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Tales of the Ketty Jay #1
Retribution Falls
Frey is the captain of the Ketty Jay, leader of a small and highly dysfunctional band of layabouts. An inveterate womaniser and rogue, he and his gang make a living on the wrong side of the law, avoiding the heavily armed flying frigates of the Coalition Navy. With their trio of ragged fighter craft, they run contraband, rob airships and generally make a nuisance of themselves. So a hot tip on a cargo freighter loaded with valuables seems like a great prospect for an easy heist and a fast buck. Until the heist goes wrong, and the freighter explodes. Suddenly Frey isn't just a nuisance anymore - he's public enemy number one, with the Coalition Navy on his tail and contractors hired to take him down. But Frey knows something they don't. That freighter was rigged to blow, and Frey has been framed to take the fall. If he wants to prove it, he's going to have to catch the real culprit. He must face liars and lovers, dogfights and gunfights, Dukes and daemons. It's going to take all his criminal talents to prove he's not the criminal they think he is ...
380 pages, Paperback
First published June 18, 2009
About the author
Chris Wooding
77 books2,104 followersChris Wooding grew up in a small town in Leicestershire, where not much of anything happened. So he started to write novels. He was sixteen when he completed his first. He had an agent by eighteen. By nineteen he had signed his first book deal. When he left university he began to write full-time, and he has been doing it professionally all his adult life.
Now thirty-nine, Chris has written over twenty books, which have been translated into twenty languages, won various awards and been published around the world. He writes for film and television, and has several projects in development.
Chris has travelled extensively round the world, having backpacked all over Europe and North America, Scandinavia, South East Asia, Japan and South Africa. He also lived in Madrid for a time. When he wasn’t travelling on his own, he spent his twenties touring with bands and seeing the UK and Europe from the back of a van.
He also learned not so long ago that his family tree can be traced back to John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, which has no bearing on him whatsoever but it’s kind of interesting anyway.
Chris lives in London.
Now thirty-nine, Chris has written over twenty books, which have been translated into twenty languages, won various awards and been published around the world. He writes for film and television, and has several projects in development.
Chris has travelled extensively round the world, having backpacked all over Europe and North America, Scandinavia, South East Asia, Japan and South Africa. He also lived in Madrid for a time. When he wasn’t travelling on his own, he spent his twenties touring with bands and seeing the UK and Europe from the back of a van.
He also learned not so long ago that his family tree can be traced back to John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, which has no bearing on him whatsoever but it’s kind of interesting anyway.
Chris lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,247 reviews
October 16, 2018
An entertaining and fun beginning to a steampunk fantasy series filled with great characters.
A few months ago when I finished Wooding’s newest book, The Ember Blade, my review was flooded with comments along the line of “I can’t wait for this one. I loved his Tales of the Ketty Jay series!” and because I absolutely loved The Ember Blade, knowing that there’s so much love for Wooding’s previous series immediately seal the deal that I MUST give this series a try; and I’m glad I gave it a go.
Retribution Falls is the first book in Chris Wooding’s Tales of the Ketty Jay quartet. The main story follows the sky pirate Darian Frey—the unlucky captain of the airship Ketty Jay—and his ragtag team of misfits. The plot began when Frey was offered a heist mission that will make him extremely wealthy and as usual, the mission immediately went completely wrong. Honestly speaking, the first half of the book was really weak in my opinion. The majority of the story in Retribution Falls were very predictable; that’s just the nature of the book after all. Not only the story was predictable, in the first half of the novel I was mostly bored because I found the excellent characterizations that Wooding implemented in The Ember Blade was completely missing. With predictable story and non-engaging characters, I found myself thinking whether the book will ever get better and oh my god, it certainly did. The second half of the book was significantly better in every way possible that every page since the 51% mark became addictive to read.
The aerial dogfights, the writing, the setting, they were all engaging in the second half but it was how invested I am in the characters that enhanced the enjoyment factor of this book by a LOT. The second half of the story was where Wooding finally displays his talent in characterizations. The cast of the Ketty Jay is a unique bunch. They have different personalities, agendas, backgrounds, but then through each difficult circumstances, seeing them eventually bonded as a team was heartwarming and satisfying. All the crew of Ketty Jay came with baggage from their past and this theme ran throughout the entire book; maybe even the entire series. As their past slowly unraveled, their characterizations also were improved. Although this is just the first book of the quartet, there were already plenty of growth and development to the characters’ personality and relationship; even Darian Frey started out as a completely despicable selfish asshole but by the end of the book, my perception towards him has started to change and I have come to care about his predicament. From what I have gathered, it seems like what we’ve seen so far in the first book is just the tip of the iceberg of Wooding’s talent in characterizations. Frey and Crake received the most spotlight within this book, and I can’t wait to know more about these characters and their misadventures.
Lastly, I want to talk a bit about the world-building of the book and my experience with steampunk. Despite experiencing and LOVING tons of steampunk fantasy genre in another medium such as video games, movies, and manga/anime, somehow I haven’t read a lot of steampunk fantasy novels. In fact, the only other series that’s considered as steampunk fantasy that I’ve read and enjoyed was The Books of Babel by Josiah Bancroft. I may have to read more out of this genre because this ended up becoming another steampunk I enjoyed. That said, Retribution Falls seems to receive a lot of comparison with the TV series Firefly, which I have heard only great things about and somehow haven’t watched yet. Because of that, I can’t elaborate upon the comparison but from my experience, there’s plenty of similarity with the anime Cowboy Bebop and other steampunk anime I’ve watched and enjoyed. In this first installment, Wooding did a great job in world-building his steampunk series and leaving a lot of rooms to be improved in the sequels. The aerial dogfights, the airships, the settings, the elation of flying, they were all well-written. Also, I found Wooding’s prose to be super enjoyable and pleasant to read; his prose was simple, never gets in the way of the story, and combined with the fun tone of the book, Retribution Falls was both relaxing and entertaining to read.
Retribution Falls may have a predictable story, I won’t even deny that. But boring? Yes for the first half but absolutely not for the second half of the book. I was so engaged by everything that I just can’t wait to read the predictable parts of the story unfolds. Overall, I found Retribution Falls to be a great beginning to a series. If it weren’t for the subpar first half of the book, it would’ve received an even higher rating from me; I simply enjoyed the second half immensely. Now that I’m already attached to the world and characters, I’m very eager to continue with the series; which majority of the fans seems to agree that it gets better with each sequel.
You can order the book HERE!
You can find this and the rest of my reviews at Novel Notions
A few months ago when I finished Wooding’s newest book, The Ember Blade, my review was flooded with comments along the line of “I can’t wait for this one. I loved his Tales of the Ketty Jay series!” and because I absolutely loved The Ember Blade, knowing that there’s so much love for Wooding’s previous series immediately seal the deal that I MUST give this series a try; and I’m glad I gave it a go.
Retribution Falls is the first book in Chris Wooding’s Tales of the Ketty Jay quartet. The main story follows the sky pirate Darian Frey—the unlucky captain of the airship Ketty Jay—and his ragtag team of misfits. The plot began when Frey was offered a heist mission that will make him extremely wealthy and as usual, the mission immediately went completely wrong. Honestly speaking, the first half of the book was really weak in my opinion. The majority of the story in Retribution Falls were very predictable; that’s just the nature of the book after all. Not only the story was predictable, in the first half of the novel I was mostly bored because I found the excellent characterizations that Wooding implemented in The Ember Blade was completely missing. With predictable story and non-engaging characters, I found myself thinking whether the book will ever get better and oh my god, it certainly did. The second half of the book was significantly better in every way possible that every page since the 51% mark became addictive to read.
The aerial dogfights, the writing, the setting, they were all engaging in the second half but it was how invested I am in the characters that enhanced the enjoyment factor of this book by a LOT. The second half of the story was where Wooding finally displays his talent in characterizations. The cast of the Ketty Jay is a unique bunch. They have different personalities, agendas, backgrounds, but then through each difficult circumstances, seeing them eventually bonded as a team was heartwarming and satisfying. All the crew of Ketty Jay came with baggage from their past and this theme ran throughout the entire book; maybe even the entire series. As their past slowly unraveled, their characterizations also were improved. Although this is just the first book of the quartet, there were already plenty of growth and development to the characters’ personality and relationship; even Darian Frey started out as a completely despicable selfish asshole but by the end of the book, my perception towards him has started to change and I have come to care about his predicament. From what I have gathered, it seems like what we’ve seen so far in the first book is just the tip of the iceberg of Wooding’s talent in characterizations. Frey and Crake received the most spotlight within this book, and I can’t wait to know more about these characters and their misadventures.
“Regret's just a way to make you feel okay when you're not making amends. A man can waste a life with regrets.”
Lastly, I want to talk a bit about the world-building of the book and my experience with steampunk. Despite experiencing and LOVING tons of steampunk fantasy genre in another medium such as video games, movies, and manga/anime, somehow I haven’t read a lot of steampunk fantasy novels. In fact, the only other series that’s considered as steampunk fantasy that I’ve read and enjoyed was The Books of Babel by Josiah Bancroft. I may have to read more out of this genre because this ended up becoming another steampunk I enjoyed. That said, Retribution Falls seems to receive a lot of comparison with the TV series Firefly, which I have heard only great things about and somehow haven’t watched yet. Because of that, I can’t elaborate upon the comparison but from my experience, there’s plenty of similarity with the anime Cowboy Bebop and other steampunk anime I’ve watched and enjoyed. In this first installment, Wooding did a great job in world-building his steampunk series and leaving a lot of rooms to be improved in the sequels. The aerial dogfights, the airships, the settings, the elation of flying, they were all well-written. Also, I found Wooding’s prose to be super enjoyable and pleasant to read; his prose was simple, never gets in the way of the story, and combined with the fun tone of the book, Retribution Falls was both relaxing and entertaining to read.
Retribution Falls may have a predictable story, I won’t even deny that. But boring? Yes for the first half but absolutely not for the second half of the book. I was so engaged by everything that I just can’t wait to read the predictable parts of the story unfolds. Overall, I found Retribution Falls to be a great beginning to a series. If it weren’t for the subpar first half of the book, it would’ve received an even higher rating from me; I simply enjoyed the second half immensely. Now that I’m already attached to the world and characters, I’m very eager to continue with the series; which majority of the fans seems to agree that it gets better with each sequel.
You can order the book HERE!
