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Borderland #6
Finder
American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults
VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
Welcome to Bordertown. A hybrid community of misfits, oddballs and runaways. Where humans, elves and halflings coexist. Where magic and the brutal realities of survival clash and mix. For Orient and Tick-Tick, it's just home.
Death and dark magic hang over the city. A seductive new drug lures young runaways to their destruction. A mysterious plague spreads through the streets. And beneath the clock tower on High Street, Bonnie Prince Charlie lies slain by an unseen hand. A cop named Sunny Rico exploits Orient's talent for finding objects to track the killer and leads both herself and him into the darker secrets of Elfland’s immigrant citizens.
VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
Welcome to Bordertown. A hybrid community of misfits, oddballs and runaways. Where humans, elves and halflings coexist. Where magic and the brutal realities of survival clash and mix. For Orient and Tick-Tick, it's just home.
Death and dark magic hang over the city. A seductive new drug lures young runaways to their destruction. A mysterious plague spreads through the streets. And beneath the clock tower on High Street, Bonnie Prince Charlie lies slain by an unseen hand. A cop named Sunny Rico exploits Orient's talent for finding objects to track the killer and leads both herself and him into the darker secrets of Elfland’s immigrant citizens.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
Emma Bull
84 books689 followersEmma Bull is a science fiction and fantasy author whose best-known novel is War for the Oaks, one of the pioneering works of urban fantasy. She has participated in Terri Windling's Borderland shared universe, which is the setting of her 1994 novel Finder. She sang in the rock-funk band Cats Laughing, and both sang and played guitar in the folk duo The Flash Girls while living in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Her 1991 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel Bone Dance was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. Bull wrote a screenplay for War for the Oaks, which was made into an 11-minute mini-film designed to look like a film trailer. She made a cameo appearance as the Queen of the Seelie Court, and her husband, Will Shetterly, directed. Bull and Shetterly created the shared universe of Liavek, for which they have both written stories. There are five Liavek collections extant.
She was a member of the writing group The Scribblies, which included Will Shetterly as well as Pamela Dean, Kara Dalkey, Nate Bucklin, Patricia Wrede and Steven Brust. With Steven Brust, Bull wrote Freedom and Necessity (1997), an epistolary novel with subtle fantasy elements set during the 19th century United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Chartist movement.
Bull graduated from Beloit College in 1976. Bull and Shetterly live in Arizona.
Her 1991 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel Bone Dance was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. Bull wrote a screenplay for War for the Oaks, which was made into an 11-minute mini-film designed to look like a film trailer. She made a cameo appearance as the Queen of the Seelie Court, and her husband, Will Shetterly, directed. Bull and Shetterly created the shared universe of Liavek, for which they have both written stories. There are five Liavek collections extant.
She was a member of the writing group The Scribblies, which included Will Shetterly as well as Pamela Dean, Kara Dalkey, Nate Bucklin, Patricia Wrede and Steven Brust. With Steven Brust, Bull wrote Freedom and Necessity (1997), an epistolary novel with subtle fantasy elements set during the 19th century United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Chartist movement.
Bull graduated from Beloit College in 1976. Bull and Shetterly live in Arizona.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
January 9, 2016
Posted at Shelf Inflicted
Bordertown is a city between the Human and Fae worlds. While elven magic does not work in the human world and technology does not work in the Elflands, both work in Bordertown inconsistently and with interesting effects. Humans, elves, and halflings, troubled folks who are running away from their pasts, or have trouble fitting in anywhere else, inhabit the city of Bordertown.
Orient is a human with the special ability to find missing things and people. His best friend is Tick-Tick, a highborn elf estranged from her family, and ace mechanic. Detective Sunny Rico enlists Orient’s help to find a killer, which leads them to a dangerous drug purported to change humans into elves. Meanwhile, a mysterious illness is endangering the elven population.
I read this book for the first time in 1995. Though I have forgotten a lot of details over the years, I remember how it broke my heart. Little did I know that just six months later, I would suffer the same fate as Orient.
Reading this book a second time brought back a lot of painful and wonderful memories of my close friend and made me all weepy. This story is riveting, fast-paced, magical, and heartbreaking.
Not only is this a satisfying mystery and Borderlands a rich and vibrant city, it is a thoughtful and moving exploration of friendship, family, loss, grief, coming to terms with one’s past, and going forward. It broke me and stitched me back together.
Warmly recommended to anyone who enjoys deeply character-driven, devastating, and hopeful urban fantasy.
