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Formats
Ebook Details
  • 07/2013
  • 978-0615850597 B00E8IO4WA
  • 302 pages
  • $2.99
Paperback Details
  • 07/2013
  • 978-0615850597 0615850596
  • 358 pages
  • $14.99
Russ Colchamiro
Author
Finders Keepers

Adult; Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror; (Market)

In the spirit of  Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure meets The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ...

Traversing Europe, New Zealand, and the backbone of Eternity, Finders Keepers is a raunchy, sci-fi backpacking comedy that not only tackles friendship, sex, commitment, and desire, but also God, reincarnation--and what really happened to the dinosaurs!

On a backpacking trip through Europe, Jason Medley and Theo Barnes stumble through hash bars and hangovers; religious zealots and stalkers; food poisoning and thunderstorms; cute girls; overnight trains; fever-pitch hallucinations--and the spectre of adult responsibility!

But when a jar containing the Universe's DNA falls from Eternity, these new friends find their loyalties put to the test . . . unaware that a motley crew from another realm is chasing them across the globe, with the fate of the Milky Way hanging in the balance.

For fans of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Christopher Moore, Tom Robins, Third Rock from the Sun, Groundhog Day, Hot Tub Time Machine, and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Finders Keepers is the first book in author Russ Cochamiro's scifi comedy trilogy. 

Reviews
Goodreads

I've done a lot of backpacking over the years, so if you're looking for a book that captures what it's really like ... I definitely recommend Russ Colchamiro's Finders Keepers. It's hilarious.

He totally gets all the frantic running around from trains and buses and hostels and all the crazy people you meet and the places you end up that were totally unexpected.

There are also these scenes where you see the fatigue set in, and how paranoid you get thinking that anybody around you could either end up being your best friend ... or somebody who's trying to steal your stash!

And then he mixes in this nutball scifi comedy story right out of Douglas Adams that had me laughing out loud!

Finders Keeper is a really good laugh.

Goodreads

If Jack Kerouac had gone On The Road, not with Neal Cassady but rather Zaphod Beebebrox, his resulting novel would have turned out much like this.Finders Keepers is full of characters trying to find, and for obvious reasons trying to keep, a jarful of Essence of Universe that fell off a warehouse shelf.

The four main threads of the book follow Donald, Jason, Emma and Theo- not necessarily in that order (or, always, with those names)- as the jar proceeds to act as a verb and jar them into and out of all kinds of strange situations. Although it's been 30-plus years since I've encountered hostel crowds or the weirdness of European train schedules, Russ brought them all back with their vital roles in plotting (often against) his characters.

Virtually every chapter jumps you into itself in the middle of things, but if you accept that and just go along for the ride, it's a wild and fun one.

Goodreads

In the spirit of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 'Finders Keepers' is a raunchy rollicking adventure spanning all of 'Eternity' -- and earth! The story is absurdist fun yet oddly compelling. Wildly humorous yet with a healthy dose of strange drama, so much so that it was actually difficult to put down. I wanted to see where the weird and wonderfully drawn characters ended up or did next...

I can understand why the author has difficulty classifying his works because despite trying to be a Gen Xer's wet dream the book mixes in some amazing insightfulness, not to mention a descriptive skill that places the reader directly into the action. It reads like the author visited all the places he writes about (the ones on earth at least) and made me wish I had gone on a backpacking tour of Europe when I was in my twenties.

And then randomly the reader comes across little sprinkles of philosophy here and there which may, as they did me, stick with you for a long, long time. To paraphrase two of my favorites: 


if you mess up, then mess up even more hugely. Break one glass and the owner may be heartbroken. So break four more to distract his attention from you. It's so stupid it actually has the ring of truth.


And: 'You know how much time you've used but not how much you have left'. Brilliant!