You can find this and the rest of my reviews at Novel Notions
November 15, 2018
Well, that was fun 😄
September 17, 2017
I wanted to try steampunk genre for a long time. To be honest this isn’t my first steampunk read. I’ve read Senlin Ascends a couple of months ago and even though it had some steampunk elements and steampunkish vibe I wouldn’t label it as a steampunk novel per se. That label belongs to Retribution Falls; a full blown steampunk adventure.
You’re probably asking yourself how can I assume the role of the expert on the field and label this or that if this is my first read of that kind. Well, you’re right. I’m not an expert, far from it, but I do have some experience from playing a lot of video games over the years, so I picked up a thing or two.
Retribution Falls is the first book of the Tales of the Ketty Jay series. If you’re coming late to this party (like I am), I have some great news; this is already a finished series so there is no waiting for the next book to come out. Whilst on the topic; there are readers who prefer binge reading and there are ones who like to take a break between books. Well, great thing about this series is that it can be equally enjoyed either way because Wooding intended for each novel to be a standalone and there are no cliffhanger endings.
The blurb reminded me of the TV show Firefly. To be honest, this is what got my attention in the first place because I was a huge fan of the show. Firefly was the show about the crew members of the ship, Serenity. This crew fights criminals and schemers, Alliance security forces, the utterly psychotic and brutal Reavers, and the mysterious men from the The Blue Sun Corporation. The crew is driven by the need to secure enough income to keep their ship operational, set against their need to keep a low profile to avoid their adversaries. Before I draw parallels between the show and book I want to state that I'm not in any way calling this a TV show rip-off. I'm simply wondering if Wooding was a fan of the show as well and was he influenced by the show in any way.
As stated in the blurb, the main character of this novel is Darian Frey, the captain of the airship Ketty Jay, leader of a small and highly dysfunctional band of layabouts, or as the author calls them, a group of sarcastic, cynical, wisecracking liars. He and his gang make a living on the wrong side of the law, avoiding the heavily armed flying frigates of the Coalition Navy.
Besides the Navy there are other forces in this world to be reckoned with; a mysterious religious order called the Awakeners, and the Archduke, with his personal army, the Century Knights. Even though those two opposing powerhouses maintain some kind of a truce between them, the tension is palpable and the Awakeners are always scheming something to seize the reins of power while the Archduke is doing everything in his power to lower their influence in the world and banish them for good.
This book starts a bit sluggish and it took me some time to get immersed in this world and its characters but that changed very soon when the crew was hired to do a seemingly easy job, to attack another airship and retrieve its precious cargo. The job sounded too good to be true and it was. Things go horribly wrong and shit hits the fan big time. From this moment on, I was hooked. The story picked up the pace and it got more interesting and exciting with every page.
Wooding has a great talent for writing action sequences, especially the airship dogfights which I very much enjoyed. They were suspenseful, gun blazing extravaganza, rocketing my adrenaline levels sky high.
Even though this is a story driven novel, we learn more about the characters through their back stories and that gave them another dimension rather than just being a stereotypical band of misfits. It's hard to say more about the story and the characters without revealing important twists so that endeavor is up to you.
The story wasn't original and some developments were predictable but I couldn't care less. It was action packed, light and more importantly, it was fun and that makes this swashbuckling adventure a perfect summer read.
You’re probably asking yourself how can I assume the role of the expert on the field and label this or that if this is my first read of that kind. Well, you’re right. I’m not an expert, far from it, but I do have some experience from playing a lot of video games over the years, so I picked up a thing or two.
Retribution Falls is the first book of the Tales of the Ketty Jay series. If you’re coming late to this party (like I am), I have some great news; this is already a finished series so there is no waiting for the next book to come out. Whilst on the topic; there are readers who prefer binge reading and there are ones who like to take a break between books. Well, great thing about this series is that it can be equally enjoyed either way because Wooding intended for each novel to be a standalone and there are no cliffhanger endings.
The blurb reminded me of the TV show Firefly. To be honest, this is what got my attention in the first place because I was a huge fan of the show. Firefly was the show about the crew members of the ship, Serenity. This crew fights criminals and schemers, Alliance security forces, the utterly psychotic and brutal Reavers, and the mysterious men from the The Blue Sun Corporation. The crew is driven by the need to secure enough income to keep their ship operational, set against their need to keep a low profile to avoid their adversaries. Before I draw parallels between the show and book I want to state that I'm not in any way calling this a TV show rip-off. I'm simply wondering if Wooding was a fan of the show as well and was he influenced by the show in any way.
As stated in the blurb, the main character of this novel is Darian Frey, the captain of the airship Ketty Jay, leader of a small and highly dysfunctional band of layabouts, or as the author calls them, a group of sarcastic, cynical, wisecracking liars. He and his gang make a living on the wrong side of the law, avoiding the heavily armed flying frigates of the Coalition Navy.
Besides the Navy there are other forces in this world to be reckoned with; a mysterious religious order called the Awakeners, and the Archduke, with his personal army, the Century Knights. Even though those two opposing powerhouses maintain some kind of a truce between them, the tension is palpable and the Awakeners are always scheming something to seize the reins of power while the Archduke is doing everything in his power to lower their influence in the world and banish them for good.
This book starts a bit sluggish and it took me some time to get immersed in this world and its characters but that changed very soon when the crew was hired to do a seemingly easy job, to attack another airship and retrieve its precious cargo. The job sounded too good to be true and it was. Things go horribly wrong and shit hits the fan big time. From this moment on, I was hooked. The story picked up the pace and it got more interesting and exciting with every page.
Wooding has a great talent for writing action sequences, especially the airship dogfights which I very much enjoyed. They were suspenseful, gun blazing extravaganza, rocketing my adrenaline levels sky high.
Even though this is a story driven novel, we learn more about the characters through their back stories and that gave them another dimension rather than just being a stereotypical band of misfits. It's hard to say more about the story and the characters without revealing important twists so that endeavor is up to you.
The story wasn't original and some developments were predictable but I couldn't care less. It was action packed, light and more importantly, it was fun and that makes this swashbuckling adventure a perfect summer read.
April 27, 2023
Nataliya Gushes About This Book - Picture Frenzy - More Book Gushing - I Want To Be An Airship Pilot (*) 
Retribution Falls is a well-crafted steampunk novel that immediately won me over. It is a very entertaining and refreshing read that has everything you want for 400-plus pages of delightful fun. I am serious - I mean, there are airships, sky piracy, GOLD, legendary pirate city, revolvers, adventures, danger, undead, conspiracies, betrayal, camaraderie, debauchery, and plenty of tight corners for our characters. Whew! What else do you need? Plus, did I mention there is a golem - a charming Bess, "eight feet tall and five broad, a half-ton armoured monstrosity".
This is a story about a bunch of misfits who are forced together by circumstances and end up developing real bonds of friendship. Among others, we have a captain with a truly rotten luck, a demonist haunted by a dark secret, and a navigator who appearsundead heartbeat-challenged. Living on the edge of the law, constantly broke, hiding their dark secrets, and having a knack for getting tangled up in the conspiracies that seem well above their heads, this rogue pirates-wannabe bunch somehow manages to wriggle themselves out of endless tight corners while winning over the readers' hearts.
They start as a bunch of outcasts with no better prospects; they end up as a crew and *gasp* friends. Ahem... almost... unless gold is involved.
Darian Frey, the captain, starts as a classical antihero. He does not care that much for his crew (much to frequent and well-deserved dismay of Crake). Actually, the list of the things he cares for initially is pretty short, and if you are not on it (and are not a hot girl) but need Frey's help ... well, you're pretty much screwed. The aforementioned list is below:
But a heist gone terribly wrong combined with a few life lessons may just do the trick. This rogue Johnny Depp-esque captain just may turn out to have a heart of gold, after all. (The demonist Crake will definitely appreciate it, given that he has a propensity to end up in situations where a gun is held to his head.) Frey may learn to grudgingly appreciate his crew in the end (once there is no chance to obtain gold!)
Excellent read! So good. Loved it. Great concept, excellent execution. Can't wait to read the rest of this series. Also - I want to pilot an airship. Easy 5 stars.
* Oh, did I mention how much I love Jules Verne-esque chapter titles?
Retribution Falls is a well-crafted steampunk novel that immediately won me over. It is a very entertaining and refreshing read that has everything you want for 400-plus pages of delightful fun. I am serious - I mean, there are airships, sky piracy, GOLD, legendary pirate city, revolvers, adventures, danger, undead, conspiracies, betrayal, camaraderie, debauchery, and plenty of tight corners for our characters. Whew! What else do you need? Plus, did I mention there is a golem - a charming Bess, "eight feet tall and five broad, a half-ton armoured monstrosity".
This is a story about a bunch of misfits who are forced together by circumstances and end up developing real bonds of friendship. Among others, we have a captain with a truly rotten luck, a demonist haunted by a dark secret, and a navigator who appears
Darian Frey, the captain, starts as a classical antihero. He does not care that much for his crew (much to frequent and well-deserved dismay of Crake). Actually, the list of the things he cares for initially is pretty short, and if you are not on it (and are not a hot girl) but need Frey's help ... well, you're pretty much screwed. The aforementioned list is below:
But a heist gone terribly wrong combined with a few life lessons may just do the trick. This rogue Johnny Depp-esque captain just may turn out to have a heart of gold, after all. (The demonist Crake will definitely appreciate it, given that he has a propensity to end up in situations where a gun is held to his head.) Frey may learn to grudgingly appreciate his crew in the end (once there is no chance to obtain gold!)
Frey couldn’t keep down a grin. As he looked at the laughing faces of his crew, he was consumed by a surge of affection for these people, these men and women who shared his aircraft and his life. They were happy, and free, and the endless sky awaited them. It was enough.The story is very much character-driven, but definitely not at the expense of the plot. The politics of this world are well-weaved into the story, and it does not have the clunky exposition feel of many other stories out there. The pacing is excellent, the world-building superb, the writing is good, crisp, and engaging. As for the setting, for me it was so much fun to trade the fun but well-used worlds of either spaceships and star travel or swords, dragons, and magicians for the steampunk setting with airships and revolvers.
Excellent read! So good. Loved it. Great concept, excellent execution. Can't wait to read the rest of this series. Also - I want to pilot an airship. Easy 5 stars.
July 7, 2024
I am sure I’d hate Darian Frey if I met him: a rebellious Peter Pan with ego overgrowth. But may, wasn’t it fun to read about the scoundrel! And his airship. And his crew. What a merry band of misfits!