Bordertown is a city between the Human and Fae worlds. While elven magic does not work in the human world and technology does not work in the Elflands, both work in Bordertown inconsistently and with interesting effects. Humans, elves, and halflings, troubled folks who are running away from their pasts, or have trouble fitting in anywhere else, inhabit the city of Bordertown.
Orient is a human with the special ability to find missing things and people. His best friend is Tick-Tick, a highborn elf estranged from her family, and ace mechanic. Detective Sunny Rico enlists Orient’s help to find a killer, which leads them to a dangerous drug purported to change humans into elves. Meanwhile, a mysterious illness is endangering the elven population.
I read this book for the first time in 1995. Though I have forgotten a lot of details over the years, I remember how it broke my heart. Little did I know that just six months later, I would suffer the same fate as Orient.
Reading this book a second time brought back a lot of painful and wonderful memories of my close friend and made me all weepy. This story is riveting, fast-paced, magical, and heartbreaking.
Not only is this a satisfying mystery and Borderlands a rich and vibrant city, it is a thoughtful and moving exploration of friendship, family, loss, grief, coming to terms with one’s past, and going forward. It broke me and stitched me back together.
Warmly recommended to anyone who enjoys deeply character-driven, devastating, and hopeful urban fantasy.
April 26, 2013
I was 14 when I read Emma Bull's Finder for the first time. I'd already read and re-read her War for the Oaks, and was deeply invested in the Borderlands because of Terri Windling's shared world anthologies (and Bull's husband's [Will Shetterly] novels set there).
I remember walking into the library in Sandpoint, Idaho (the closest town with a grocery store, an hour away from our NW Montana home) one February Friday and seeing Finder on the New Releases shelf. I grabbed it, checked out the books I had reserved, then went to sit outside on the slush covered steps to read until my mom came to pick me up.
It was dark by then, and I tried to get her to let me turn the dome light on on the way home so that I could finish. She refused. I was forced to wait until AFTER we got home and AFTER the groceries were put away before I could curl up in my Reading Chair with the book and a blanket.
I finished it that night. Of course.
Over the next two years that I lived there and frequented that library, I checked this book out at least 20 times. I may have been the only person to do so, it was always sitting there on the shelf (waiting for me) when I wanted to take it home.
I re-read it this week and was not at all surprised to find that grown sj loved it just as much as young sj did.
On the surface, you have a story about a drug/virus that's killing the human kids that are hoping it'll allow them to cross over into Faery and the fairly straight forward let's-find-the-bad-guys-that're-peddling-this-shit tale that goes along with it. That's not all you get though.
I was able to pinpoint this time just what it is I love about Bull's writing.
It's not the mystery, although that's pretty great and well done. It's not JUST the setting, even though I love the Borderlands (and Bordertown especially) with a goodly portion of my heart.
It's the relationships.
Now, before you get all "But sj! You've told us TENS OF TIMES how you HATE reading about relationships!" on me, let me clarify.
I'm not talking about icky fake romance that no one believes is real, or ooey gooey teen "love," what I'm talking about are the relationships that her characters have with each other.
The friendships are real. As you're reading, you buy into the fact that the people you're reading about have known each other for years. They don't just read like characters created for the book you're reading, but like friendships that have been in existence for many and many-a (say delah).
Those friends you have that you still remember staying up til three am with, laughing and rewinding mixtapes to play that one song a fiftieth time, reading passages from books that were simply FRAUGHT with meaning, that never let you forget that time that you misspoke in front of someone you were trying to impress and now it's just a thing you say to each other to crack each other up? Those are the kinds of friendships you read about in books like Finder.
I've been someone's Tick Tick. I've had an Orient. These people are real enough that I feel like I could sit down for tea with them in the Ticker's multi-levelled loft at anytime, and be welcomed in as one of them. Cos they've known me for as much of my life as I've known them.
I wanted to run away to Bordertown when I was 14. I don't really anymore (I'm totally addicted to hot water, and even though Cory Doctorow tried to bring the internet to B-town in that recent anthology, it's still not stable enough for me) - but I'm glad that it still exists somewhere for me...and for anyone else that can find it.
Originally posted here.
March 12, 2024
I absolutely adore this book. Emotions and mystery and vibes.
