The Scavenger Door

Fergus Ferguson is back on Earth reuniting with his family in Scotland. Fergus, an interstellar repo man who already has some alien enhancements, is soon tracking shards of a psychoactive alien artifact. It wants to merge with him and create a multidimensional door that will mean the end of humanity. Shortsighted generals and spooks think it would be a lovely weapon. This telepathic McGuffin is hard to care about and the plot meanders, but Fergus’s lively personality holds this romp together. It doesn’t matter where the story goes. Fergus is an entertaining traveling companion. 3.5 stars.

Suzanne Palmer has been one of my authors to watch, and the first two books in this series are a lot of fun. The Scavenger Door closes a door on Fergus Ferguson's adventures, although you know the saying about doors and windows. It's an interesting book, taking a close look at Fergus' Earth connections but his 'finding' challenges are less personal than the earlier books. It leads to a particular narrative schisms that lack the same emotional resonance as the earlier books.

Fergus is adventure personified, but being on Earth has him full of feels, particularly guilt about his past and other's exposure to his hazardous life. This leads to strange reflective pieces that have little to do with the mission at hand. Think of it as the show more thoughts that fill one's head during the moments driving to and from work. However, I'm not sure I particularly enjoyed those feelings as a refrain. I certainly got tired of hearing his, and welcomed the moments where he appeared to have an emotional breakthrough, as rare as they were. "Isla's complaint that he was taking his gift too passively seemed to have legitimate cause... He was, he thought, very attached to his particular ideas of who he was, even if he was sure they were mostly wrong. The only thing he was sure about, in what he thought was a minimally biased way, was that he was good at finding things."

It's a good thing Fergus is good at finding things, because he has been handed an extensive agenda by the alien Ignatio. I confess, when I realized the extent of the tasks, I experienced a flashback to that moment watching Speed when--spoiler alert--I realized Sandra still wasn't safe and now had to deal with a runaway subway car. Emotionally full, and ready to move on, or at least, stop and reflect. Alas, it wasn't to be. That's not to say the individual episodes aren't fun, amusing, or challenging, because they are. It's just to say that I lack a certain endurance for that kind of marathon task and would like to be home and tucked in bed by midnight.

Nonetheless, there's no way that complaint should be construed as not enjoying the book. It's just a lot, but that's gonna happen when you have to save the universe. And seriously, I should have been expecting it, as Finder was a non-stop adventure from one end of the known planet systems to another.

It's a good thing that I really enjoy Palmer's writing and the tone. I'm definitely a fan of how she puts both words and ideas together, particularly that sly little humorous tone that comes about, but without needing to spell things out for the reader.

"Sorry if I've inconvenienced you," Fergus said, feeling not sorry at all.

"Oh no, not at all!" the agent said, as if there had been no sarcasm in Fergus's words. "Chaos is a delight. Without it, nothing new would ever be born, or learnt, or dreamt. But it must be considered. Not by you, I mean; it's all way over your head."

I'm definitely in the fan club, and if I don't read this quite as many times as I read first two, it's only because it's so packed, I'd really like something a little less effusive. And because sometimes Star Wars is all you need.


Many, many thanks to both Netgalley and DAW for the advance reader copy. Of course all opinions are my own--you ever know me to be a mouthpiece for someone else? Also, of course, all quotes are subject to change. But I think they give nice insight into the thoughtful and entertaining writing. show less

Well, Fergus is wearing on me a bit. Admittedly he has caught the unfortunate end of most of the sticks tossed at him, but he really does seem to like people and that doesn't usually go with ticking them off all the time. Isla got on my nerves from the get go. Fergus deserves better. Lots of following Fergus while he goes through the mandatory quest dance to save the world as he unlocks, zaps, and deals with his beezes.

The third book isn’t the best place to start the series since people from the previous two books do show up in this one and would ruin the surprises in them if you care about those things. Fergus is a professional finder and repo man of the stars, but he is back on Earth after telling his cousin he stole his bike and has had it in storage on Earth for almost 20 years while he was out and about among the stars. While he was gone, his cousin found the bike and let him keep paying storage and his mom gave birth to a sister he didn’t know about. Now he is hanging out and getting to know his family again but Fergus’ luck at finding things comes back to get him when he is in the hills rounding up some sheep for his cousin’s friend. An show more object that ignores the usual laws of science is now in his possession and a race to find more of them against two other very interested parties along with warnings from the aliens who helped him in the first book. This is very much a race against the clock as he tries to find the pieces since they are “waking up” and that wouldn’t be good to happen anywhere near Earth. A fun read all the way through and I’m really hoping for more books in the series

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss show less

I don't know why but for some reason each successive book in this series held less interest for me. I worked through this one mostly out of interest to see where the story would end.

Fun, light. Can't think too long about how some things work out, but his plans don't always work, so ...

I got the impression from some other reviews that this is the worst book of the series, and that maybe I should skip it. But I’m glad I didn’t, because I mostly enjoyed it, apart from the too-cosmic ending. I definitely like it better than Driving the Deep, and maybe better than Finder. So there.