Because The Olympian Affair went G.R.R. Martin on me, I am substituting myself with other steampunk series. The first volume of the “Tales of the Ketty Jay” introduces us to Captain Darian Frey, who - as befits a lesser pirate - barely makes ends meet, and gets into trouble every now and then. The only thing Darian Frey seems to be good at is growing a list of ports he is not coming back to and a list of women who dream of the m-word (that will be either “marriage” or “murder”, sometimes both). Oblivious to the writing on the wall, he gets caught up in a conspiracy and becomes the most wanted man in the country, pursued both by determined law enforcement forces and dangerous bounty hunters.
And then there is Ketty Jay (yes, I was consistently reading this as Jetty Kay), an aerium-powered skyship, ugly, bulky thing, more valuable to the captain than all his crew put together: two pilots, an engineer, a doctor, a navigator and a resident guest whose best asset is his golem and a golden tooth (there is also a cat). It is a jumble of random losers and derailed individuals who have their own reasons to be on the run. But then, competence is not a prerequisite for joining, it is rather the lack of viable alternatives and a pinch of desperation.
“Grab yourself a gun. Welcome to the crew.”
Among this ragged collection of vagrants, there are: a non-practising physician Malvery, silent mechanic Silo, two outfliers Harkins and Artis Pinn, the first as cowardly as the second is stupid, navigator Jezibeth Kyte, called simply Jez, passenger-daemonist Grayther Crake, and the resident cat called Slag. This bunch of mismatched social outcasts and outlaws gets entangled in a power play by their snot of a captain, who accepts a suspiciously easy and lucrative task.
Predictable? Perhaps. “Retribution Falls” has all these elements that can be expected: fast pacing, a dose of pirate humour, numerous battles and pursuits, explosions and escapes, stratagems and plans with no chance of success, and a political and religious conspiracy on a global scale. The world-building elements are equally colourful from technology to magic (demonology?), to politics or religion. And although the world-building is somewhat sketchy, I don’t hold a grudge as this is a short novel packed with action so obviously some sacrifices had to be made. There is no need to worry about the boredom because after the deceptively unprepossessing beginning, the course of events does not slow down even for a moment, and the characters smoothly get out of the fire into the frying pan, and then into yet another, bigger predicament.
“You weren’t giving the cat rum again, were you?”
And so while the book does not surprise, it does not disappoint either. It is a solid portion of adventure and entertainment, full of action and humour, seasoned with a pinch of drama and conspiracies. Mr Wooding liberally draws upon the literary canon of the genre, hence pirates, smugglers and the Navy that hunts them, ports more or less shady or derelict, imprisoned lady (Amalicia Thade), and a secret hideout. Naturally, there had to be spectacular aerial battles, but there is even a cursed ship.
Pirate stories or stories about a group of people balancing on the border of the criminal world have their unique charm. “Retribution Falls” also has this “something.” The lightness of narrative, dry humour, characters that were not bleached for the sake of convenience. Mr Wooding managed to breathe life into a group of individuals who are far from crystal protagonists. Their decisions are often controversial, and the past choices and life priorities are morally doubtful. Despite this, the characters can arouse sympathy.
“Let’s get out of here and stab some backs!”
Although some of the crew members are a bit two-dimensional, they are all the same expressive, with quirky flaws, and each with their own mystery. I was eagerly waiting for the riddles to be solved, though I cared more about the personal stories than the one that propelled the main tale. On the cons side, except for Frey and maybe Crake, the rest of the heroes were treated neglectfully and their backstories were somewhat banal. And, unfortunately, all the mysteries are explained, all the questions are answered, and the Author left nothing to the imagination or anticipation. This was necessary for the Internal Transformation trope that changes a group of random people with problems into a real crew that not so much stops running from something, but rather starts running in the same direction. It was cheesy but believable. Almost. Darian Frey, an immature dodger and gander who dreams of freedom and independence but never bothers to reach out for them, after the cathartic reveal remains an absolute loser and rascal and his personal drama, when juxtaposed with Trinicia’s story (and the subsequent Amalicia fling) was just too much to grant him absolution.
Nevertheless, “Retribution Falls” is one of those pleasant, casual books; an excellent breather in between the heavier books. It is easy, light, and fast read, devoid of depth, nostalgia, romance, unnecessary descriptions, and philosophy. For lovers of pirates in skyships, it is a must. But I am sure that the readers who appreciate an odd steampunk or a space opera here and there, will also be pleased.
Also in the series:
2. The Black Lung Captain ★★★★☆
3. The Iron Jackal ★★★★☆
4. The Ace of Skulls ★★★★☆
Because The Olympian Affair went G.R.R. Martin on me, I am substituting myself with other steampunk series. The first volume of the “Tales of the Ketty Jay” introduces us to Captain Darian Frey, who - as befits a lesser pirate - barely makes ends meet, and gets into trouble every now and then. The only thing Darian Frey seems to be good at is growing a list of ports he is not coming back to and a list of women who dream of the m-word (that will be either “marriage” or “murder”, sometimes both). Oblivious to the writing on the wall, he gets caught up in a conspiracy and becomes the most wanted man in the country, pursued both by determined law enforcement forces and dangerous bounty hunters.
And then there is Ketty Jay (yes, I was consistently reading this as Jetty Kay), an aerium-powered skyship, ugly, bulky thing, more valuable to the captain than all his crew put together: two pilots, an engineer, a doctor, a navigator and a resident guest whose best asset is his golem and a golden tooth (there is also a cat). It is a jumble of random losers and derailed individuals who have their own reasons to be on the run. But then, competence is not a prerequisite for joining, it is rather the lack of viable alternatives and a pinch of desperation.
“Grab yourself a gun. Welcome to the crew.”
Among this ragged collection of vagrants, there are: a non-practising physician Malvery, silent mechanic Silo, two outfliers Harkins and Artis Pinn, the first as cowardly as the second is stupid, navigator Jezibeth Kyte, called simply Jez, passenger-daemonist Grayther Crake, and the resident cat called Slag. This bunch of mismatched social outcasts and outlaws gets entangled in a power play by their snot of a captain, who accepts a suspiciously easy and lucrative task.
Predictable? Perhaps. “Retribution Falls” has all these elements that can be expected: fast pacing, a dose of pirate humour, numerous battles and pursuits, explosions and escapes, stratagems and plans with no chance of success, and a political and religious conspiracy on a global scale. The world-building elements are equally colourful from technology to magic (demonology?), to politics or religion. And although the world-building is somewhat sketchy, I don’t hold a grudge as this is a short novel packed with action so obviously some sacrifices had to be made. There is no need to worry about the boredom because after the deceptively unprepossessing beginning, the course of events does not slow down even for a moment, and the characters smoothly get out of the fire into the frying pan, and then into yet another, bigger predicament.
“You weren’t giving the cat rum again, were you?”
And so while the book does not surprise, it does not disappoint either. It is a solid portion of adventure and entertainment, full of action and humour, seasoned with a pinch of drama and conspiracies. Mr Wooding liberally draws upon the literary canon of the genre, hence pirates, smugglers and the Navy that hunts them, ports more or less shady or derelict, imprisoned lady (Amalicia Thade), and a secret hideout. Naturally, there had to be spectacular aerial battles, but there is even a cursed ship.
Pirate stories or stories about a group of people balancing on the border of the criminal world have their unique charm. “Retribution Falls” also has this “something.” The lightness of narrative, dry humour, characters that were not bleached for the sake of convenience. Mr Wooding managed to breathe life into a group of individuals who are far from crystal protagonists. Their decisions are often controversial, and the past choices and life priorities are morally doubtful. Despite this, the characters can arouse sympathy.
“Let’s get out of here and stab some backs!”
Although some of the crew members are a bit two-dimensional, they are all the same expressive, with quirky flaws, and each with their own mystery. I was eagerly waiting for the riddles to be solved, though I cared more about the personal stories than the one that propelled the main tale. On the cons side, except for Frey and maybe Crake, the rest of the heroes were treated neglectfully and their backstories were somewhat banal. And, unfortunately, all the mysteries are explained, all the questions are answered, and the Author left nothing to the imagination or anticipation. This was necessary for the Internal Transformation trope that changes a group of random people with problems into a real crew that not so much stops running from something, but rather starts running in the same direction. It was cheesy but believable. Almost. Darian Frey, an immature dodger and gander who dreams of freedom and independence but never bothers to reach out for them, after the cathartic reveal remains an absolute loser and rascal and his personal drama, when juxtaposed with Trinicia’s story (and the subsequent Amalicia fling) was just too much to grant him absolution.
Nevertheless, “Retribution Falls” is one of those pleasant, casual books; an excellent breather in between the heavier books. It is easy, light, and fast read, devoid of depth, nostalgia, romance, unnecessary descriptions, and philosophy. For lovers of pirates in skyships, it is a must. But I am sure that the readers who appreciate an odd steampunk or a space opera here and there, will also be pleased.
Also in the series:
2. The Black Lung Captain ★★★★☆
3. The Iron Jackal ★★★★☆
4. The Ace of Skulls ★★★★☆
October 22, 2015
Four and a half stars. First read through, have to say it was very good. Probably my favorite steampunk to date, and a fine novel all around. Airships, gunfights, pirates, a golem, daemons... lots of fun ingredients but also fully developed characters. A little bit of the "shades of grey" protagonists; the captain of the airship seems to resemble Captain Jack Sparrow--charming as all get out, but you have the sneaking suspicion he isn't trustworthy. In fact, first couple of incidents we witness cement it. I had a little trouble with the narrative at times, as it jumped from person to person, and the in between, the prior narrator gets lost when the next takes over. There's some complicated politicking in the background, and that's where I got a little lost, but I think the plot hangs together in the context of the setting. There is a redemption angle that becomes very satisfying, as the band of motley almost-pirates eventually learns to trust each other. I'll likely be adding it to my own library, and I'm not adding books unless they are re-reads.
May 31, 2020
BR with the BBB gang starting November 27, 2015.
I read this book while buddy reading The Chronicles of the Black Company. BAD idea. The series is so mind-blowingly awesome that any book pales in comparison.
♦ Retribution Falls – What should have been ♦
This book was a 5-star rating waiting to happen. Why? Because sky pirates + inveterate womanizer/rogue mc + gang of dysfunctional misfits =
The mere presence of Captain Frey, our resident rogue, should have triggered this Pavlovian response in me: BAM! Kidnapped!
► I'm afraid this didn't quite work out as expected. Sigh.
♦ Retribution Falls – What actually was ♦
→ Yes, even Batman is sad.
The book isn't badly written, it's not uninteresting, it's not boring. And it actually meets most of my OMG I'm In Love Requirements:
✔ Fantastic, original premise!