June 4, 2009
Absolutely gripping, beautiful, heartbreaking, and fun. I wish the publisher, Tor Books, would bring this out again--I found this in a used bookstore after I fell in love with Bull's TERRITORY. Orient is a finder--if he has a relationship to a thing, he can find it. This time the thing is a drug that the lost and unhappy humans of the Borderlands believe can turn them into immortal, beautiful elves. The problem with the drug is that it doesn't turn them into elves; it kills them--and it's turned the Borderlands, once a haven of diversity, into a hotspot on the verge of race war. Orient may not be able to find, and stop, the maker of the drug before elves, humans, halfbreeds, and the other residents of the place are pitched into all-out war.
January 25, 2016
I really like Emma Bull's books. That said, this one was not as awesome as War for the Oaks, in my estimation.
This read a little like fanfic to me, so I was unsurprised to learn that it is technically set in someone else's universe. The world building is complete, but definitely feels like fanfic in that the reader is supposed to supply some of the background. With that missing, it makes a it more of a nice charcoal sketch instead of an oil painting. Which, interestingly enough, made the two initial characters stand out that much more against their background, but still. I should probably read the 'originating' book, and see what's what.
Another slightly strange thing was that I kept forgetting that our protagonist was supposed to be male. It was really odd. It became especially odd when the 'romantic sideplot' kicked in. The subplot in and of itself was strange because it seemed semi-out of place, and never really went anywhere, which I am conditioned to expect. So, that part left me sort of 'weh?', but not in a way that ruined the book for me.
Conclusion: I like, but she's done better. I'd like to reread at some point and see if I can figure out the whole narrator-gender thing. Is it just because in physical fiction I'm used to reading stuff with female protagonists? Is my female-as-default-assumption from eljay crossing over into my fiction-reading? Should I write more reviews and less journal entries? All this and more, when we return to I Write Cracked Out Reviews With Things That No One Cares About.
This read a little like fanfic to me, so I was unsurprised to learn that it is technically set in someone else's universe. The world building is complete, but definitely feels like fanfic in that the reader is supposed to supply some of the background. With that missing, it makes a it more of a nice charcoal sketch instead of an oil painting. Which, interestingly enough, made the two initial characters stand out that much more against their background, but still. I should probably read the 'originating' book, and see what's what.
Another slightly strange thing was that I kept forgetting that our protagonist was supposed to be male. It was really odd. It became especially odd when the 'romantic sideplot' kicked in. The subplot in and of itself was strange because it seemed semi-out of place, and never really went anywhere, which I am conditioned to expect. So, that part left me sort of 'weh?', but not in a way that ruined the book for me.
Conclusion: I like, but she's done better. I'd like to reread at some point and see if I can figure out the whole narrator-gender thing. Is it just because in physical fiction I'm used to reading stuff with female protagonists? Is my female-as-default-assumption from eljay crossing over into my fiction-reading? Should I write more reviews and less journal entries? All this and more, when we return to I Write Cracked Out Reviews With Things That No One Cares About.
June 25, 2023
The Borderlands series by Terri Windling was the perfect magical urban fantasy series when I was but a young lass, about a town on the border of the Elflands, where magic and technology meet, and people who don't fit into normal society can find a home.
The series is a great sandbox for other authors to play in, and Emma Bull wrote this and some other great stories in the series. Finder, a novel about the character Orient (who has the gift to find things), his partner/best friend Tick-Tick the elf, and Orient's professional partnership with a cop by the name of Sunny Rico, who tasks Orient to find out who killed Bonny Prince Charlie. The plot deepens and twists as Orient and Rico try to track down a killer and discover how a new street drug and a mysterious virus that affects elves are connected.
This novel became a favorite as soon as I read it back in the day, and I haven't done a re-read in YEARS. Honestly, I was afraid it wouldn't stand up to the passage of time, but I loved it as much this time as all the previous times I read it. I loved this novel so much, and still do!
The series is a great sandbox for other authors to play in, and Emma Bull wrote this and some other great stories in the series. Finder, a novel about the character Orient (who has the gift to find things), his partner/best friend Tick-Tick the elf, and Orient's professional partnership with a cop by the name of Sunny Rico, who tasks Orient to find out who killed Bonny Prince Charlie. The plot deepens and twists as Orient and Rico try to track down a killer and discover how a new street drug and a mysterious virus that affects elves are connected.
This novel became a favorite as soon as I read it back in the day, and I haven't done a re-read in YEARS. Honestly, I was afraid it wouldn't stand up to the passage of time, but I loved it as much this time as all the previous times I read it. I loved this novel so much, and still do!
