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Description
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 ...… (more)
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User reviews
LibraryThing member clfisha
Lets say be upfront on this I didn't really like but I reckon you might..
Well only if you like action packed, swashbuckling tales, with a smidgen of Steampunk (it's got airships), a roguish cast of pirates, dastardly villains, dark humour, posh balls, bar fights, mechanical golems, daring escapes,
The opening chapter is one of the best I have read, straight into the action whilst introducing the cast and a perfect balance between humour and edginess. In fact it's a really ripping read for the 1st half of the book. Ok the latter half does have some issues, it slows down a bit and some of the characters act a bit too idiotically and there's a odd shift in tone from rollicking adventure to deadpan heartbreaking seriousness which I felt didn't quite work.
However for me it was the lack of female characters that just ended up unbalancing the book, a personal issue for me sure, but one it's worth mentioning (but skip this bit if you don’t care). The anti-hero is a misogynist and whilst it's fine during the rollicking adventure bits when shifted into seriousness it left a bad taste in my mouth; the lack of female characters/use of 3rd person made me feel complicit in this attitude because the alternative view is hidden.
It's a shame because there is a lot of interesting plot laid out for the next one, the other characters (yes all horribly flawed too) are well done and interesting but there isn’t a promise its going to get better on the misogyny front and I won't be seeking the next book.
Well only if you like action packed, swashbuckling tales, with a smidgen of Steampunk (it's got airships), a roguish cast of pirates, dastardly villains, dark humour, posh balls, bar fights, mechanical golems, daring escapes,
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gunfights, and heroic redemption (but not too much) and a fight against the odds.The opening chapter is one of the best I have read, straight into the action whilst introducing the cast and a perfect balance between humour and edginess. In fact it's a really ripping read for the 1st half of the book. Ok the latter half does have some issues, it slows down a bit and some of the characters act a bit too idiotically and there's a odd shift in tone from rollicking adventure to deadpan heartbreaking seriousness which I felt didn't quite work.
However for me it was the lack of female characters that just ended up unbalancing the book, a personal issue for me sure, but one it's worth mentioning (but skip this bit if you don’t care). The anti-hero is a misogynist and whilst it's fine during the rollicking adventure bits when shifted into seriousness it left a bad taste in my mouth; the lack of female characters/use of 3rd person made me feel complicit in this attitude because the alternative view is hidden.
It's a shame because there is a lot of interesting plot laid out for the next one, the other characters (yes all horribly flawed too) are well done and interesting but there isn’t a promise its going to get better on the misogyny front and I won't be seeking the next book.
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LibraryThing member majkia
What a fun read! What's not to love? Sky pirates!
The vibe is very Firefly-ish altho Mal Reynolds was a MUCH better pirate than Frey. I enjoyed the action, the plot was complex enough to keep my attention but not so convoluted that I felt lost. There were surprises galore. Altho I saw the final
The vibe is very Firefly-ish altho Mal Reynolds was a MUCH better pirate than Frey. I enjoyed the action, the plot was complex enough to keep my attention but not so convoluted that I felt lost. There were surprises galore. Altho I saw the final
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confrontation coming, it really just had to happen. I loved that it had a resolution, even if there is a follow-on. Too few series books actually give you a real ending! Show Less
LibraryThing member jerevo
Unashamed good fun. It's always refreshing to encounter a fantasy world this isn't just swords, sorcery and paper-thin characters, and Wooding has conjured up an engaging mixture of aristocracy and frontier towns, pirates and early modern technology. Think wild west crossed with Pirates of the
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Caribbean, Firefly with aircraft, or Stephen Hunt without the demented pyrotechnics. While the world of the Ketty Jay may feel a little insubstantial in places, the characters are people with backstories you can care about, and the narrative winds up to a satisfactory conclusion. In summary: A good yarn. Show Less
LibraryThing member SteveAldous
First sci-fi novel I have read in a long time and I thoroughly enjoyed this character driven mix of swashbuckling pirates in a steampunk setting. Bears a close resemblance to TV's Firefly and is none the worse for it.