✔ Great world building!
✔ Interesting plot!
✔ Fast pace!
✔ Lots of action!
✔ Cool aerial fights!
✔ Potentially awesome cast of rascals and villains! ← there might be a hint there. A hint that starts with "p" and ends with "y" ← just pointing this out in case you hadn't noticed ← you're welcome.
✔ Great banter!
✔ A rum-drinking cat and a delightfully charming golem!
What went wrong? The potentially awesome cast of characters wasn't awesome. Far from it. The potentially awesome cast of characters was bland. The potentially awesome cast of characters was flat. The potentially awesome cast of characters was as emotional as a truckload of bricks. The characters are one-dimensional. They lack complexity and depth. They feel distant and detached, which makes it nearly impossible to connect with them.
This book is a lesson in bad characterization. Wood tries to explain the characters' past and present behaviours at length. He tries so hard that he makes a mess of it. You end up feeling confused as hell. What are the characters' motivations? No freaking idea. What drives them? If anyone figures it out, please let me know. How are you supposed to care about a cast you can't connect with, and don't understand? Beats me.
→ NO, this is not a picture of my little self, people. It's just a lady with greying hair making a face. Then again I might be lying, this might actually be me. Who knows? By the way, am I the only who thinks this woman-who-might-or-might-not-be-my-little-self should have been cast in one of the Harry Potter movies? I am? Okay, never mind.
►► And the moral of this review is:
① This book should have been epic. But it wasn't.
② The characters in this book should have been an awesome gang. But they weren't.
►► And the moral of the moral of this review is:
Characterization is crap but the world and story were pretty cool, so I'm going to give book 2 a try. Optimism is me.
→ NO, this is not a picture of my little self, people. It's just a horribly optimistic guy with a ridiculous mustache, giving the thumbs up with disgusting glee. Then again I might be lying, this might actually be me. Who knows?
· Book 2: The Black Lung Captain ★★★★
· Book 3: The Iron Jackal ★★★
· Book 4: The Ace of Skulls ★★
I read this book while buddy reading The Chronicles of the Black Company. BAD idea. The series is so mind-blowingly awesome that any book pales in comparison.
♦ Retribution Falls – What should have been ♦
This book was a 5-star rating waiting to happen. Why? Because sky pirates + inveterate womanizer/rogue mc + gang of dysfunctional misfits =
The mere presence of Captain Frey, our resident rogue, should have triggered this Pavlovian response in me: BAM! Kidnapped!
► I'm afraid this didn't quite work out as expected. Sigh.
♦ Retribution Falls – What actually was ♦
→ Yes, even Batman is sad.
The book isn't badly written, it's not uninteresting, it's not boring. And it actually meets most of my OMG I'm In Love Requirements:
✔ Fantastic, original premise!
✔ Great world building!
✔ Interesting plot!
✔ Fast pace!
✔ Lots of action!
✔ Cool aerial fights!
✔ Potentially awesome cast of rascals and villains! ← there might be a hint there. A hint that starts with "p" and ends with "y" ← just pointing this out in case you hadn't noticed ← you're welcome.
✔ Great banter!
✔ A rum-drinking cat and a delightfully charming golem!
What went wrong? The potentially awesome cast of characters wasn't awesome. Far from it. The potentially awesome cast of characters was bland. The potentially awesome cast of characters was flat. The potentially awesome cast of characters was as emotional as a truckload of bricks. The characters are one-dimensional. They lack complexity and depth. They feel distant and detached, which makes it nearly impossible to connect with them.
This book is a lesson in bad characterization. Wood tries to explain the characters' past and present behaviours at length. He tries so hard that he makes a mess of it. You end up feeling confused as hell. What are the characters' motivations? No freaking idea. What drives them? If anyone figures it out, please let me know. How are you supposed to care about a cast you can't connect with, and don't understand? Beats me.
→ NO, this is not a picture of my little self, people. It's just a lady with greying hair making a face. Then again I might be lying, this might actually be me. Who knows? By the way, am I the only who thinks this woman-who-might-or-might-not-be-my-little-self should have been cast in one of the Harry Potter movies? I am? Okay, never mind.
►► And the moral of this review is:
① This book should have been epic. But it wasn't.
② The characters in this book should have been an awesome gang. But they weren't.
►► And the moral of the moral of this review is:
Characterization is crap but the world and story were pretty cool, so I'm going to give book 2 a try. Optimism is me.
→ NO, this is not a picture of my little self, people. It's just a horribly optimistic guy with a ridiculous mustache, giving the thumbs up with disgusting glee. Then again I might be lying, this might actually be me. Who knows?
· Book 2: The Black Lung Captain ★★★★
· Book 3: The Iron Jackal ★★★
· Book 4: The Ace of Skulls ★★
April 19, 2013
When they accidentally blow up The Ace of Skulls, and with it, the archduke's son, in a misguided act of piracy, Darian Frey and the misfit crew of the Ketty Jay wind up in the soup. Their salvation seems to be the mythical pirate port, Retribution Falls. But can they reach their safe haven before they wind up dead?
Retribution Falls is one of those books that's hard to classify. At first glance, it might be called steampunk, but it's more like fantasy with an odd tech level. There are airships that remind me of something out of Firefly, late 19th century level guns, and magical things like golems and daemons. Low tech science fantasy, maybe?
The crew of the Ketty Jay are a bunch of losers and misfits. There's the cowardly selfish captain, Darian Frey, Jez, the mysterious new navigator, the daemonist, Crake, and the rest. Actually, Frey, Jez, and Crake are the only ones that are developed enough to really care about, although I did have soft spots for Slag the cat and Bess the golem. By the end of the book, the pasts and personalities of all three are fleshed out and Frey proves to have some redeeming qualities after all.
It took a while for the story to get going but once the Ace of Skulls was destroyed, there was a lot of running, fighting, and airship battles. The action reminded me of some of the old Star Wars X-Wing books, only better written. Speaking of the writing, there's a surprising amount of humor in the dialog and the writing itself is actually fairly good.
Retribution Falls is a fun read. I wasn't ass over tea kettle in love with it but I liked it enough that I'll read the next book in the series. Three stars.
Retribution Falls is one of those books that's hard to classify. At first glance, it might be called steampunk, but it's more like fantasy with an odd tech level. There are airships that remind me of something out of Firefly, late 19th century level guns, and magical things like golems and daemons. Low tech science fantasy, maybe?
The crew of the Ketty Jay are a bunch of losers and misfits. There's the cowardly selfish captain, Darian Frey, Jez, the mysterious new navigator, the daemonist, Crake, and the rest. Actually, Frey, Jez, and Crake are the only ones that are developed enough to really care about, although I did have soft spots for Slag the cat and Bess the golem. By the end of the book, the pasts and personalities of all three are fleshed out and Frey proves to have some redeeming qualities after all.
It took a while for the story to get going but once the Ace of Skulls was destroyed, there was a lot of running, fighting, and airship battles. The action reminded me of some of the old Star Wars X-Wing books, only better written. Speaking of the writing, there's a surprising amount of humor in the dialog and the writing itself is actually fairly good.
Retribution Falls is a fun read. I wasn't ass over tea kettle in love with it but I liked it enough that I'll read the next book in the series. Three stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 22, 2014
What happens if you combine The Lies of Locke Lamora with air ships, then add some Pirates of the Caribbean? This. This is what happens. Chris Wooding nailed it in Retribution Falls.
I'll get this out of the way. I've been told it's a lot like Firefly. You may have to take away my geek card here ... but I've never seen Firefly. The movie, Serenity, was excellent, but I'm still looking forward to checking out the show. This means I can't confirm or deny the comparison.
I apologize for any non-Firefly comparisons. I've been reprimanded before.
Darian Frey and a rag-tag crew of misunderstood and much-maligned individuals seeking a place where questions are few engage in smuggling operations, but decide to take on piracy even though it hasn't worked well for Frey in the past. The price, however, will make him set for life, especially if he fails to share the proceeds with the rest of the crew.
Thus sets off the events that follow in a rip-roaring, page-turning, blast of a read. I hate to use such cliche's (as if I'm innocent of their use in plenty of other reviews), but in this case there is no better way to describe this book.
I've read Wooding before, his middle-grade books Malice and Havoc, and I learned his ability to plot is up there with Matthew Woodring Stover for me. Add the ability to make the pages blur by and Wooding (not to be confused with Woodring) is another author to add to the buy-new-releases-immediately list.
I had tons of fun from the first page, which btw throws you right into some action, and I can't recommend this enough. Airships and piracy and a main protagonist as clever as Locke Lamora. You can't lose.
4.5 out of 5 Stars (very highly recommended)
I'll get this out of the way. I've been told it's a lot like Firefly. You may have to take away my geek card here ... but I've never seen Firefly. The movie, Serenity, was excellent, but I'm still looking forward to checking out the show. This means I can't confirm or deny the comparison.
I apologize for any non-Firefly comparisons. I've been reprimanded before.
Darian Frey and a rag-tag crew of misunderstood and much-maligned individuals seeking a place where questions are few engage in smuggling operations, but decide to take on piracy even though it hasn't worked well for Frey in the past. The price, however, will make him set for life, especially if he fails to share the proceeds with the rest of the crew.
Thus sets off the events that follow in a rip-roaring, page-turning, blast of a read. I hate to use such cliche's (as if I'm innocent of their use in plenty of other reviews), but in this case there is no better way to describe this book.
I've read Wooding before, his middle-grade books Malice and Havoc, and I learned his ability to plot is up there with Matthew Woodring Stover for me. Add the ability to make the pages blur by and Wooding (not to be confused with Woodring) is another author to add to the buy-new-releases-immediately list.
I had tons of fun from the first page, which btw throws you right into some action, and I can't recommend this enough. Airships and piracy and a main protagonist as clever as Locke Lamora. You can't lose.
4.5 out of 5 Stars (very highly recommended)
July 8, 2016
This is one fun novel. Combining several popular themes: steampunk, airships, pirates, ragtag team protagonists (my personal fav theme), and forbidden magic.
At first I thought the strength of this novel is in the action scenes, and witty dialogs. But after reaching the mid part, I changed my mind. The strength of this novel is on the character developments in an action-packed story. Not all parts of the story are plot driven, but some story parts are character driven.
I believe many readers will find the the plots are predictable although well executed. Well, it is not a mystery novel, so predictable plot is okay for me, I still achieve warm heart feeling at later chapters.
The Ragtag Team protagonists are the main course of this story, you can pick your fav. I like Pinn .