August 28, 2007
Beautiful throughout, heartbreaking in parts, Finder is an action/adventure mystery set in the Borderlands, where the Elflands have bled through to the modern world. The juxtaposition is uncomfortable at best. And though elves can come through to the human world, humans can't cross the Border. Orient is the Finder, a human born with the elven gift of finding objects. He teams with Ticker, an elf born with the ability to fix any mechanical device. A Bordertown cop yanks Orient's chain, blackmailing him into helping her look for a drug dealer. The drug is mutagenic and the promise is, it makes humans into elves. Unlike with most drugs, that's only mostly a lie. One of my favorite novels ever. Definitely my favorite Borderlands story.
January 15, 2020
Another great read by Bull! Excellent writing and immersive world building. This turned into a crime/mystery quickly that was a lot of fun. I liked the characters, even though Ticker at times had stilted dialogue. I look forward to reading more exceptional urban fantasy by Bull!
Read
May 26, 2018Argh.
How to rate, what to do...
Emma Bull is an excellent writer, and that's why I own a paper copy of this. For years I've been distracted by others and let this collect dust, but since I'm now culling my paper books with full intent, I picked this up. Unfortunately, I did so on a trip, and was so busy I could only read little bits at a time in between other books. (The story could be much longer, never mind.)
This is a book that is better read immersively. Go to Borderlands and spend time there, don't just stick your nose in along the periphery. Better yet, read the earlier Borderlands books, or at least some of them, before reading this... it's not necessary, but it would help. I did not realize this is book 6 in a multiple-author series.
I do highly recommend it if you want to read early urban fantasy. I do recommend it to teens who want to believe in the fey, and in chants and charms. My husband gave it four stars, probably for the cops and for the motorcycles, as it's a bit like a mystery-thriller. If I had read it with the focus that it deserves and in series order, I imagine I would have given it four stars.
But I'm not sure... and yet I don't believe I want to start over and have another go at it, as there are so very many other books on my to-read lists. So, not rating. And letting the paper book go. :sigh:
How to rate, what to do...
Emma Bull is an excellent writer, and that's why I own a paper copy of this. For years I've been distracted by others and let this collect dust, but since I'm now culling my paper books with full intent, I picked this up. Unfortunately, I did so on a trip, and was so busy I could only read little bits at a time in between other books. (The story could be much longer, never mind.)
This is a book that is better read immersively. Go to Borderlands and spend time there, don't just stick your nose in along the periphery. Better yet, read the earlier Borderlands books, or at least some of them, before reading this... it's not necessary, but it would help. I did not realize this is book 6 in a multiple-author series.
I do highly recommend it if you want to read early urban fantasy. I do recommend it to teens who want to believe in the fey, and in chants and charms. My husband gave it four stars, probably for the cops and for the motorcycles, as it's a bit like a mystery-thriller. If I had read it with the focus that it deserves and in series order, I imagine I would have given it four stars.
But I'm not sure... and yet I don't believe I want to start over and have another go at it, as there are so very many other books on my to-read lists. So, not rating. And letting the paper book go. :sigh:
October 24, 2017
I can imagine that for those who read the Borderlands books growing up, this might've been a vivid exploration of a beloved terrain, but as a newcomer, I found it mostly boring. The worldbuilding is more quirky-small-town-with-elves than richly textured urban fantasy. The protagonist reads like a middle-aged woman instead of a man in his early twenties. And once I realized Sunny Rico looked rather strikingly like the author, it was impossible to ignore the potential self-insertion.
But while all that would've earned a two- or three-star rating, I bumped this one down even further because . That this book's protagonist, himself, is almost excruciatingly uninteresting in spite of his ability and hard-luck past just adds insult to injury.
But while all that would've earned a two- or three-star rating, I bumped this one down even further because . That this book's protagonist, himself, is almost excruciatingly uninteresting in spite of his ability and hard-luck past just adds insult to injury.
January 3, 2008
This is one of those books I buy over and over as I wear out copies. The story hangs together so well, everything follows one after another, and the beauty of this universe is, I can play in it.
Bordertown is a troubling place, and Finder is a troubled character, but this book is a beautiful piece of work that only leaves me wanting more, wanting to answer questions, wanting to meet most of the people, walk where they walk. It isn't just the magic that's magical.
Bordertown is a troubling place, and Finder is a troubled character, but this book is a beautiful piece of work that only leaves me wanting more, wanting to answer questions, wanting to meet most of the people, walk where they walk. It isn't just the magic that's magical.