Goodreads

Newlyweds, Donald and Danielle, make an unexpected stop in the Milky Way Galaxy on Earth - out and away from Eternity, their home. Not knowing this fun stop could be disastrous for them and the whole Milky Way Galaxy. They accidentally knocked their assigned jar of CBM (the Universes DNA) off a ledge into a cooling frozen humongous glacier during their hanky panky moment. Lost. Now the warehouses the jars are stored in the off hours are being inventoried and their lost jar will be caught missing, leaving them in serious trouble with consequences.

Jason, an English teacher looking for work in New York, agreed to drop everything and go on a backpacking adventure in Europe. Something completely out of his character. Not knowing what he was going to do or where to visit Jason finds himself in Europe. What could go wrong? The one question you shouldn't ask yourself... Jason finds another gentleman, Theo, who is on a mission to find a person he was sent to find that can tell him about the strange jar he found. These two pair up for their adventures.

This book can't be anything but fun. Look at that cover. If you could see the back of the cover too you would see that. This story reminded me of a farce on a fantasy of gods and creators and a folly of men out for fun and adventure. I loved it.

I enjoyed the way the characters all ended up intermingled with each other. Even when one sent another to meet someone and they all linked through a line of connections. Great work here with the character relations. As I enjoyed the follies of the boys day out, I also enjoyed the Eternitarians. They were the brief fun release for me with the "punishments" that where given to them for their wrong doings. Great lessons to be learned here.

In the end the book had touched on many subjects; friendships between different people male and female, love, sex, and touring the country side in Europe.

The journey these men take struck me as a great mans day out... without woman. The characters learn much about themselves and relationships with others, new and old, in this journey.

Publishers Weekly

As the Milky Way Galaxy is being created in Eternity's laboratories, a jar of CBM (cosmic building material) goes missing on Earth (thanks to the on-the-clock "getting' it on" of two employees). Hapless New Zealander Theo Barnes discovers the jar but has no idea what it contains; when the sea creatures start talking, however, even he realizes that it holds great significance. Eager to learn more, he goes on a backpacking trip through Europe, where he meets Jason Medley, an aimless American on a quest of self-discovery. The two meander across the continent, while all around them people search desperately for the CBM, intent on salvaging the scheduled unveiling of the Milky Way. What Colchamiro's unique and funny novel lacks in coherence, it makes up for in style and panache. The author has created the quintessential bumbling duo in Barnes and Medley, two clueless dudes drifting through a rather dense narrative, and most of the large supporting cast from Eternity (from ex-lovers Emma and Lex to the husband-and-wife team of Donald and Danielle, who lost the jar in the first place) are funny and well-drawn. This is a strong debut from a very imaginative writer.

Science Fiction & Fantasy Association of New Zealand

Finders Keepers is a rollicking novel that ties two principal themes and several inter-related story lines together by way of shifting points of view. The two themes are the discovery of the joy of travel by Jason Medley, a first time backpacker with no experience of life beyond New York state; and the creation of the Milky Way and its artistic centrepiece Earth and its solar system.

The action revolves around a bottle of cosmic creation powder that fell to earth and how it affects its finder, the people who dropped it, and what the Minder of the Universe will do if he ever finds out. Complexly simple really.

Finders Keepers was a novel that surprised me by the way: its characters changed and grew as the novel progressed; the unrelated plotlines coalesced into a whole; the persistent tongue in check attitude towards creation and the religion; and how deeply the author’s love of travel infused the book. For all those reasons this book should be read and promoted – unlike Milo’s Smear, which really is nothing you’d want to look at.

We Love Books: The Booksellers New Zealand Blog

[For] fans of Douglas Adams [and] Terry Pratchett … [Finders Keepers] is an enjoyable and funny read from an author who is obviously brimming with ideas.

Formats
Ebook Details
  • 07/2013
  • 978-0615850597 B00E8IO4WA
  • 302 pages
  • $2.99
Paperback Details
  • 07/2013
  • 978-0615850597 0615850596
  • 358 pages
  • $14.99
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