Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
Tor Books (1994), Edition: 1st, 317 pages
Description
Welcome to Bordertown. A hybrid community of misfits, oddballs and runaways. Where humans, elves and haflings co-exist. Where magic and the brutal realities of survival clash and mix. For Orient and Tick-Tick... it's just home. Orient is a finder. A finder of lost things. His gift will come in handy. Human kids seeking wild thrills in Nevernever - mostly restricted to elves - are being lured into taking a new drug that morphs them into Truebloods. Except this is a one-way trip. The drug kills everyone who takes it. It's up to Orient to find the killer.
User reviews
LibraryThing member TadAD
Take a shared-world fantasy setting (the Bordertown stories), throw in a detective story with a dash of elfpunk, and add some engaging characters and you have an enjoyable book to read. I expected the hard edge that lurks behind the Bordertown short stories and, to be honest, I missed it a bit. I
That being said, I found Ms. Bull's writing up to the task, she brought the characters alive for me without tilting into cliché, and made me care about what happened to them.
Is this a young adult book? I'm not sure; it could go either way.
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think the book would have been better if it could have kept that brittleness.That being said, I found Ms. Bull's writing up to the task, she brought the characters alive for me without tilting into cliché, and made me care about what happened to them.
Is this a young adult book? I'm not sure; it could go either way.
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LibraryThing member Jenson_AKA_DL
The Borderlands is a city between worlds, The World which is where we (humans) reside and the Elfands. Sometimes people arrive on purpose but often people arrive on accident, the ones who are unconsciously looking for an escape. But, it is not a paradise, Bordertown can be a harsh, unforgiving
Orient is a "Finder", a human with the inexplicable psychic power to find anything, so long as he knows it exists. Tick-tick is his partner, best friend and savior. She is also an elf. When Orient is brought in by Officer Sunny Rico to help find the distributor of a terrible new drug what he finds is something worse than he could imagine.
This book had some contradictions for me. Although I found the plot and characters interesting, the story seemed to drag a bit, especially in the last couple chapters. It left me with a slightly melancholy feeling which is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that I had to have been invested in the story.
After I started reading this book I discovered that it is an older novel than I expected, written in the 1980s (my generation!) I wish I had picked it up as a teenager, I think I would have loved it! I also discovered that is based in a world which is apparently shared by a few other authors. This book could be read as a stand alone or, I assume, as part of that series. I do plan to pick up the Borderland books, Elsewhere and Never Never by Will Shetterly which have a cross over character in this story.
Overall I did enjoy the story. I thought that the premise was quite imaginative, the cover was fascinating (it's why I picked the book up in the first place) and the characters were very sympathetic and likeable. Certainly one I'd be happy to recommend to young adult readers of urban fantasy.
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place to live and those that reside there have to find their niche or Bordertown may eat them alive.Orient is a "Finder", a human with the inexplicable psychic power to find anything, so long as he knows it exists. Tick-tick is his partner, best friend and savior. She is also an elf. When Orient is brought in by Officer Sunny Rico to help find the distributor of a terrible new drug what he finds is something worse than he could imagine.
This book had some contradictions for me. Although I found the plot and characters interesting, the story seemed to drag a bit, especially in the last couple chapters. It left me with a slightly melancholy feeling which is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that I had to have been invested in the story.
After I started reading this book I discovered that it is an older novel than I expected, written in the 1980s (my generation!) I wish I had picked it up as a teenager, I think I would have loved it! I also discovered that is based in a world which is apparently shared by a few other authors. This book could be read as a stand alone or, I assume, as part of that series. I do plan to pick up the Borderland books, Elsewhere and Never Never by Will Shetterly which have a cross over character in this story.
Overall I did enjoy the story. I thought that the premise was quite imaginative, the cover was fascinating (it's why I picked the book up in the first place) and the characters were very sympathetic and likeable. Certainly one I'd be happy to recommend to young adult readers of urban fantasy.