April 16, 2011
Elf punk at its finest. Bordertown is a funky, magic-blasted city that looks and smells a lot like San Francisco, and it may have been before the magic came. Once the magic came, it became Bordertown, where the magic from the elf world leaks in to the mundane world, and all kinds of people live there.
Finder has two things that make a really great book. It has excellent characters - TickTick and Orient are deep, fully realized characters that you care about, and you want them to do well. It hurts when their world comes down on them and (trying not to give spoilers out here) bad things happen. More than just the two main characters, the novel is full of interesting and somewhat bizarre people - elves, humans, demi-humans, demi-elves, and stranger folks still.
The book also has an excellent /world/. The funky interface between magic and technology is disruptive, challenging, empowering occasionally, but it also creates major dangers for human and elf alike. Some of the major plot issues flow naturally from this unforseen, unevolved interface between the magic and the mundane. And some of the most tragic.
Very, Very good book, and highly recommended. The book that got me hooked on Emma Bull's work.
-JRS
Finder has two things that make a really great book. It has excellent characters - TickTick and Orient are deep, fully realized characters that you care about, and you want them to do well. It hurts when their world comes down on them and (trying not to give spoilers out here) bad things happen. More than just the two main characters, the novel is full of interesting and somewhat bizarre people - elves, humans, demi-humans, demi-elves, and stranger folks still.
The book also has an excellent /world/. The funky interface between magic and technology is disruptive, challenging, empowering occasionally, but it also creates major dangers for human and elf alike. Some of the major plot issues flow naturally from this unforseen, unevolved interface between the magic and the mundane. And some of the most tragic.
Very, Very good book, and highly recommended. The book that got me hooked on Emma Bull's work.
-JRS
June 12, 2009
I was reasonably impressed with this book from new-to-me author Emma Bull. The action takes place in the "Borderlands," a neighborhood / city occupying the area in between Faery-land and ordinary every day earth, and in which both technology and magic are present, but neither can be counted upon to work, at least not consistently. Interesting as this premise is, it's not really as central to the plot as you would guess. Little of the backstory is ever revealed, nor is much detail wasted on the intricacies of faery vs. human society, lifestyle, etc. Instead, most of the detail is lavished on the characters themselves, who are nicely drawn and believable. The story itself is a rather average mystery with just minor supernatural elements (i.e. the hero's mysterious ability to find anything, as long as the question is asked properly), but it moved along nicely and I found I'd quite enjoyed the book when I finished. I would willingly read additional titles in this series, should they appear. :)
May 28, 2021
Lovely book set in the Borderlands series with a cool cover by Richard Bober.
Made me cry.
re-read 4/17/2006
latest re-read 8/17/2011
Made me cry.
re-read 4/17/2006
latest re-read 8/17/2011
March 14, 2019
Review to come :)
November 5, 2021
Effortlessly cool and surprisingly moving. But also, I didn't realize a deadly epidemic features prominently in the plot. I might have waited a couple more years to read this one if I'd known.
October 27, 2009
Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy with Elves
This book vacillated between slow and being very very good. The mystery is introduced very early in the novel, our hero, Orient, is asked to help the local cops find the dealer & manufacturer of a new drug on the market (called passport, 'cause it purportedly will allow the users into the fairy lands) that supposedly changes a human into an elf. But in actuality seems to be killing the users. It's not really a fantasy version of a police procedural, as the police in Bordertown aren't very process-oriented, and the point-of-view character is not very law/police savvy. However, the plot is basically that. The who-dunnut is eventually solved, but not very satisfactorily to my mind. We never find out WHY, and we're only briefly introduced to the perpetrators before they are revealed.
Despite my issues with the mystery, the basic idea of a drug to change humans into elves, and the social consequences of the idea (whether or not it works) is a very interesting one. Unfortunately, I find Bordertown's description and exploration much richer and more evocotive in the short stories from _The Essential Bordertown_ (ed. by Terri Windling) then I do in the longer _Finder_, which is a novel set in the same shared universe. _Finder_ does delve a bit deeper into the elfish culture then I remember any of the stories in _The Essential Bordertown_ doing, but it's still a superficial delve - it's not really important to the story, it's just providing an elfish parallel to Orient's own back-story.
The bit that most caught my attention is Orient and Tick-Tick (our hero's best friend) dissecting the behavior of another character, Linn. I'm not sure if I agree with their conclusion but it was an interesting analysis of what constitutes honorable/proper/ethical behavior. I still find myself teasing at the question days later, as I have a lot of empathy for Linn's actions.
