Driving the Deep by Suzanne Palmer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Driving the Deep is the second novel in the Finder Chronicles by Suzanne Palmer. The first book in the series, Finder, was one of my most memorable Sci-Fi reads of 2019.
I adored Palmer’s writing style, her world-creation, the nail-biting action and the main character, Fergus Ferguson, a space repo man, was completely lovable and funny. I absolutely adored him.
In this book, we get to reunite with Fergus for another thrilling space caper.
Since the conclusion of Finder, Fergus has been recovering from those events whilst staying with his friends, the Shipmakers of Pluto, who are all well-known experts in the development of AI-spacecraft.
The downtime has given Fergus a lot of time to think about the life he left behind and with the encouragement of his friends, he decides it may finally be time to face his past. Fergus hasn’t been back to Earth since stealing his cousin’s motorcycle at the age of 15, and running away.
That theft, his first, has weighed on his conscious ever since. He finally feels ready and able to try to make amends, with the support of his friends, of course.
However, upon returning to the shipyard that houses the storage unit he left the motorcycle in all those years ago, he finds the motorcycle gone and priceless, stolen artwork in its place. What the heck?!
Before he can figure out just what happened in that storage unit, the shipyard is attacked and his friends go missing. He assumes, logically so, that they’ve been kidnapped for their scientific knowledge and expertise.
Fergus must now try to figure out the mystery of the missing bike, the stolen artwork and his missing friends. Proof that there truly is no rest for the weary.
Ahhhh, this was such a delight to read and exactly what I was in the mood for. I can’t believe it took me over 3-years to finally read this sequel.
I love Palmer’s writing and Fergus Ferguson is such a fun main character. He’s easy to root for and once you go on an adventure with him, you’ll never want to leave his side.
I need to keep the ball rolling now and pick up the 3rd-book soon. For me, this one was just as enjoyable, maybe even more so, than the 1st-book. I think the attachment I built up for Fergus over the course of the 1st-story, helped to propel this one even higher up the enjoyment ladder for me.
I also just really enjoyed the circumstances in this. Watching the relationships Fergus had built with his friends, even though it was hard for him to get close to people initially, and watching him let his walls down by returning to Earth; both of those things were just so satisfying.
I would recommend this to fans of the Murderbot Diaries. I think as far as action levels and enjoyable characters, they’re quite comparable.
Overall, this series is fast-paced and exciting, with characters you can get behind and will want to stay with for years to come. I can’t wait to read the next book.
My only disappointment with Driving the Deep is that it took me so long to get to it.
Even though I am years late to the party, thank you so much to the publisher, DAW, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This is a fantastic series!