LibraryThing member GirlMisanthrope
This was FUN. Pure swashbuckling, rollicking, action-packed FUN. The other reviewers who note that it feels like Joss Whedon's Firefly are dead on and I agree with the dash of Pirates of the Caribbean, too.
A motley crew of air pirates come together when they each have no where else to go. They flee
The world-building is excellent. Yes, you will echoes of Firefly, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Pirates of the Caribbean, BUT Wooding builds his own unique world of politics, religion, travel (all by airship), culture, and monsters. I'm thrilled that this will be a series.
His character-building is well done, too. Each member of the crew has a sordid past and Wooding doles these stories throughout the narrative flawlessly--these flashbacks fit right in without awkwardness and are spaced throughout the book. These characters are flawed, righteous, and funny. George Lucas created such an unlikely group with Han, Luke, C3PO, R2D2 and Chewbacca and Wooding himself has done this with Bess, Crake, Frey, Pinn, Silo and Jez.
I enjoyed his character's first names: Jezebeth, Bessendra, Darian,Grayther, Trinica, Fredger, Amalicia, Kedmund to name a few. Just cool. And then there are the ship names....more cool!
Pick this up for a reading adventure.
A motley crew of air pirates come together when they each have no where else to go. They flee
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from port to port as they burn their bridges with drunkenness, mayhem, murder. Then Captain Frey is given an offer he cannot refuse, leading them all on a briskly-paced adventure with plenty of twists.The world-building is excellent. Yes, you will echoes of Firefly, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Pirates of the Caribbean, BUT Wooding builds his own unique world of politics, religion, travel (all by airship), culture, and monsters. I'm thrilled that this will be a series.
His character-building is well done, too. Each member of the crew has a sordid past and Wooding doles these stories throughout the narrative flawlessly--these flashbacks fit right in without awkwardness and are spaced throughout the book. These characters are flawed, righteous, and funny. George Lucas created such an unlikely group with Han, Luke, C3PO, R2D2 and Chewbacca and Wooding himself has done this with Bess, Crake, Frey, Pinn, Silo and Jez.
I enjoyed his character's first names: Jezebeth, Bessendra, Darian,Grayther, Trinica, Fredger, Amalicia, Kedmund to name a few. Just cool. And then there are the ship names....more cool!
Pick this up for a reading adventure.
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LibraryThing member psybre
What a fine romp! Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding does everything right to keep a reader engaged and excited. It's almost good enough to become this generation's "Princess Bride" although Wooding's approach is just a tad more serious and full of itself than Goldman's, and it's a bit darker for
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it's pirate-mentality misogyny. Under the boot of insidious old white men, lovable monsters (except two) eat, live and drink action and become ensnared in the great big picture, unable to prevail without cooperation and selfless acts. I loved so much of the story for its world-building and its strong character backgrounds and for some great plot twists, but really, in the 21st century, I would much rather see a pirate adventure where not every breathing woman is labeled a whore. Show Less
LibraryThing member bkjake
I've tried three times to get into this book, but every time I start to get a little curious about the story, I'm smacked in the face with an overt similarity to Joss Whedon's Firefly. It was just too distracting to me for the characters to be so similar yet just off enough to be jarring when you
I suppose if I'd never seen the Firefly series, the book would be just fine. It does a good job of making you wonder just what is the story of each of the characters, since there was only one character whose backstory was even partially covered by chapter 12.
Ultimately, I had to leave this book unrated and tag it 'DNF' for 'did not finish'.
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start to expect them to act the same. I suppose if I'd never seen the Firefly series, the book would be just fine. It does a good job of making you wonder just what is the story of each of the characters, since there was only one character whose backstory was even partially covered by chapter 12.
Ultimately, I had to leave this book unrated and tag it 'DNF' for 'did not finish'.
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LibraryThing member saltmanz
Let me just state right off the bat: this is a great book. I'd heard good things about this series, and with its impending stateside release I was fortunate enough to snag a review copy through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.