As a warning, this is not a comedy; the end is a downer, which I'm sure has influenced my own luke-warm reaction, as I remember really enjoying the earlier parts of the novel...
This book vacillated between slow and being very very good. The mystery is introduced very early in the novel, our hero, Orient, is asked to help the local cops find the dealer & manufacturer of a new drug on the market (called passport, 'cause it purportedly will allow the users into the fairy lands) that supposedly changes a human into an elf. But in actuality seems to be killing the users. It's not really a fantasy version of a police procedural, as the police in Bordertown aren't very process-oriented, and the point-of-view character is not very law/police savvy. However, the plot is basically that. The who-dunnut is eventually solved, but not very satisfactorily to my mind. We never find out WHY, and we're only briefly introduced to the perpetrators before they are revealed.
Despite my issues with the mystery, the basic idea of a drug to change humans into elves, and the social consequences of the idea (whether or not it works) is a very interesting one. Unfortunately, I find Bordertown's description and exploration much richer and more evocotive in the short stories from _The Essential Bordertown_ (ed. by Terri Windling) then I do in the longer _Finder_, which is a novel set in the same shared universe. _Finder_ does delve a bit deeper into the elfish culture then I remember any of the stories in _The Essential Bordertown_ doing, but it's still a superficial delve - it's not really important to the story, it's just providing an elfish parallel to Orient's own back-story.
The bit that most caught my attention is Orient and Tick-Tick (our hero's best friend) dissecting the behavior of another character, Linn. I'm not sure if I agree with their conclusion but it was an interesting analysis of what constitutes honorable/proper/ethical behavior. I still find myself teasing at the question days later, as I have a lot of empathy for Linn's actions.
As a warning, this is not a comedy; the end is a downer, which I'm sure has influenced my own luke-warm reaction, as I remember really enjoying the earlier parts of the novel...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 2, 2015
The story of Orient, a human who has the ability to locate the missing, Finder begins with the title character being tasked to find the source of a new drug hitting the Borderlands streets. Emma Bull returns to the urban fae genre of her debut War for the Oaks, to lesser results.
The most refreshing aspect of War for the Oaks was its sincerity, and lived-in quality. Bull's familiarity with the 80's struggling rock musician lifestyle came through, lending real charm and authenticity to what otherwise prosaic fantasy beats. In contrast, Finder's mystery procedural angle feels entirely boilerplate, even borderline parodic. This is most obvious in the "tough cop" character of Sunny Rico, whose romantic attraction to the main character is mostly inexplicable and entirely .
Noir is a genre heavily dependent on its setting, and the Borderlands remain poorly defined compared to the Minneapolis of Oaks. Perhaps it's a function of the shared world, but the constant expositing "The Borderlands are this" did little to make it into an organism of moving parts -- an essential element of any "the corruption goes to the heart" story.
What does work in the story is Orient himself, and his warm relationship with his best friend, the elf mechanic Tick Tick. The Borderlands, as the liminal space between Fairy and the human world, works perfectly for Bull's celebration of the city as a found home-- where the restless and misfit, human and elf, can find each other. The heart of Finder, therefore, is in such modest details as friends teasing each other or cooking together, in Tick Tick's spacious loft or Orient's inability to wear pants. Rating: 2.5 stars
The most refreshing aspect of War for the Oaks was its sincerity, and lived-in quality. Bull's familiarity with the 80's struggling rock musician lifestyle came through, lending real charm and authenticity to what otherwise prosaic fantasy beats. In contrast, Finder's mystery procedural angle feels entirely boilerplate, even borderline parodic. This is most obvious in the "tough cop" character of Sunny Rico, whose romantic attraction to the main character is mostly inexplicable and entirely .
Noir is a genre heavily dependent on its setting, and the Borderlands remain poorly defined compared to the Minneapolis of Oaks. Perhaps it's a function of the shared world, but the constant expositing "The Borderlands are this" did little to make it into an organism of moving parts -- an essential element of any "the corruption goes to the heart" story.
What does work in the story is Orient himself, and his warm relationship with his best friend, the elf mechanic Tick Tick. The Borderlands, as the liminal space between Fairy and the human world, works perfectly for Bull's celebration of the city as a found home-- where the restless and misfit, human and elf, can find each other. The heart of Finder, therefore, is in such modest details as friends teasing each other or cooking together, in Tick Tick's spacious loft or Orient's inability to wear pants. Rating: 2.5 stars
June 25, 2013
The aesthetic of this book is so eighties. Or, more precisely, the part of the early nineties that still hadn't realised how much it would look back on the previous decade and cringe. It actually took me a while to get past this! I didn't even know it was possible for a book to do this!