Additional note after finished reading the series: This series is consistently good until the last/fourth book. This series is so consistent, my review above for the first book is still relevant for whole series, except for the spoilers that referring the first book only.
At first I thought the strength of this novel is in the action scenes, and witty dialogs. But after reaching the mid part, I changed my mind. The strength of this novel is on the character developments in an action-packed story. Not all parts of the story are plot driven, but some story parts are character driven.
I believe many readers will find the the plots are predictable although well executed. Well, it is not a mystery novel, so predictable plot is okay for me, I still achieve warm heart feeling at later chapters.
The Ragtag Team protagonists are the main course of this story, you can pick your fav. I like Pinn .
Additional note after finished reading the series: This series is consistently good until the last/fourth book. This series is so consistent, my review above for the first book is still relevant for whole series, except for the spoilers that referring the first book only.
Want to read
November 4, 2015No, I've not yet read this yet, but I'm adding a note because (a) it's on sale for $1.99 so well worth picking up now and (b) someone on /r/fantasy (a site I love) said it was a highly underrated book. So I'm bumping it on my TBR pile.
July 5, 2018
I had lot of fun. First book of Tales of Ketty Jay offers fun adventure and interesting set of characters. Bunch of misfits and renegades, all of which get their fascinating backstories revealed.
The reason why this book isn't getting higher rating is that most of aspects of it are just "good enough". It had strong Firefly vibe all wraped in interesting steampunk setting but writing falls bit flat. There was no witty banter and fun quotes, in fact there was no dialog or monologue would remember after I finished book. It didn't have great writing style or worldbuilding of Seniln ascends or Railsea (two steampunk-ish books I adore). And while book has some very grim moments in the end everything fold neatly like in Disney movie.
Despite it's flaws it was still a good read. As I said above I had lot of fun with it and I'm continuing with the series in near future.
The reason why this book isn't getting higher rating is that most of aspects of it are just "good enough". It had strong Firefly vibe all wraped in interesting steampunk setting but writing falls bit flat. There was no witty banter and fun quotes, in fact there was no dialog or monologue would remember after I finished book. It didn't have great writing style or worldbuilding of Seniln ascends or Railsea (two steampunk-ish books I adore). And while book has some very grim moments in the end everything fold neatly like in Disney movie.
Despite it's flaws it was still a good read. As I said above I had lot of fun with it and I'm continuing with the series in near future.
July 10, 2017
Retribution Falls is a steampunk fantasy that has loads of action. The air ships were interesting and I especially liked the air battles. The second half was better than the first half, but I pretty much liked it from the beginning. The characters were all interesting but Frey, the captain, had to grow on me.
Sky piracy is a bit out of Darian Frey’s league. Fate has not been kind to the captain of the airship Ketty Jay—or his motley crew. They are all running from something.
I wouldn't say fate had anything to do with it. More like personal choices. Frey does have extremely bad luck, mostly brought on by his own choices. I wasn't sure what to think of him at first, then I pretty much hated him for a while, and finally I ended up kind of liking him. Why the big change in the way I felt about him? Character growth. There was a lot of character growth and in the end Frey was not the same man that he was at the beginning of this book. I really like when books have flawed characters that actually grow.
Crake is a daemonist in hiding, traveling with an armored golem and burdened by guilt. Jez is the new navigator, desperate to keep her secret from the rest of the crew. Malvery is a disgraced doctor, drinking himself to death.
That's most of the ship's crew and I must say that I liked the crew a lot better than Frey in the beginning. I think my favorite character in the book was probably Jez. She also was the only one who wasn't in her predicament because of some choice she made. Crake and his golem, Bess were also very interesting. My least favorite crew member was probably Pinn. He's a real dimwit and clearly he's not playing with a full deck. This I suppose could be funny at times, but I didn't find much to like about him, except for when he was in the cockpit of his little airship entertaining us during the air battles.
When an opportunity arises to steal a chest of gems from a vulnerable airship, Frey can’t pass it up. It’s an easy take—and the payoff will finally make him a rich man.
The crew takes on this mission that sounds really simple and is supposed to make them rich. Of course the mission goes south. I've never read a book like this where it didn't. Could you imagine if everything went as planned and the characters all ended up filthy rich almost from the beginning? How much fun would that be and what story would there be left to tell? I would actually like to see someone try to pull that off in a book. I'm not sure what the rest of the story would be about, but hey, it would be different. So of course things don't go as planned, and in the most horrible way, and Frey and the crew of the Ketty Jay are left trying to figure out what is going on while on the run.
Most of what happens in the book is pretty predictable, but still entertaining. It does remind me a lot of Firefly, which many people have compared it to. I didn't have high expectations going into this so I feel like it checked off all the boxes of what I wanted it to be. A fun, rather light steampunk fantasy. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
Review also posted at Writings of a Reader
Sky piracy is a bit out of Darian Frey’s league. Fate has not been kind to the captain of the airship Ketty Jay—or his motley crew. They are all running from something.
I wouldn't say fate had anything to do with it. More like personal choices. Frey does have extremely bad luck, mostly brought on by his own choices. I wasn't sure what to think of him at first, then I pretty much hated him for a while, and finally I ended up kind of liking him. Why the big change in the way I felt about him? Character growth. There was a lot of character growth and in the end Frey was not the same man that he was at the beginning of this book. I really like when books have flawed characters that actually grow.
Crake is a daemonist in hiding, traveling with an armored golem and burdened by guilt. Jez is the new navigator, desperate to keep her secret from the rest of the crew. Malvery is a disgraced doctor, drinking himself to death.
That's most of the ship's crew and I must say that I liked the crew a lot better than Frey in the beginning. I think my favorite character in the book was probably Jez. She also was the only one who wasn't in her predicament because of some choice she made. Crake and his golem, Bess were also very interesting. My least favorite crew member was probably Pinn. He's a real dimwit and clearly he's not playing with a full deck. This I suppose could be funny at times, but I didn't find much to like about him, except for when he was in the cockpit of his little airship entertaining us during the air battles.
When an opportunity arises to steal a chest of gems from a vulnerable airship, Frey can’t pass it up. It’s an easy take—and the payoff will finally make him a rich man.
The crew takes on this mission that sounds really simple and is supposed to make them rich. Of course the mission goes south. I've never read a book like this where it didn't. Could you imagine if everything went as planned and the characters all ended up filthy rich almost from the beginning? How much fun would that be and what story would there be left to tell? I would actually like to see someone try to pull that off in a book. I'm not sure what the rest of the story would be about, but hey, it would be different. So of course things don't go as planned, and in the most horrible way, and Frey and the crew of the Ketty Jay are left trying to figure out what is going on while on the run.
Most of what happens in the book is pretty predictable, but still entertaining. It does remind me a lot of Firefly, which many people have compared it to. I didn't have high expectations going into this so I feel like it checked off all the boxes of what I wanted it to be. A fun, rather light steampunk fantasy. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
Review also posted at Writings of a Reader
July 9, 2017
A really slow start to this one had me wondering at the one-third mark if it was worth finishing. It got better and better from that point forward.
A steampunk tale about a bunch of misfits who finally bond as a crew. Their duplicitous captain more than most leads the pirate/smugglers on their misadventures where all of their pasts come back to haunt them to one extent or another.
Looking forward to the rest of the series.
A steampunk tale about a bunch of misfits who finally bond as a crew. Their duplicitous captain more than most leads the pirate/smugglers on their misadventures where all of their pasts come back to haunt them to one extent or another.
Looking forward to the rest of the series.
May 5, 2015
I read this as a buddy read with Mercedes and Brock and I have to say that I read this over a few hours (on just 2 days) and I loved every second! I think there's a bit of a misconception surrounding this book in that it looks and seems like it could be a YA or Children's book because it's shorter than many adult fantasies are, but this is most definitely a solid adult Steampunk book and for one of my first few exposures to Steampunk this book handled that so brilliantly :D
This is the story of The Ketty Jay and its crew of misfits. The Ketty Jay is a Pirate-like airship (pictured on the cover) which is in a world where airships and steampunk machinery are common, pirates roam freely, and the Navy has a hard enough time trying to calm down the pirates that they leave the small-timers (like the Ketty Jay and its crew) alone.
Frey is the Captain of the Ketty Jay and he's a rather distrusting and mysterious Captain. He is blunt, and stubborn and we see his resolve tested very early in the book. He's the only one who can fly the Ketty Jay, which is pretty much the only reason he's the Captain (because he's a pretty disorganised one!) He's a bit of a scatterbrain at times and his adventures usually end in disaster so when he's offered the chance at a 'big-break' he takes it up...with some crazy consequences...
Next we have Crake who is the second character who is onboard Ketty Jay and he's actually not really a pirate or freeloader at all. He's kind of a stowaway (although we don't know why yet) and he's actually from the Nobility. He also has a 'friend' who he brings on board to help the crew and her name is Bess, she's a Golem (a metal body with a spirit inside). Crake and Bess have a strange relationship to the point where the other members of the Crew think maybe he's actually in love with her!
Crake's backstory was one of the most interesting that we get told about, and also one of the most emotional. He's actually a daemonist which means he can do some really cool things harnessing the power of various demons, and I loved seeing what he could do and how the team used that to their advantages.
Jez is another one who we meet early on and she's the new navigator for the Ketty Jay (as they seem to have been having troubles before she joined getting any to stay). She's a really intriguing character right from the offset when we realise that not only is she actually a pretty decent navigator and therefore an asset to the team, but she's really a very mysterious presence and strange odd things keep happening to her or around her...
We get to learn more as we go through the story, and let me just say that she's a really cool character too. She holds her own on the crew of men and boys, and she was certainly one whom I enjoyed hearing about! :D
Next we have Pinn and Harkins both of whom are the protecters of the ship as they have smaller crafts which they fly to defend it. Pinn is a hopeless young boy who is always getting into trouble and fights and seems to have no sense of self-preservation at all. He loves the idea of fighting in a war and he likes nothing more that to whore around, get drunk and celebrate their latest failure/victory. He was a really funny character at times, and I think his constant battle with Harkins was one of my favourite crew relationships to watch!
Harkins is basically the opposite of Pinn, He's older and he actually did fight in the wars and therefore he's now a quivering wreck who's terrified of any sort of conflict with any one. He loves to fly and he hates to be separated from his craft because that's the only place he really feels safe. He suffers with trauma from the war, but he's a really great character all the same and he can hold his own against Pinn and the others when he really needs to!