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LibraryThing member tinLizzy
Reminds me a bit of Keeping It Real by Justina Robson in the clash between elf/human culture, and the mix of tech/realism and magic.
I like the story and the char development in Finder. In Sunny Rico's manner I couldn't help being reminded of Law and Order SVU's Olivia Benson. Tough, all-business,
Emma Bull lays out an engaging story thread - I liked where the story went - including both the unexpected turns and the bread crumbs.
I like the story and the char development in Finder. In Sunny Rico's manner I couldn't help being reminded of Law and Order SVU's Olivia Benson. Tough, all-business,
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hot-chick in-charge, while the male narrator Orient - who's likable enough - is more the touchy feely emo love-prone char. Nice switch up of what would otherwise be standard stereotypical fare if the genders were reversed. I did feel wanting for a bit more exploration of the Bordertown world and back-story, I have a lot of gaps in my mind's eye of who inhabits Bordertown (like more backstory on Wolf Boy), and "where" it is relative to the World (what they call the real world) and the Elflands. So much was left undeveloped or just assumed, and I wanted more!Emma Bull lays out an engaging story thread - I liked where the story went - including both the unexpected turns and the bread crumbs.
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LibraryThing member aszanoni
This is one of my comfort books, one that I read despite knowing the bad things that will happen to these characters that I love. I'm not telling you anything specific because I want you to open the book; I want you to fall into this world as I did.
I will say that you'll remember this - you'll
I had never known of the Borderlands before now, so I read backwards - first FINDER, then Will Shetterly's two novels, and then the anthologies. Read them in whatever way you like. Perhaps you'll feel as I did. Perhaps you'll want to find B-town yourself.
Perhaps you'll find yourself addicted to Emma Bull's work too...
I will say that you'll remember this - you'll
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remember that time when you were neither fish nor fowl, teetering between worlds, and it will tug at you. That memory, that sensation, has happened to us all.I had never known of the Borderlands before now, so I read backwards - first FINDER, then Will Shetterly's two novels, and then the anthologies. Read them in whatever way you like. Perhaps you'll feel as I did. Perhaps you'll want to find B-town yourself.
Perhaps you'll find yourself addicted to Emma Bull's work too...
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LibraryThing member selfmanic
One of my favorite authors and books. Anything by Emma Bull is gorgeous but the Character Orient and the people and world he inhabits is stunning.
LibraryThing member Welwyn
This is a must read.
LibraryThing member Crowyhead
A real treat -- rock n' roll, elves, the big city, and murder.
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
An interesting story about secrets and murders. Elves are dying of a plague and humans are dying while trying to be elves, where are the plagues coming from and why is the evidence being hidden as Finder looks for it.
LibraryThing member bookczuk
Here's an odd thing about this book. We picked it up somewhere, and it's languished on our shelves for a bit. I didn't realize it was part of a series until I was well into the story (though I suspected, because there were references to past happenings that I was clueless about.) So, I went online
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to read more about the book. Yes indeed, it is book 6 in the Borderland series (which made me think of Borderland Books in San Francisco, and I now wonder if it's in any way related. But what surprised me the most, was that book 7.2 in the series (at least according to Goodreads) was written by John M Ford, who I knew as Mike Ford. He was an amazing writer, wandering between genres, and nailing it every time, which was great, but made it hard to market him. Fans often want same/same. I met Mike through Jim Rigney, aka Robert Jordan, who was also a friend (breaks my heart that both these larger than life, astonishing men are gone, each far too soon.) Mike's contribution to the series is The Last Hot Time, which was published in 2000. He told us that it was originally a video game script he'd written, but it wasn't accepted, so he turned it into a book. But, it's based in Borderland, and predated the game, so I guess eventually whomever was wanting a script found one they liked. So I've spent the day reading a book and remembering a friend, all of which is pretty cool. Yay! Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 1995)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1994
ISBN
0312854188 / 9780312854188