236. Finder: Talisman by Carla Speed McNeil

Finder: Talisman by Carla Speed McNeil (US) - (Canada)
Finder, #4

Pages: 96
Ages: 16+
Finished: Aug. 30, 2012
First Published: Oct. 16, 2012 (orig. 2000-2002)
Publisher: Dark Horse
Genre: graphic novel, YA, fantasy, science fiction
Rating: 5/5





First sentence: "Marcie! No more magic!"

Publisher's Summary:  "Since 1996, Finder has set the bar for science-fiction storytelling, with a lush, intricate world and compelling characters. Finder: Talisman is the story of a book — the book beloved by misfits and castaways, once glimpsed and forever longed for — and of Marcie, the kid who never gives up her search for magic and meaning. Now, the fan-favorite story is collected in a new, oversized hardcover edition and a limited-edition hardcover signed by creator Carla Speed McNeil!

* Finder: Talisman is a much-sought-after fan favorite and a great point of entrance into the world of Finder.

* First time in hardcover!"


Acquired:  Received an egalley from the publisher through Netgalley.

Reason for Reading:  The lost book intrigued me even though I have not read any books in the Finder series.

This is a reprint of a particularly well-loved volume of the Finder series.  I absolutely enjoyed this book, much more than I thought I would since it is part of a larger series.  But it reads incredibly well as a stand-alone, in fact, one isn't even aware that it is a part of a series as a newcomer.  The story appeals to the book lover and is a coming of age story as well as a bitter lesson in whether one should try to re-capture one's childhood or not.  We have the story of a girl who can't read and is gifted a book by her mother's easy come, easy go boyfriend.  Every time he visits he reads to her from this book and it is full of the most amazing stories.  However, he stops visiting and Marcie can't continue with the book, she gets her older sister to read it to her but it's not the same story, she's not reading it right and she finds something offensive in the book and puts it up on a shelf.  Marcie then goes on to learn to read but once she has the knowledge she comes back to get her book and it has gone, her mother has given it up for recycling. Another interesting aspect of this story is that it is set in a future world where "dead tree" books are of little value.  People "read" electronically through uplinks that they plug into their heads, Marcie is quite against this.

Anyway, without going into more details, eventually Marcie grows up, becomes a wanna be writer, continues on an everlasting search for her lost book as that is where her imagination stems from.  Marcie does eventually find the book with devastating results.  I just loved this story, the world in which it was set and the characters.  An invaluable part of the book was the author's end notes where she goes through the book page by page leaving sometimes very brief, ofttimes quite detailed notes on the story: where the ideas came from, what inspired her and how the story relates to the Finder universe in general.  This is where the uninitiated realizes that these characters have been around.  The boyfriend, especially, is an important figure otherwise in this world.  These notes really made me want to investigate Finder some more.  The individual volumes are no longer available but omnibus editions *are*, at very reasonable prices.  So I've added Vol. 1 to my cart, which contains the first four books, including this one, so I can dive deeper into this intriguing and actually quite deep and thought-provoking story world.