Then we have Malvery who is the Doctor of the airship and he's an interesting one because you always get the sense that there's something a little bit more to do with him than first meets the eye, but we don't know exactly what. He's a cool-headed character most of the time and he's a good friend to anyone on the ship. I really enjoyed finding out about his backstory too as he was another very interesting one.
And finally we have Silo who is an ex-slave who is onboard the ship and is a constant presence there. He's very quiet and he doesn't take a huge role in the book, but he is always there in the background fixing things up and generally making sure everything is working alright.
His backstory is a really interesting one and the way that he became a part of the crew is also really interesting so I thought that although we don't see a huge amount of him, what we do see we care about and he's a really friendly and nice presence when you get to know him. He's also good for a joke or two which make me chuckle a lot :D
So that's all the crew of the Ketty Jay, an amusing and wonderful bunch with an excellent sense of fun, adventure and camaraderie. They work well as a team and dysfunction well as a team, they have either no luck or all the luck and this book strongly reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean (which I love so that's great)
Trinica is another character that we meet in the story who also deserves a mention for the way that she's introduced and her backstory too. I certainly felt that she had a 'bad-ass' feeling about her when the crew was trying to defy her, and she was a very dominating character too. She was witty and intelligent, and I liked seeing the way that she handled herself when throwing quips at Frey.
However, equally as we find out her backstory learning what really happened to her and the way she's been forced to live was really interesting and I think it gave her a more human quality. I am certainly interested in if we shall see her in book 2 or the rest of the series...
Overall this was a highly-readable book which was not only super easy to read and get through, but also a load of fun whilst reading. I loved the characters and the plot, I enjoyed the humour a lot, and the whole thing kept me up until 2 am finishing it because it was so fun. I already have book 2 and I very much hope I can squeeze reading that into next month because I want to know what happens next! It's so much fun and I would highly recommend it to anyone!
This is the story of The Ketty Jay and its crew of misfits. The Ketty Jay is a Pirate-like airship (pictured on the cover) which is in a world where airships and steampunk machinery are common, pirates roam freely, and the Navy has a hard enough time trying to calm down the pirates that they leave the small-timers (like the Ketty Jay and its crew) alone.
Frey is the Captain of the Ketty Jay and he's a rather distrusting and mysterious Captain. He is blunt, and stubborn and we see his resolve tested very early in the book. He's the only one who can fly the Ketty Jay, which is pretty much the only reason he's the Captain (because he's a pretty disorganised one!) He's a bit of a scatterbrain at times and his adventures usually end in disaster so when he's offered the chance at a 'big-break' he takes it up...with some crazy consequences...
Next we have Crake who is the second character who is onboard Ketty Jay and he's actually not really a pirate or freeloader at all. He's kind of a stowaway (although we don't know why yet) and he's actually from the Nobility. He also has a 'friend' who he brings on board to help the crew and her name is Bess, she's a Golem (a metal body with a spirit inside). Crake and Bess have a strange relationship to the point where the other members of the Crew think maybe he's actually in love with her!
Crake's backstory was one of the most interesting that we get told about, and also one of the most emotional. He's actually a daemonist which means he can do some really cool things harnessing the power of various demons, and I loved seeing what he could do and how the team used that to their advantages.
Jez is another one who we meet early on and she's the new navigator for the Ketty Jay (as they seem to have been having troubles before she joined getting any to stay). She's a really intriguing character right from the offset when we realise that not only is she actually a pretty decent navigator and therefore an asset to the team, but she's really a very mysterious presence and strange odd things keep happening to her or around her...
We get to learn more as we go through the story, and let me just say that she's a really cool character too. She holds her own on the crew of men and boys, and she was certainly one whom I enjoyed hearing about! :D
Next we have Pinn and Harkins both of whom are the protecters of the ship as they have smaller crafts which they fly to defend it. Pinn is a hopeless young boy who is always getting into trouble and fights and seems to have no sense of self-preservation at all. He loves the idea of fighting in a war and he likes nothing more that to whore around, get drunk and celebrate their latest failure/victory. He was a really funny character at times, and I think his constant battle with Harkins was one of my favourite crew relationships to watch!
Harkins is basically the opposite of Pinn, He's older and he actually did fight in the wars and therefore he's now a quivering wreck who's terrified of any sort of conflict with any one. He loves to fly and he hates to be separated from his craft because that's the only place he really feels safe. He suffers with trauma from the war, but he's a really great character all the same and he can hold his own against Pinn and the others when he really needs to!
Then we have Malvery who is the Doctor of the airship and he's an interesting one because you always get the sense that there's something a little bit more to do with him than first meets the eye, but we don't know exactly what. He's a cool-headed character most of the time and he's a good friend to anyone on the ship. I really enjoyed finding out about his backstory too as he was another very interesting one.
And finally we have Silo who is an ex-slave who is onboard the ship and is a constant presence there. He's very quiet and he doesn't take a huge role in the book, but he is always there in the background fixing things up and generally making sure everything is working alright.
His backstory is a really interesting one and the way that he became a part of the crew is also really interesting so I thought that although we don't see a huge amount of him, what we do see we care about and he's a really friendly and nice presence when you get to know him. He's also good for a joke or two which make me chuckle a lot :D
So that's all the crew of the Ketty Jay, an amusing and wonderful bunch with an excellent sense of fun, adventure and camaraderie. They work well as a team and dysfunction well as a team, they have either no luck or all the luck and this book strongly reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean (which I love so that's great)
Trinica is another character that we meet in the story who also deserves a mention for the way that she's introduced and her backstory too. I certainly felt that she had a 'bad-ass' feeling about her when the crew was trying to defy her, and she was a very dominating character too. She was witty and intelligent, and I liked seeing the way that she handled herself when throwing quips at Frey.
However, equally as we find out her backstory learning what really happened to her and the way she's been forced to live was really interesting and I think it gave her a more human quality. I am certainly interested in if we shall see her in book 2 or the rest of the series...
Overall this was a highly-readable book which was not only super easy to read and get through, but also a load of fun whilst reading. I loved the characters and the plot, I enjoyed the humour a lot, and the whole thing kept me up until 2 am finishing it because it was so fun. I already have book 2 and I very much hope I can squeeze reading that into next month because I want to know what happens next! It's so much fun and I would highly recommend it to anyone!
November 30, 2015
Thanks to my buddies for this read!!!
*** 4 ***
This book is not easy to qualify. It is a Fantasy with pirate adventure, low tech, and generously tinted dark. It flies in dark and tumultuous skies, it deals with characters dealing with dark pasts and shady present and, no one has clearly defined motives in a twisted desperate world... Yes, its all some shade of dark. But that doesn't make the book difficult to read, exactly the opposite. It is a magnetic story with characters who draw you in and you want to dive into the murky waters of their adventures.
Steam Punky sky flying pirate wannabees are rocketed to a most wanted status when someone sets them up to explode a plane with some VIP on it. Panic and a game of cat and mouse ensue, with the gang of very incompetent and insecure pirates being the mouse. Along the way we find out about the reasons why the Katy Jay is their best chance for survival and their only refuge.
As always, my favorite characters are the strong kick-ass heroine, a big animated metallic creature, and a very bossy and independent minded cat. The ship is the Star of the book and the one around which all revolves. All the players are flawed, I thought the captain most of all, but all those flaws make them unpredictable and human.
If you like adventure and Fantasy with some less than heroic main characters, I would definitely recommend this for you! Beware, no rainbows or fluffy romantic feelings!!!
*** 4 ***
This book is not easy to qualify. It is a Fantasy with pirate adventure, low tech, and generously tinted dark. It flies in dark and tumultuous skies, it deals with characters dealing with dark pasts and shady present and, no one has clearly defined motives in a twisted desperate world... Yes, its all some shade of dark. But that doesn't make the book difficult to read, exactly the opposite. It is a magnetic story with characters who draw you in and you want to dive into the murky waters of their adventures.
Steam Punky sky flying pirate wannabees are rocketed to a most wanted status when someone sets them up to explode a plane with some VIP on it. Panic and a game of cat and mouse ensue, with the gang of very incompetent and insecure pirates being the mouse. Along the way we find out about the reasons why the Katy Jay is their best chance for survival and their only refuge.
As always, my favorite characters are the strong kick-ass heroine, a big animated metallic creature, and a very bossy and independent minded cat. The ship is the Star of the book and the one around which all revolves. All the players are flawed, I thought the captain most of all, but all those flaws make them unpredictable and human.
If you like adventure and Fantasy with some less than heroic main characters, I would definitely recommend this for you! Beware, no rainbows or fluffy romantic feelings!!!
April 13, 2020
“ladies, gentlemen, we're out of here! your boss is upstairs, and only mildly wounded. go help him if you have the inclination. you'll also notice the house is on fire. make of that what you like.”
hello and welcome to the stage of darian frey, captain of the airship
the cover of this book promised me gritty, arctic steampunk. the blurb of this book and its glowing reviews promised me a dysfunctional, fucked-up airship crew with dubious loyalties who dabble in piracy to escape their sordid
so did it deliver on those promises? hell yes, it did.
chris wooding was even kind enough to throw in swashbuckling duels, various pirate-cove-like towns and settlements, stunning aerial fights, and daemonic magic. it makes for a fun adventure story, albeit a bit predictable.
you can definitely sense its major inspirations; a bit of the adventure and charming untrustworthiness of pirates of the caribbean, and a smidge of cool aircrafts and ragtag crews from the likes of firefly and cowboy bebop. as for the magic system, fullmetal alchemist comes to mind (including for plot reasons as well).
in that same vein, its no-ruffles prose carries a very visual, cinematic quality that is a great contribution to its fighting scenes.
with a book like this, half the fun is going to be watching the crew pull off whatever heist or con they’re involved in, as well as inevitably grow closer and bond. it took quite a while for that to take off, though: for the first half of the book, i remained in wait until the plot started properly accelerating and the backstories started dropping in.
so what kind of characters can you expect?
frey is the assholish, running-from-any-and-all-responsibilities captain. silo is the mysterious former-slave-now-engineer who barely says a word. malvery is the seemingly jolly, perpetually drunk ship’s doctor. pinn is the cocky, naive and crass fighter pilot. harkins is the jittery war veteran with an anxiety disorder.
the newcomers are crake, a former-aristocrat-turned-passenger whose moral compass remains mostly intact, and jez, a competent navigator who swaps crews every few months. both of them have dark secrets to hide, and i loved them the most out of the whole bunch.
the chapters hop and skip between all of their perspectives, but we spend most of our time with frey, crake, and jez. the switch between narrators and past/present wasn’t always clear cut, making for jarring moments where a new paragraph is suddenly from someone else’s perspective -- or that of the semi-omniscient narrator.
in that same sense, this book could’ve used more editing. no doubt it would’ve helped smooth out those perspective and timeline shifts, as well as clean up some of the mistakes.
however, beyond a shadow of a doubt, my main gripe with this book was its latent sexism with a side-serving of homophobia. i say ‘latent’ even though it was pretty overt at times: consider that all female characters in this book get rated as either beautiful or ugly, with all the weird implications thereof (ugly women are super useful to have on your crew ’cause you won’t get distracted into fucking them!).
and i’m just tired of this, okay? before someone makes the argument, “jade, this is all written from womanizing male characters’ perspectives, it’s in-character that they think about women this way” -- these beliefs are never challenged, and the narrative only seems to underline them.
like, wooding uses the Tragic Rape Backstory trope to explain why a formerly beautiful, pure, sweet female character has now become “hardened, emotionless and ugly”. and after this whole tragedy unfolds, we then get to hear from the main character how he thinks her lips are painted a “whorish red” these days.
i don’t even know how to unpack that. i really don’t! i feel like i’m just another clown in the circus. 🤡
there’s also a couple of weird little no homo moments. oh, you don’t fuck a whore every night? ew, you must be One of Those. or consider this one for variety: yes, our main hero is so dashingly handsome all the ladies fall for him. as for the men? oh, he makes friends very easily! men just admire him!
