Description

Cassilde Sam is a barely solvent salvage operator, hunting for relics in the ruins left by the mysterious Ancestors—particularly the color-coded Elements that power most of humanity’s current technology, including the ability to navigate through hyperspace. Cassilde is also steadily fading under the onslaught of Lightman’s, an incurable, inevitably fatal disease. She needs one last find big enough to leave a legacy for her partner and fellow salvor Dai Winter.

When their lover and former colleague Summerlad Ashe reappears, offering them a chance to salvage part of an orbiting palace that he claims contains potentially immense riches, Cassilde is desperate enough to take the gamble, even though Ashe had left them both to fight on the opposite side of the interplanetary war that only ended seven years ago. The find is everything Ashe promised. But when pirates attack the claim, Cassilde receives the rarest of the Ancestors’ Gifts: a change to her biochemistry that confers near-instant healing and seems to promise immortality.

But the change also drags her into an underworld where Gifts are traded in blood, and powerful Gifts bring equally powerful enemies. Hunted for her Gift and determined to find Gifts for her lovers, Cassilde discovers that an old enemy is searching for the greatest of the Ancestral artifacts: the power that the Ancestors created and were able to barely contain after it almost destroyed them, plunging humanity into the first Long Dark. Haunted by dream-visions of this power whispering its own version of what happened, Cassilde must find it first, before her enemy frees it to destroy her own civilization.

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Praise for Finders:

Space travel and faster-than-light drives blend with world mythology…//…a fun story with convincing worldbuilding and a delightful triad romance at its heart. — Publishers Weekly

…a fast-paced, futuristic space adventurewith room for sequels.//… a solid romp through a well-built universe… — Karin Thogersen, Library Journal

Melissa Scott has been absent from science fiction far too long. // This is Melissa Scott at her best, with a story of marginal people confronting questions of power dynamics in society—and it’s also a cracking good story. — Don Sakers, Analog SF Magazine

The core of the story is the relationship at its heart, the emotional triad between Cass, Dai, and Ashe, but the epic civilisation-threatening plot is very compelling, too. I really loved Finders. I think anyone who enjoys space opera may find something here to love, too. — Liz Bourke, Tor.com

Space Opera with a fine, wide sweep of time behind it, intriguing “Clarkean” magical science, and an engaging, edgy threesome of central characters. Fun to read, and best of all, the promise of more to come. — Gwyneth Jones, author of the Aleutian trilogy, winner of the World Fantasy, Clarke, Dick, and Tiptree awards

An action-packed space adventure with so much heart. // This thought-provoking, crunchy science fiction novel comes with deep conversations, technological wonders… — Tansy Rayner Roberts, author of the Creature Court trilogy, winner of multiple Ditmar and WSFA Small Press awards

Scott’s science fiction has always been remarkable for its world-building and Finders is no exception. Once you read this thrilling new science fiction saga with its unforgettable characters, you’ll be wanting more. — Catherine Lundoff, SFF award-winning author and publisher, Queen of Swords press

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Finders
by Melissa Scott
Published by Candlemark & Gleam, December 2018
372 pages
ISBN: 978-1-936460-88-5
eISBN: 978-1-936460-87-8
Cover artist: Eleni Tsami
Series: Firstborn, Lastborn #1