Retribution Falls is the first of the Tales of the Ketty Jay,
What's important is this: Frey and his crew take on a job that seems too good to be true. Guess what they discover? Yeah, it is. Soon Frey finds himself framed for murder, and the Ketty Jay is on the run from both the Navy and the queen pirate of the Vardian skies herself, Trinica Dracken.
For the most part, the plot moves along briskly, focusing on the action. Indeed, the book starts off in media res with Frey and his companion Grayther Crake captured at gunpoint. And there are a couple of nice twists and turns to keep the reader on his/her proverbial toes. But it's the characters that bring the story to life. All of Frey's crew—and Frey himself—are each and all running from something. Everyone has demons in their pasts. Some are common knowledge, but doled out to the reader at a nice pace. Others are kept secret from both the reader and the other characters. Wooding does an admirable job of withholding these secrets, then waiting until the perfect moment to drop a bombshell.
In all, Retribution Falls is a blast; an action-packed tale with great characters. I'm definitely looking forward to future volumes. Recommended to all sci-fi/fantasy fans. [4 out of 5 stars]
Retribution Falls is the first of the Tales of the Ketty Jay,
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which chronicle the adventures of Captain Darian Frey and his airship, the Ketty Jay, and its crew of mercenaries. The setting has a light steampunk flavor, and takes place in what I presume is the distant future (my own theory, based on the game of "Rake" being described as a variant of poker.) Or it could be some created fantasy world. It's not important.What's important is this: Frey and his crew take on a job that seems too good to be true. Guess what they discover? Yeah, it is. Soon Frey finds himself framed for murder, and the Ketty Jay is on the run from both the Navy and the queen pirate of the Vardian skies herself, Trinica Dracken.
For the most part, the plot moves along briskly, focusing on the action. Indeed, the book starts off in media res with Frey and his companion Grayther Crake captured at gunpoint. And there are a couple of nice twists and turns to keep the reader on his/her proverbial toes. But it's the characters that bring the story to life. All of Frey's crew—and Frey himself—are each and all running from something. Everyone has demons in their pasts. Some are common knowledge, but doled out to the reader at a nice pace. Others are kept secret from both the reader and the other characters. Wooding does an admirable job of withholding these secrets, then waiting until the perfect moment to drop a bombshell.
In all, Retribution Falls is a blast; an action-packed tale with great characters. I'm definitely looking forward to future volumes. Recommended to all sci-fi/fantasy fans. [4 out of 5 stars]
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LibraryThing member keristars
As an over-the-top super manly sci-fi western pirate steampunk cliché storm, Retribution Falls is the best — at least for the first half. It never stops being an enjoyable book, but about the middle of the book, the delightful cheeziness that I loved so much sobered up and turned into more of a
There's a lot to be said for books which are completely predictable in plot but play with those expectations and indulge in playing them out in the most over-the-top manner possible. I happen to love them. So I was a little bit disappointed when Retribution Falls stepped away from that point and turned towards a more serious story. But, at the same time, I'm not a regular reader of Western sci-fi/fantasy, so maybe I was missing something in the latter part of the novel. It seemed a bit too dedicated to trying to humanise the characters and show that they have some redeeming qualities, thanks to backstories, when I was content to be reading about a crew of unlikable, unsavory types that were ready to ditch each other at the first sign of danger to themselves.
Unless it falls into my lap, I'm not sure that I would read the sequel. I like how this book ties itself up, and I found it to be a completely satisfactory end. Plus, there's the whole fact that I fear the sequel would be too serious.
I feel like I could easily analyse much of the plot and setting from a literary criticism perspective, but at the same time, I think that would do a disservice to the book, as it really doesn't seem like Wooding meant it to be a serious novel and instead a parody of sorts. But once the story turned away from the trope storms, and I found myself having to take the characters and their actions seriously, I was a little bothered by a lot of the behavior and language — it felt a little too sexist, a little too racist, and blithefully unaware of how uncomfortable it was. Before that point, though, I loved the book, and it was wonderful. After that point, it was still an enjoyable story, but I would have preferred it to remain more of a parody of itself.