[insert me wheezing in soulless laughter]
(also, the only character of color on the crew is the escaped slave who is now utterly devoted to the white guy who saved his life. he rarely speaks, and when he does say something, wooding goes out of his way to write his accented speech phonetically so we can really get a feel for how Different he is. mmmmMMM.)
undoubtedly, i would’ve rated this higher if the various -isms hadn’t gotten in the way. like, i’ll admit that right off the bat. but it was distracting, and it made a fun, fast-paced story that already employs a lot of tropes and stereotypes that much weaker for me.
✎ 2.5 stars.
October 8, 2016
A new steampunk series for me & one highly recommended by many....... rightly so I found to my delight.
The character involvement & interaction of the crew is spot-on with their individual backstories coming to the fore throughout the book during times of misfortunes/reflection & why they ended up on the Ketty Jay, all are poignant & go towards explaining how the cast of strays & waives bond over their adventure. They are Pirates (arrrrrrr) of a sort..... more like adventurers or scallywags as they tend to be a little less mercenary & act as a loyal crew which works throughout the story. The story is one of set-up which our heroes more than blunder into unwittingly, then spend the rest of the tale digging themselves out of a rather large hole which repeatedly fills in....... a tale of adventure on the high skies & well worth a looksee
All very enjoyable as I ripped off the book in 4 days (half of it in the last 12hours) which says it all. 4.5 stars rounded to 4 & recommended to all friends of fantasy/steampunk genre - sorry I couldnt recommend/list you all!
The character involvement & interaction of the crew is spot-on with their individual backstories coming to the fore throughout the book during times of misfortunes/reflection & why they ended up on the Ketty Jay, all are poignant & go towards explaining how the cast of strays & waives bond over their adventure. They are Pirates (arrrrrrr) of a sort..... more like adventurers or scallywags as they tend to be a little less mercenary & act as a loyal crew which works throughout the story. The story is one of set-up which our heroes more than blunder into unwittingly, then spend the rest of the tale digging themselves out of a rather large hole which repeatedly fills in....... a tale of adventure on the high skies & well worth a looksee
All very enjoyable as I ripped off the book in 4 days (half of it in the last 12hours) which says it all. 4.5 stars rounded to 4 & recommended to all friends of fantasy/steampunk genre - sorry I couldnt recommend/list you all!
August 24, 2011
I'm a Firefly fan who picked up Retribution Falls to feed my nostalgia for good old cowboy/pirate steampunk westerns. I wasn't disappointed, to say the least. I laughed, got misty, and turned pages, completely absorbed in the adventure. The writing is excellent, the characters fleshy and fascinating (except for 2 by my count), and the plot is somewhat classic, yet it delivers startling breezes of fresh air, plenty enough to prohibit yawns. The next book, Black Lung Captain, is now on my to-read list.
April 12, 2020
Audiobook reread! It was cool to be with the ragamuffin crew of the Ketty Jay again. I had as much fun as the first time and listening to the audiobook version added a whole other layer of enjoyment. The narrator did a superb job of giving each character, no matter now minor, his/her own distinct voice. My original four, fun stars still holds.
"Grab yourself a gun. Welcome to the crew."
And that's pretty much how we enter the world of the Ketty Jay crew. There is no slow build up, no set up of the world, or lengthy exposition of the political situation. Just crew members facing a gun to the head and swift death. So, pretty much a regular day for the rag-a-muffin crew of the Ketty Jay who are all running from past secrets and mistakes. Led by Darian Frey, captain of the Ketty Jay, the crew is held together more by the fact that none of them are apt to ask probing questions of each other than they are by loyalty. When a too-good-to-be-true offer turns out be just that, the crew finds itself on the run.
Frey is not your typical white hatted hero. In fact, there are quite a few reasons to dislike him but his backstory is held out as a carrot for the reader and you can't help but want to know more. The same can be said for most of the crew members. Though there is some much needed character growth for several of the crew I'm hoping there is more to come because, for me at least, Frey still has a ways to go as far as his treatment of the women in his life goes. Speaking of which, I was especially interested in Captain Trinica Draaken. Her backstory was one of the more interesting and I hope she shows up again.
The story was well paced and I thought the author did a good job of balancing the present day action with revealing bits of the crew's past. There were some daring adventures and humor but also some very personal losses and moments of introspection. I've seen some comparisons to the show Firefly but never having watched it myself I can't make comment on that. I just found it to be an entertaining read and I'm certainly up for another Ketty Jay adventure.
"Grab yourself a gun. Welcome to the crew."
And that's pretty much how we enter the world of the Ketty Jay crew. There is no slow build up, no set up of the world, or lengthy exposition of the political situation. Just crew members facing a gun to the head and swift death. So, pretty much a regular day for the rag-a-muffin crew of the Ketty Jay who are all running from past secrets and mistakes. Led by Darian Frey, captain of the Ketty Jay, the crew is held together more by the fact that none of them are apt to ask probing questions of each other than they are by loyalty. When a too-good-to-be-true offer turns out be just that, the crew finds itself on the run.
Frey is not your typical white hatted hero. In fact, there are quite a few reasons to dislike him but his backstory is held out as a carrot for the reader and you can't help but want to know more. The same can be said for most of the crew members. Though there is some much needed character growth for several of the crew I'm hoping there is more to come because, for me at least, Frey still has a ways to go as far as his treatment of the women in his life goes. Speaking of which, I was especially interested in Captain Trinica Draaken. Her backstory was one of the more interesting and I hope she shows up again.
The story was well paced and I thought the author did a good job of balancing the present day action with revealing bits of the crew's past. There were some daring adventures and humor but also some very personal losses and moments of introspection. I've seen some comparisons to the show Firefly but never having watched it myself I can't make comment on that. I just found it to be an entertaining read and I'm certainly up for another Ketty Jay adventure.
September 25, 2022
Some people on here seem to give their 5 stars exclusively to books that supposedly change their lives and amounts awesome when mentioned in a serious conversation. There is nothing wrong with that, but I can't help just handing them out to books that were a fuckton of pure FUN in my opinion. This book is like that. Yes, you can say it's not the most original thing ever written by anyone, but I like to think of it as just... comfortably familiar, not boring and lamely cliché. What it does, it does well.
I have to point out that I've not seen Serenity (not really a sci-fi show fan, sorry), so Retribution Falls reminded me of anime instead, mostly Cowboy Bebop, Baccano!, with a tiny bit of FMA. The violence was stylized in a way that it really wasn't shocking or hard to read, and the same goes for all the angsty backstories of the characters. If you want something with plenty of action, without it being too too dark, this is a pretty safe bet in my opinion.
The characters are morally ambiguous enough to be kind of fun and honestly, I find them pretty much impossible to not like. My personal favourites were Crake (rich boy turned pirate because of a professional mistake) and Harkins (war veteran with a ton of issues).
Honestly, even though I have approximately 0 experience with steampunk, if it's like this, I think we will be good friends. Will definitely continue with the series, will recommend to my friends (aka throw it at their faces, sorry).
10/10, pure AWESOME
I have to point out that I've not seen Serenity (not really a sci-fi show fan, sorry), so Retribution Falls reminded me of anime instead, mostly Cowboy Bebop, Baccano!, with a tiny bit of FMA. The violence was stylized in a way that it really wasn't shocking or hard to read, and the same goes for all the angsty backstories of the characters. If you want something with plenty of action, without it being too too dark, this is a pretty safe bet in my opinion.
The characters are morally ambiguous enough to be kind of fun and honestly, I find them pretty much impossible to not like. My personal favourites were Crake (rich boy turned pirate because of a professional mistake) and Harkins (war veteran with a ton of issues).
Honestly, even though I have approximately 0 experience with steampunk, if it's like this, I think we will be good friends. Will definitely continue with the series, will recommend to my friends (aka throw it at their faces, sorry).
10/10, pure AWESOME
October 12, 2017
Jos jedna ultra brza, akciona knjizica koja te uhvati i nepusta do kraja. Likovi su interesantni i zabavni, mada mi nisu bas previse vezani za srce, i prati ih dosta misterije pa tako i zelja da saznamo sto vise o njima. Svet je interesantan, lep steampunk, sa puno dodataka kao sto su pirati, prljave politicke igre, legende itd.
Jos jedan lep detalj je sto je knjiga stand alone iako me ceka jos citav serijal da uronim u njega tako da happy reading :)
Jos jedan lep detalj je sto je knjiga stand alone iako me ceka jos citav serijal da uronim u njega tako da happy reading :)
November 14, 2011
Retribution Falls took me on a journey where I was continually required to reevaluate everything-- from the story itself, the world in which it takes place, and not the least, the characters. Great worldbuilding, and surprisingly multi-faceted characters who seemed to be archetypes, but proved to be much more. It was complex, intriguing, and ultimately very enjoyable.
Reviewed for Bitten By books. http://bittenbybooks.com.
Reviewed for Bitten By books. http://bittenbybooks.com.
December 22, 2015
There was a lot to like in this book. Really it gets 3.5 stars rounded down. For about half the book, it would have been 4 stars. The world building was good. The fight scenes were great. It was a fast-paced action led story. The main protagonists were interesting.
