Review by Karl Verhoven

Finder is that gold nugget concept any ambitious writer embraces wholeheartedly: a vehicle able to encompass any type of story. Yet Carla Speed McNeil works very hard to ensure this isn’t a glib possibility, but an incredibly densely conceived reality. It’s consistently thought-provoking and conceptual, many ideas just presented in passing, often visually without attention drawn to them during the stories, but McNeil’s fulsome back of book explanations and references ensure no-one misses anything.

The series is ostensibly about Jaeger Ayres, the Finder of the title, living in a future world where much is possible and much is strange, yet also displaying the familiar. In an observant series, one consistency is McNeil’s unspoken assertion that human behaviour doesn’t greatly change, and that applies equally to the humanoid lions integrating with humanity. Jaeger’s status isn’t ever definitively defined, but has to be worked out by the reactions of others to him. The finding talent is allied to a form of belief about isolationism, which is why Jaeger only ever briefly stays anywhere, and he’s also a sin eater, who takes on the sins of the recently deceased. At one point he sums himself up by saying “My life has been one missing top step after another”, and it’s a poetic encapsulation. Finder is strong on original ideas concerning functions within society, with considerable thought applied to this and world building beyond.

McNeil’s art becomes stronger as the collection continues. It begins with imaginative layouts allied with a rough and ready technique, and here at least the misproportioned people never entirely evaporate, but as decorative as it can be, the art seems secondary to the ideas, the story and the personalities. The latter are complex and well defined, with McNeil well ahead of the game in the 1990s with her thoughts on the gender spectrum.

What comes to be an absolute joy of the series is never knowing what to expect, even when McNeil seems to be signposting directions. There’s always time for a diversion, and always time for an interesting idea or concept whether or not it’s going to be of later relevance. A broad description of the story occupying half this volume is that it’s an SF action thriller with strong characters and motives. However, that’s just the peg on which so much is hung. It follows the genre strengths, particularly with a good piece of misdirection around halfway, but is never swamped by the necessity of them. The second story eventually concerns a form of peace treaty, but not before there’s been a thorough exploration of an amusement park, and that’s followed by the far more contemplative spotlight on a young girl’s passion for reading.

This isn’t an exact reprinting of the continuity begun in Sin Eater Volume One, and continued in paperbacks Sin Eater Volume Two, King of the Cats and Talisman. McNeil has decided a chapter revealing more about Jaeger’s background fits better in the ‘Sin Eater’ story, and it features new pages as well.

Dense, brilliantly imaginative and with so much hard work behind the scenes, Finder is a series that first reveals its delights puzzlingly and slowly, and it’s likely the compelling idea where everything slips into place will be different for every reader. This is one hell of an impressive first strike, and a further selection of wonder awaits in The Finder Library Volume 2.