finder (paper) that I remember fondly.

I have read all the other books in this series and was delighted to read this!
It has a little bit of everything; betrayal, pirates, aliens, adventure!

I just reviewed Ghostdrift by Suzanne Palmer. #Ghostdrift #NetGalley

Ahoy there matyes! I love Fergus Ferguson and his penchant for trouble.  This is the fourth and last book of the series.  I really enjoyed it.  Fergus is a wanted man throughout the galaxy.  He has spent a few years hiding and relaxing on the beach on the planet Corolla with his cat Mr. Feefs.  But he knows it is only a matter of time before someone finds him.

And he is found . . . but not by anyone he expects.  Fergus makes the choice (because spoilers!) to help an dangerous space pirate solve a mystery.  Of course, everything goes crazy because Fergus Ferguson is involved.  One of the best things about this novel is that Fergus is no longer fighting himself or his abilities.  He is scared to die but also determined to do what he believes is right under less than ideal circumstances.

I loved how Fergus grows to like and influence the space pirates.  I loved the planet Solo and all of the adventures there.  I love the Agents.  And I wanted even more time with Mr. Feefs.  

The science of this book and how the conflicts resolve don't always make complete sense but I absolutely loved how Fergus' part in things worked out and where he is headed next.  I know this is the last book in the series but if the further adventures of Fergus Ferguson are ever written, I would be happy to read them.  Arrr!

The first book in this series had set on my shelf for too long and receiving the opportunity to review the last installment in the Finder series gave me the excuse to get started. I should have done this previously. I went straight through the first 3 books in this series and loved them. The fourth and last in the series, Ghostdrift, was excellent.
These remind me quite a bit of Jack McDevitt's series which is a great thing. The characters are smart, self aware, and motivated to do good even when in bad situations.
I don't want to give too much away of the book but if you like first contact stories, detective stories set in space, or far flung adventures these books are for you. Plus, there is a cat...in space. How could that ever be wrong?
I am going to miss Fergus Ferguson, Vetch, and all the other names he goes by. I do hope that Suzanne Palmer decides to return to this universe at some point because we can all use more stories like this in our lives.

Stars: 5 out of 5.

When we last saw Fergus, he had been saved from imminent and very painful death by the Asig, while he in turn saved the known galaxy. But all is not sunshine and roses in this book. Yes, Fergus is alive and even whole, but he is the most wanted man in the humanity settled cosmos, with a hefty price on his head and a lot of powerful enemies. So he has been in hiding. Which means that he has been alone with is cat and no contact with his family and friends. But when one such friend finally comes calling and asks for his help to free another friend from pirates, of course he will say yes.

Suzanne Palmer has a gift for creating likeable characters. I mean, we are dealing with a ship full of pirates here, yet I grew rather fond of all of them in the end. I think this is also due to the fact that Fergus always tries to see good in people, or at least to find ways to coexist with those he has no choice but to interact with due to various circumstances.

It also helps that all of the characters are painted in different shades of gray and all have their own needs, wants and motivations. The villains aren't even just for the sake of being evil, they have their own reasons behind their actions. The good guys aren't always exactly good either. Everyone is human and bound to make an absolute mess out of things.

I also liked the main mystery of this book - a missing ship, possible rogue active jump points. A solitary planet in the middle of the Gap between two sections of the galaxy. Oh, and new kinds of aliens, who turn out not so evil in the end after all. Oh, and Fergus being his usual "interesting" self. We get more Asig as well, and get introduced to some of the other humans they changed.

I had a lot of fun with this story, and I am looking forward to following Fergus on his future adventures.

PS: I received an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Picaresque with Hooloovoos

This review will be unfair to Suzanne Palmer's Ghostdrift, and that is my fault. I wasn't paying attention when I requested it and thus failed to notice that it is the fourth and last book of the Finder Chronicles, none of which I had previously read.

How big an issue is it to jump into a series in the middle, or even at the end? Usually people asked that question respond by discussing the plot. But of all the jump-in issues, the plot is the least important. More important are characters and, for speculative fiction, world-building. By the time you have finished three novels about Fergus Ferguson, the central character of the Finder Chronicles, you probably know him fairly well, and with any luck you like him and are happy to spend more time in his company. Furthermore, you know a great deal about the science-fictional galaxy he inhabits. Those were advantages I lacked.

