The Finder by Brandon Fox
My rating:
It’s been a while since I read any science fiction. There doesn’t seem to be much out there that really appeals to me. It’s also been a long time since I read anything by Brandon Fox, but I have fond memories of his old sex and magic trilogy, which were fun reads in many respects.
The Finder marks Fox’s return to the publishing world, and it’s quite a return, with all the elements you expect from this author. Although the truth unfolds slowly, The Finder is set in a future post-apocalyptic world where mankind has been reduced to a pre-industrialized society as the result of a terrible war fought against ‘daemons’. The ‘Finder’ of the title is Rhan, a young man from a small village who has a knack for finding valuable relics in the ruins of the old world. Sometimes the relics are gems or precious metals, but sometimes they are bits of old technology, which is feared as the work of the daemons.
As the book opens, Rhan and the people of his village have been summoned by the Tyumen, a powerful city-state that has restored some semblance of order to the world. There’s rumor of a heretic in the land, who possibly has a powerful relic at his disposal. The Tyumen need finders to help root out the heretic and his relic. Rhan is effectively drafted and assigned to work with two soldiers, the handsome Aeric and his disagreeable partner Maiko. Rhan’s friend Catina is also drafted, and the four set out on an epic adventure of danger and intrigue.
The Finder is a really fun read, and as you’d expect from Fox, it’s full of hot sex as well. For what it is, this book is really good and I have no complaints about it. While the story is complete in itself, it would still be interesting to know what happens to the characters afterwards, particularly with the sort of threesome that gets set up towards the end. Perhaps, as with his previous work, Fox will give us a trilogy based on the story of The Finder.
Excellent review. Thank you! Brandon Fox is indeed working on a sequel to The Finder as the forces in motion continue to come into opposition. No gay romance novelist dealing in world-building science fiction writes quite as well Mr. Fox. I agree agree with your praise for The Finder however I would give this enormously engaging saga of adventure and love a 5 star rating. The story is amazing (and so is the sex!)
You wrote that, “I have fond memories of his old sex and magic trilogy…” Brandon Fox has been hard at work revising all three books which have begun to be released (also as ebooks) starting with Apprenticed to Pleasure to be followed by Conjuring The Flesh and finally Sex Rites which reveals that what in the first two books appears to fantasy is actually SciFi.
Well, I assume Lucas is either Brandon’s agent, publisher or boyfriend. I have a tendency to trash this kind of fawning feedback, but I thought I would allow it just this once. It is a very good book, but I don’t give five stars out lightly. The characters needed to be much more engaging to get five stars.