Driving the Deep

Driving the Deep was a fabulous follow-up to the first book about repo-man Fergus' adventures in Finder. No, you don't need to read it first. Yes, you should, because Fergus will undergo a very profound change in that book that will continue to impact his emotional and physical being.

So after the dramatic events at the spacestation Cernee, Fergus is chilling post-last-book with his shipmaker friends, when they convince him it is time to take care of some old emotional business on Earth--returning the motorcycle he stole from his cousin when he escaped his very unfortunate home life. Unbeknownst to him, a police detective has been watching that storage locker for two years for completely different reasons. When Fergus breaks in to show more liberate his cousin's motorcycle, there's a bit of a mix-up, but any thoughts of dealing with old family issues are wiped away when he receives a distress call from his friends. I'm really not giving any spoilers--this is pretty much where the story takes off.

You know what I think about this book? This is what A Long Way to An Angry Planet could have been if Chambers had a little bit better grasp of plotting. This is Leviathan Wakes with less mystery, more rescue.

I love the characterization, and that Fergus is mostly ethical. I like the range of people he runs into, and I felt a number of them came alive, although I'd have to say that some were a bit odd just for the sake of being odd, it seemed (much like Angry). There's a cat, as there should be on a ship, and the cat's mostly just a cat, which I actually appreciated.

“The farther you get from Earth, the more you’ll encounter people hacking the phenotype, either for aesthetics or survival. Often both. Try not to act like an originalist if you encounter any."

The plotting was tight, and if there was one angle that I solved before Fergus (or along with?), it really didn't spoil anything, because it was the last part of the book anyway. Action was fast-paced, veering from Fergus' internal struggle, to interpersonal tension, to large-scale environmental stresses. I appreciated the variety, and the fact that Palmer didn't allow Fergus to wallow. Ultimately, he's a Han.

"Here, the only thing they have to defend against is one rogue hauler pilot with a stray cat and, I suppose, possible discovery by a lackadaisical Alliance."

Atmosphere was decent. Most of it came alive for me, although a couple of times, I'm not entirely sure I felt the weight of the moon above as much as in other books (thinking of you, Starfish.). I mean, perhaps it's hard to find words above it because it is all darkness that deep, but that's why the weight of the ocean and the claustrophobia become so important.

It isn't an outright funny book, but it has it's moments. The almost-A.I.s in particular do a nice job of verbal fencing. And I'm almost positive I caught a couple of nerd-references to the first Star Wars (who shot first??). Zucker, the detective who reluctantly signs on for the ride, is also very good at being a foil, both literally and verbally.

"There were clearly significant advantages, in terms of avoiding law enforcement, of having spent a career inside of it."

While this plot wrapped up very satisfactorily, it was a very quick ending, post climactic scenes. There was an epilogue to the scene that brought Fergus and Zucker together in the first place that I found rather unsatisfactory, but perhaps that was the strain of reading all day. I'll have to give it another shot and see if it feels more comprehensive.

I really enjoyed Palmer's tone, which was occasionally irreverent, but always managed to be appropriately serious at the right times. Every now and then, she'd pull out the stops for some beautiful writing:

The planet—hundreds of years later, there was still active resistance to its demotion to microplanet—was a beautiful tapestry of browns and blacks and tans spun together like a rich, poorly stirred hot chocolate, even down to the tiny hint of foam at its polar cap.


Altogether, one of the few books that have held my attention (as in sit-down-and-read-all-day kind of attention) since recovering--we hope--from Quarantine Brain. Definitely a fan.

Re-read April 2021. It definitely holds up. What was especially interesting to me this time around is that I hadn't remembered how action-focused the story is. However, Palmer really varies the kinds of action happening, it crept up on me. But there's a lot of tension here that I didn't remember from the first time around. And just perhaps, she did better with the oppressive weight of the ocean than I remembered.

Re-read May 2023, getting ready for the newest release. Even though I knew the ending, events flow so well from one to the next, it is hard to stop. show less

Fergus Ferguson goes way deep, under the ice of Saturn's moon Enceladus, in an attempt to rescue his friends, the Shipmakers of Pluto who disappeared after they sent him of to deal with his backstory on Earth. This rescue caper moves at a brisk pace, rolling up some whoppingly convenient coincidences as it bounces against the climax. Entertaining and it balances its heavily oppressive main setting deftly.

I liked Finder, the first book in the space adventures of Fergus Ferguson, a lot but I LOVED this second book, Driving the Deep! Space opera with character development, humor, and a soul (possibly AI)...what more could you ask for?

Palmer, Suzanne. Diving the Deep. Finder Chronicles No. 2. Daw, 2020.
In Diving the Deep, Fergus, the interplanetary repo man, has gone home to Scotland to retrieve a motorcycle, but he is soon in space again, trying to rescue some kidnapped friends below the ice on Saturn’s sixth moon, Enceladus. In the process he kidnaps a New York cop who thinks he murdered his daughter twenty years before. He is aided by an alien enhancement to his body that makes him able to zap you like a Taser if you make him mad. Diving is almost as much fun as Finder, the first novel in the series, but this time, Fergus spends a lot of time out of contact with the snarky Ais that run his spaceship and the space station near Pluto. Nevertheless, it is an show more entertaining read because Fergus is a character with oodles of personality. show less

4.5 stars

It's rare that I like a second book more than the first, but perhaps I'd like it more if I revisited it. This installment of Fergus's adventures was pretty awesome.

I really love these books and look forward to reading the next one. They are not deep but rollicking good fun.

I always prefer true critics rather than reviewers. The vast majority of pieces that pass for book criticism are actually reviews — the author telling you the plot and whether or not they were entertained. Whereas a critic shares with the reader the tools necessary to understand the medium and provides an analysis of the composition and aesthetic of the book. I lost much respect for some reviewers when they proudly proclaim that they only read a book once thereby tacitly admitting that they do not seriously consider SF an art form. Great art continues to enlighten and enrich after repeated viewings, hearings, readings, etc. Can you imagine boasting that you heard Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony only one time? Or states that there’s no show more need to read King Lear more than once? Idiotic.

The SF publishing industry has been plasticizing writers for a long time. Now the products from it are so terminally vacuous and venal, one wonders what to read —yes, there are few SF critics who make you think, but neither are there any books to speak of that do so coming out of that place. There's never going to be a generation like the one writing SF in this day and age again. The main reason? The 'don't be an asshole Mantra' of modern American SF. Assholery is much underrated. It gives a novel an edginess. I want to hear about indiscipline maverick types! But it's turned into a digitised world of commandments like 'This characters's current behaviour is what the world needs now' and 'we need to talk about'. It's horrible. I miss vintage SF and I wasn't even born in it. show less