I didn't feel that I lost a great deal by not having known Fergus. Fergus is pretty much a standard-issue picaro, so I know his type. On the other hand, though, not knowing the world was a problem. It isn't that it was difficult to follow -- instead, it was difficult to care. I haven't learned to care about the things that matter to Fergus and the people of Fergus's universe. This is one of those stories in which the universe is inhabited by hyperintelligent shades of the color blue (not literally -- those would be the Hooloovoos of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) some of whom patronize and essentially make pets of humans. Fergus has received the attention of at least one such species in previous books, and they show up here, too. They are not quite as annoying as Star Trek's Q, but they are still fairly obnoxious. The final third of the book is just deos ex machinis everywhere, the gods in question being not literal gods, but Hooloovoos. (OK, not literally them, either...)

So, bottom line: am I planning to get the previous three books and read them? No, I am not.

Thanks to NetGalley and DAW for an advance reader copy of Ghostdrift. Release date 28-May-2024.

Savor this book, as it’s the fourth and, unfortunately, final in the Finder series.

Fergus has found, for the most part, some peace and contentment after all his close shaves and adventures. He and his cat Mister Feefs are as off-the-grid as he can manage, although he knows that eventually, his past will catch up with him.

When an old colleague comes calling, asking for his help, Fergus knows his peaceful existence is over, but doesn’t know the depth of danger he’ll once again encounter. He’s used to pay ransom to a space pirate who is looking for trouble and likely to find it in a section of space where ships go in but don’t come out.

There are new species, old enemies, and new allies. Fergus, who possibly has more lives than Mister Feefs, has to use all his uncanny abilities to navigate the machinations of the various characters and prevent yet another interstellar war.

There’s a misfit pirate crew following a leader with a lost cause, who is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants, even at the cost of the galaxy. There are aliens who are willing to do the same, and think nothing of genocide.

There’s also humor and humanity and healing. It’s a great ending to the series, if there indeed has to be one.

Why you should read this book: The worldbuilding is great and the different species are well-developed. There are no cardboard characters here. But most of all, you should read it for Fergus. He’s just a guy, doing his best, who keeps getting pulled into things that should be way beyond his ken. He’s been given some abilities he doesn’t want, but he feels obligated to do what he can to help.

Why you might not want to read this book: I can’t think of a reason, unless you just want to delay reading it until you reread the first three.

4.75 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

I received an advance copy from DAW via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I love it. I just love this book and this entire universe. What is not to love for a science fiction fan? I mean, there are various weird and wonderful aliens, there are mysterious artefacts and strange planets, there are space pirates, and, most of all, there is Fergus Ferguson who finds trouble like no one else and also gets out of trouble like no one else. A highly entertaining science fiction adventure with real heart and soul and a quiet sense of humour.

Suzanne Palmer does it again, writing compelling interesting humorous Science Fiction. When we meet Fergus Ferguson this time he is living in self imposed exile on the oceanic planet Corolla living the life of a monastic hermit with his cat Mr Feefs. When an old friend shows up asking for help Fergus has no choice but to say yes. Unfortunately he has no idea what he has said yes for and he finds himself once again kidnapped and thrown into the deep end of trouble. But when trouble calls Fergus is always ready to answer back with his own special brand of trouble. Buckle up and get a cup of tea (its bitter like life itself) and enjoy the ride.

The final in this series it doesn’t live up to the promise of the past books and is not written well to end the series. The characters are cardboard characters with no memorable traits and the plot is beyond predictable. I am extremely disappointed after the first two books were so well done and had memorable plots and characters.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have enjoyed the Finder series since the very first book and was excited to see Fergus return. The latest (and sadly final apparently) chapter is no disappointment and we get to follow Fergus and he tries to solve a conflict across 2 different alien races while being held for ransom to find a missing sister of one of his arch rivals.

The story moves along quickly and the world building for the planet that the ship crashes on is fantastic. Im sad to hear that the series is ending but highly recommend all four books for some great scifi adventure.

The Finder Chronicles has been one of those series I eagerly anticipate the next installment. Each story is set in a completely different setting than the previous novel, giving the world depth, but Fergus always remains a fun, interesting main character - and he has growth throughout each adventure.

Ghostdrift is billed on the back cover as the fourth and final novel in the Finder Chronicles. That makes me sad. No more of these adventures?! This does make a satisfying resolution to Fergus' story though, as he comes to accept who he is and what's been done to him. The ending of Ghostdrift leaves the world and possibilities open to new stories though. So I will hope for more when the author decides to return to Fergus.

Read the entire series! Then read it again! I can only imagine reading these books back to back would make an even better adventure!