I'm having a hard time figuring out what I was meant to get from this story. The writing was competent — smart, even — the characters were likeable enough, the mystery was engaging. But it was strangely episodic in a way that made it feel like the narrative wasn't enough to contain the important emotional moments. Instead of having the impact they were supposed to, I felt cheated and angry and like the onus had been put on me to find meaning when I'd only just begun to know and care about the characters. And I simply don't see the necessity or benefit of these turns to the narrative — it would have required hitting on a much stronger theme throughout in order to have been successful at it.
This was a solid three stars for the majority of the book, but this problem toward the end knocks it down to 2.5 stars.
I'm having a hard time figuring out what I was meant to get from this story. The writing was competent — smart, even — the characters were likeable enough, the mystery was engaging. But it was strangely episodic in a way that made it feel like the narrative wasn't enough to contain the important emotional moments. Instead of having the impact they were supposed to, I felt cheated and angry and like the onus had been put on me to find meaning when I'd only just begun to know and care about the characters. And I simply don't see the necessity or benefit of these turns to the narrative — it would have required hitting on a much stronger theme throughout in order to have been successful at it.
This was a solid three stars for the majority of the book, but this problem toward the end knocks it down to 2.5 stars.
February 8, 2024
I'm more of an Emma Bull fan than a Borderlands fan, and, to the best of my knowledge, this is the only book I own set in this particular universe. Decent urban fantasy, not unduly gritty, but not flowers-and-pixie dust either. The interpretation of the Fae owes a lot of the traditional folk tales, but they are presented as real people, and not as idealized fantasy figures or as child-stealing monsters. Pretty much everyone in the Borderlands is a misfit to one extent or another, so you get the idea that most of the fae you meet here are probably not 100% typical of the species. The story combines a fairly typical urban fantasy world with a decent detective story. Not my favorite book by this author; that would be War for the Oaks. Very good across the board, plot, characters, and dialogue are all engaging and readable. Also, as a bonus, this is the book where Bull coined the term "insouciant copspeak", a term I often use to describe the dialogue in John Sandford's novels. Solid 4 stars.
November 6, 2011
Emma Bull's Finder is a wonderful YA novel set in Bordertown, the land originally created by Terri Windling. (Bordertown is the town between Fairy and our world where humans, elves, and half-bloods exist.) Orient is a finder with a secret. He came to Bordertown after committing a terrible crime in our world. Now he's been commissioned with his friend, Tinker, to find the person who is selling a dangerous drug to humans. The drug "supposedly" will turn a human into a TrueBlood so they can cross the border into Fairy, but in reality, people are dying terrible deaths. This book is filled with wonderful, quirky characters and moves fast. I recommend it.
November 13, 2013
I read this last year and didn't post a review. I think I was trying to process all the amazing and never got around to writing it down.
There are several Borderlands books, none of which I've read, yet I understood this world, these characters, and the backstories on both the characters and the world they inhabit. Bull does it all without infodump.
And she's not afraid to kill beloved characters.
I've been reading some mediocre stuff lately; need a palate-cleanser. I have several of Bull's books; I think one of them will be next.
There are several Borderlands books, none of which I've read, yet I understood this world, these characters, and the backstories on both the characters and the world they inhabit. Bull does it all without infodump.
And she's not afraid to kill beloved characters.
I've been reading some mediocre stuff lately; need a palate-cleanser. I have several of Bull's books; I think one of them will be next.
March 24, 2015
I really liked the characters and the world building but the plot itself fell a bit short for me, It just felt like a standard detective story. I also found Sunny Rico about the dullest character in the whole story, I don't really see what Orient sees in her and I wish that we could have had more of the elves rather than a thoroughly predictable 'good cop in a bad town' character. The end was an anticlimax and it all just felt a bit pointless.
November 17, 2012
I wouldn't say I "lemmed" it... But I definitely skimmed it after a point. I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of it. Orient is a bland androgynous mushpile and tick tick is like a weird robot that's even lamer bc she's actually an elf. Maybe the borderlands just aren't for me.
December 4, 2008
Could not would not finish.
September 20, 2019
Books which make me cry tend to get five stars unless they have some really annoying flaws. Suffice to say, there are minimal to none flaws here.