Many other reviews said this was too similar to a TV show they had seen. Well, I hadn't seen it, but as the book developed, it sounded more and more like a TV episode. Also the author felt the need to explain to the reader how each character was feeling as the plot developed. It was annoying.
I enjoyed reading this but found myself skimming a bit towards the end. Not sure if I would continue with the series.
Many other reviews said this was too similar to a TV show they had seen. Well, I hadn't seen it, but as the book developed, it sounded more and more like a TV episode. Also the author felt the need to explain to the reader how each character was feeling as the plot developed. It was annoying.
I enjoyed reading this but found myself skimming a bit towards the end. Not sure if I would continue with the series.
August 1, 2016
Executive Summary: Well, maybe I can enjoy Steampunk after all. I definitely plan on continuing with this series.
Full Review
I've been slow with reading the last month or two. This book was no different. That's not it's fault though. I found it every enjoyable the whole way.
When I did finally have some time over this holiday weekend to read, instead of reading 75-100 pages like I had planned, I ended up reading nearly half the book in one sitting.
Steampunk has never really appealed to me. I haven't read a lot of it as a result. The little I have read was alright, but didn't leave me itching to read more.
This one got added to the pile because someone (I forget who now) said it's a bit like Firefly or the Expanse books. It's really not though. The only real similarity with either series is that it's about a crew aboard a ship who aren't loyal to anyone but themselves. In some ways this makes it like Cowboy Bebop, but I find those characters instantly a lot more likeable than these.
And in this book, themselves is not so much each other as to their own self. I didn't like the captain (or most of the crew for that matter) very much at the start. They grew on me as the book went on.
The characters are all fairly interesting and different enough, just not the sort of people I'd want to hang around with. All of them have things in their past they'd like to keep there. The Ketty Jay is the perfect place for that. You don't ask about my past, and I won't ask about yours.
So more a crew full of strangers all running from their past. Darian Frey is no James Holden, and or even a Malcolm Reynolds. He only cares about his ship, and not the people on it.
This book serves like an origin story of sorts. You not only meet the characters and learn of their past, but things end in a lot different place than when it starts. It was a fun ride to get there too.
I'm looking forward to checking out the rest of this series when I have more time.
Full Review
I've been slow with reading the last month or two. This book was no different. That's not it's fault though. I found it every enjoyable the whole way.
When I did finally have some time over this holiday weekend to read, instead of reading 75-100 pages like I had planned, I ended up reading nearly half the book in one sitting.
Steampunk has never really appealed to me. I haven't read a lot of it as a result. The little I have read was alright, but didn't leave me itching to read more.
This one got added to the pile because someone (I forget who now) said it's a bit like Firefly or the Expanse books. It's really not though. The only real similarity with either series is that it's about a crew aboard a ship who aren't loyal to anyone but themselves. In some ways this makes it like Cowboy Bebop, but I find those characters instantly a lot more likeable than these.
And in this book, themselves is not so much each other as to their own self. I didn't like the captain (or most of the crew for that matter) very much at the start. They grew on me as the book went on.
The characters are all fairly interesting and different enough, just not the sort of people I'd want to hang around with. All of them have things in their past they'd like to keep there. The Ketty Jay is the perfect place for that. You don't ask about my past, and I won't ask about yours.
So more a crew full of strangers all running from their past. Darian Frey is no James Holden, and or even a Malcolm Reynolds. He only cares about his ship, and not the people on it.
This book serves like an origin story of sorts. You not only meet the characters and learn of their past, but things end in a lot different place than when it starts. It was a fun ride to get there too.
I'm looking forward to checking out the rest of this series when I have more time.
October 25, 2011
Full praise for this book from me. Not so much for some intrinsic or objective artistic value, but for the fun I've had reading it.
The story is probably one we've heard numerous time before. A group of down of their luck misfits and outcasts try to make a living at the edge of the civilized world, playing a game of risk in a dangerous environment and stepping on the wrong side of the law every so often. We already had The Argonauts, some of the Knights of the Round Table, The Elizabethan privateers so vividly portayed by Errol Flynn or John Barrymore, the Corsairs of the Carribean and the Outlaws of the Wild West. more recently we had Joss Wheddon and Firefly - the closest relative to the crew of the Ketty Jay.
The story flows effortlessly from one mishap to another, from seedy airship ports to luxurious palaces or secluded monasteries. The worldbuilding is top notch, with many civilizations, a rich history and complex political / military conflicts. The geography is seen mostly from the air - steep mountains, misty valleys, frozen outposts or lush islands.
We get to know the Origin story of each member of the crew, brought together by an inability to conform to the rules of society or simply by personal vices or bad luck. They are a spirited bunch, fond of hard liquor and coarse humor, independent spirits trying to forge a team and learn responsibility for their action. Here is where the story raises above mere entertainment, clicheed plot twists and special effects thrills.
One special note of praise from me to Mr Wooding for managing to convey the danger and the ruthlessness of the underworld without falling into the recent fad of excessive cussing or blood squirts. His characters still believe in redemption and adventure for the sake of it.
looking forward to the next two Ketty Jay books.
The story is probably one we've heard numerous time before. A group of down of their luck misfits and outcasts try to make a living at the edge of the civilized world, playing a game of risk in a dangerous environment and stepping on the wrong side of the law every so often. We already had The Argonauts, some of the Knights of the Round Table, The Elizabethan privateers so vividly portayed by Errol Flynn or John Barrymore, the Corsairs of the Carribean and the Outlaws of the Wild West. more recently we had Joss Wheddon and Firefly - the closest relative to the crew of the Ketty Jay.
The story flows effortlessly from one mishap to another, from seedy airship ports to luxurious palaces or secluded monasteries. The worldbuilding is top notch, with many civilizations, a rich history and complex political / military conflicts. The geography is seen mostly from the air - steep mountains, misty valleys, frozen outposts or lush islands.
We get to know the Origin story of each member of the crew, brought together by an inability to conform to the rules of society or simply by personal vices or bad luck. They are a spirited bunch, fond of hard liquor and coarse humor, independent spirits trying to forge a team and learn responsibility for their action. Here is where the story raises above mere entertainment, clicheed plot twists and special effects thrills.
One special note of praise from me to Mr Wooding for managing to convey the danger and the ruthlessness of the underworld without falling into the recent fad of excessive cussing or blood squirts. His characters still believe in redemption and adventure for the sake of it.
looking forward to the next two Ketty Jay books.
January 15, 2015
I really enjoyed this, and though I've been seeing great things said about it for a long time, I just now got to it. Well, I'm glad I did. I'm good and thoroughly hooked, and I'll be picking up more books in this series.
Cross The Winds of Khalakovo with Firefly and you might have a basic idea of what to expect. Or not. It's kinda its own thing too.
Recommended.
Cross The Winds of Khalakovo with Firefly and you might have a basic idea of what to expect. Or not. It's kinda its own thing too.
Recommended.
July 23, 2014
Pure fun; and do not be fooled by the pulp-like presentation of the novel with chapters with headings a la Jules Verne, since the novel is thoroughly modern in tone and content, partly ironic, partly serious.
I laughed out loud many, many times, but there is a lot of heartbreak and tragedy.
A crew of misfits led by one Darian Frey who seems to attract the attention of beautiful rich girls once too many for his own good is scrapping a living as airship smugglers and occasional pirates. Kind of bottom feeders in the underworld, but Darian and his crew are happy that way, or to be more precise they are just content to try and survive a day at a time and forget the past...
But when a nasty job needs to be done, no survivors required, someone hires the "right" captain with the right "hook".
Of course Darian Frey does the job, which is not quite what he expected either, but his crew are better than even they knew, so they inconveniently survive; however a large reward with an accurate wanted Frey poster may finally eliminate the inconvenience especially when fearsome bounty hunter Trinica Dracken who has a personal interest in the matter gets involved.
But being cornered and with no seeming escape possible is just what may finally rouse Frey and his crew from their personal mistakes and tragedies induced apathy and the plotters may just regret having staked the Ketty Jay crew as a scapegoat...
Highly, highly recommended and one of the most pure fun novels I read in a long time
I laughed out loud many, many times, but there is a lot of heartbreak and tragedy.
A crew of misfits led by one Darian Frey who seems to attract the attention of beautiful rich girls once too many for his own good is scrapping a living as airship smugglers and occasional pirates. Kind of bottom feeders in the underworld, but Darian and his crew are happy that way, or to be more precise they are just content to try and survive a day at a time and forget the past...
But when a nasty job needs to be done, no survivors required, someone hires the "right" captain with the right "hook".
Of course Darian Frey does the job, which is not quite what he expected either, but his crew are better than even they knew, so they inconveniently survive; however a large reward with an accurate wanted Frey poster may finally eliminate the inconvenience especially when fearsome bounty hunter Trinica Dracken who has a personal interest in the matter gets involved.
But being cornered and with no seeming escape possible is just what may finally rouse Frey and his crew from their personal mistakes and tragedies induced apathy and the plotters may just regret having staked the Ketty Jay crew as a scapegoat...
Highly, highly recommended and one of the most pure fun novels I read in a long time
June 24, 2023
Reread six years later: I just had to lower the rating since I was not comfortable with the Trinica plot and backstory.
First read: If you feel like you are a target market for Scifi shows like Dark Matter, Killjoys and Firefly, I think you will enjoy this one. It is not literature, there are no beautifully crafted sentences and all, but it is a damn entertaining book. I am a sucker for ship adventures involving a ragtag dysfunctional group who make a useful and united bond against all odds.
There are some other parts I enjoy from this book such as the steampunk elements, the dark/forbidden magic (which resulted in at least one heartbreaking and scary scene) and the strong characters that make up the crew. Personal baggages can drag plots sometimes but here they all served a purpose. Yes sometimes they might seem too convenient but hell I was too busy following the flying action scenes so I was not bothered.
Definitely will continue reading the next books.
First read: If you feel like you are a target market for Scifi shows like Dark Matter, Killjoys and Firefly, I think you will enjoy this one. It is not literature, there are no beautifully crafted sentences and all, but it is a damn entertaining book. I am a sucker for ship adventures involving a ragtag dysfunctional group who make a useful and united bond against all odds.
There are some other parts I enjoy from this book such as the steampunk elements, the dark/forbidden magic (which resulted in at least one heartbreaking and scary scene) and the strong characters that make up the crew. Personal baggages can drag plots sometimes but here they all served a purpose. Yes sometimes they might seem too convenient but hell I was too busy following the flying action scenes so I was not bothered.
Definitely will continue reading the next books.
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