June 16, 2022
Uuugghhh. I skimmed pretty much everything. The writing just felt…self indulgent, or something. I was just bored with the main character, Orient or whatever. And he’s like part elf so he talks partly normal and partly super flowery and formal, which was cute in Elsewhere when it was just peppered in, but here just comes off as super affected and annoying after like five pages.
Idk so like orient is doing dishes and smoking a clove bc it’s 1992 and his friend Tick Tock comes in. And she’s like “hey someone stole my wrench can you help me find it” and he’s like “yeah sure thing bc what I do is find stuff bc I’m like a magic elf finder person and you fix stuff,” and tick tock is like “what a strangely expository thing to say,” and then Orient climbs into the sidecar of Tick Tock’s motorcycle and they go to this restaurant. Oh and the restaurant is magical bc elves and humans all get along there bc the food is good. Then there was some cop that was like boring as fuck and then idk I skipped ahead and someone had died, probably Tick Tock, and I was supposed to care but didn’t.
I feel like the majority of the five star reviews are for nostalgia’s sake. I think a lot of people read it as teenagers, and I probably would’ve liked this thirty years ago. I got the sense that the author was really young. Borderland’s starting to seem like a fantasy obsessed teenager’s creative writing project. There’s not really any adults in Borderland. And if there are they’re like the bad guys. Idk, maybe I just don’t like fantasy.
Idk so like orient is doing dishes and smoking a clove bc it’s 1992 and his friend Tick Tock comes in. And she’s like “hey someone stole my wrench can you help me find it” and he’s like “yeah sure thing bc what I do is find stuff bc I’m like a magic elf finder person and you fix stuff,” and tick tock is like “what a strangely expository thing to say,” and then Orient climbs into the sidecar of Tick Tock’s motorcycle and they go to this restaurant. Oh and the restaurant is magical bc elves and humans all get along there bc the food is good. Then there was some cop that was like boring as fuck and then idk I skipped ahead and someone had died, probably Tick Tock, and I was supposed to care but didn’t.
I feel like the majority of the five star reviews are for nostalgia’s sake. I think a lot of people read it as teenagers, and I probably would’ve liked this thirty years ago. I got the sense that the author was really young. Borderland’s starting to seem like a fantasy obsessed teenager’s creative writing project. There’s not really any adults in Borderland. And if there are they’re like the bad guys. Idk, maybe I just don’t like fantasy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 20, 2020
Back in the early, early days of urban fantasy, there were Terri Windling's Borderland anthologies . . . which begat a few amazing full-length novels by contributors Emma Bull and Will Shetterly. (Emma had already broken ground for the new genre with War for the Oaks. In the early 90s, I was reading a lot of fantasy--even attended Boskone for a couple of years (one of which when Emma and Will were GoHs). And I bought and devoured Finder. A quarter century later, in a fit of nostalgia and lack of a current read, I pulled the book from my shelf (once again, regretting the absence of any new novels by Bull since Territory) and began reading. Did it all come flooding back--no (though I did remember Orient and Wolf Boy--though the latter more because he was a return player from the other Borderland books) ... which was all to the good because I got to savor the full story and characters anew. I need to start selectively rereading those old favorites more frequently!
June 3, 2018
I loved the Bordertown stories... several authors have explored the urban fantasy land on the border of "the world" and the land of Fae. I really enjoyed Emma Bulls War of the Oak, and have had this book on my list for years. Somehow I didn't realize it was a "borderlands" book. It was kinda fun to revisit the place, but this was not the strongest story. I found myself sorta lost or disengaged through much of it. The basic premise is that Finder also know as Orient has the ability to Find things. He ends up helping out in an investigation to a new street drug which is made to help humans able to cross over to Elfland, but it doesn't work, and in the meantime humans are dying and elves are getting sick. Something was missing in this for me... but it was kinda nice to go back to the land of urban fantasy.
July 26, 2018
This was the perfect afternoon read. It was fun, engaging, moving, and creative. This is the second Emma Bull book I've read and I'm begining to see some of the nuances of her writing. Her dialogue can be very "realistic" in such a way that I get a bit lost about what the characters are talking about and have to go re-read the conversation. Sometimes her main character will understand something, like them entering a morgue, but I'm not tracking, and it takes me a few minutes to figure out something that the characters all know. But, aside from those quirks, I found this story to be very fun. After reading it, I wanted to engage in the world, meet more people, explore more of the city - all good signs in a fantasy book.
I'm curious to read more of her stories, for sure.
Rated PG-13: some language, adult situations, drugs.
I'm curious to read more of her stories, for sure.
Rated PG-13: some language, adult situations, drugs.
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