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straightforward adventure tale.There's a lot to be said for books which are completely predictable in plot but play with those expectations and indulge in playing them out in the most over-the-top manner possible. I happen to love them. So I was a little bit disappointed when Retribution Falls stepped away from that point and turned towards a more serious story. But, at the same time, I'm not a regular reader of Western sci-fi/fantasy, so maybe I was missing something in the latter part of the novel. It seemed a bit too dedicated to trying to humanise the characters and show that they have some redeeming qualities, thanks to backstories, when I was content to be reading about a crew of unlikable, unsavory types that were ready to ditch each other at the first sign of danger to themselves.
Unless it falls into my lap, I'm not sure that I would read the sequel. I like how this book ties itself up, and I found it to be a completely satisfactory end. Plus, there's the whole fact that I fear the sequel would be too serious.
I feel like I could easily analyse much of the plot and setting from a literary criticism perspective, but at the same time, I think that would do a disservice to the book, as it really doesn't seem like Wooding meant it to be a serious novel and instead a parody of sorts. But once the story turned away from the trope storms, and I found myself having to take the characters and their actions seriously, I was a little bothered by a lot of the behavior and language — it felt a little too sexist, a little too racist, and blithefully unaware of how uncomfortable it was. Before that point, though, I loved the book, and it was wonderful. After that point, it was still an enjoyable story, but I would have preferred it to remain more of a parody of itself.
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LibraryThing member klh
I bought this because the airship-based world sounded interesting and I thought there would be a fair bit of humor. Wasn't all that funny, but there was humor and the mood is mostly light. The way the airships work is innovative, as is the idea of a world and society without a basis in surface
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travel. More magic than I generally care for, but less than your average swords and capes dreck. I put it aside after reading a hundred or so pages, thinking I'd probably not finish it. Picked it up again later and was slowly drawn in. The tale overall is like a steampunk version of the (beloved) Firefly TV series, but not as smart. A very effective device was that the author didn't reveal the back-stories of several 'minor' characters until crucial points in the last third of the book. Some linguistic and naming cleverness here and there helped. Show Less
LibraryThing member HeikeM
What a wonderful yarn is told - this is an adventure, a thriller, a fantastical story all set in the world of steampunk. Pirates, airships and a mystery that grabs you and holds you and does not let you go until you're through. So much fun. It is definitely a book for adults, but it reminded me so
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much of the stories in my head when I was a child, colourful, wild, fantastic, giving me something new with each turn of the pages. There is a second book coming - I have problems waiting. The whole story and it's characters are nothing new in story terms but the way it's told is fresh and fun. Show Less
LibraryThing member iansales
This was shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award and was seen as an odd choice at the time. Having now read it, I’m even more mystified. It’s a steampunkish sf adventure story with 1970s sexual politics. And while one word in the preceding sentence qualifies it for the Clarke Award, the rest
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should have immediately disqualified it from the shortlist. The title refers to a semi-mythical town populated by pirates. Darian Frey is the captain of the Ketty Jay, a Millennium Falcon sort of equivalent in a world where there are powered aircraft who use an invented gas, aerium, to improve their lift. So they’re sort of a cross between zeppelins and aeroplanes, but are treated like steampunk spaceships. And it’s totally unconvincing. Then you have the crew, who are the usual bunch of RPG-session misfits (or Firefly-inspired character writing, which I guess is the same thing), who get inadvertently embroiled in a plot which reaches all the way up to the highest levels of society… Yawn. The book was, according to the author, written to be fun, which is fine in and of itself. But when the only two named female characters are a) undead and b) a ruthless pirate captain who turns out to be the jilted lover of the hero… Oh, and let’s not forget his current girlfriend, who’s been sent to a convent by her upper class father… All the other female characters are whores or nuns. Well, this is not a book that should have been published in the twenty-first century, never mind shortlisted for a major genre award. Seriously, what the fuck were they thinking? It’s not even like the plot is hugely original, as the way it unfolds is pretty much obvious from page one. Retribution Falls reads like a write-up of a dudebro session of a derivative RPG game. The genre is better than that, the Clarke is way better than that. Avoid. Show Less
LibraryThing member Narilka
Think Pirates of the Caribbean but with airships. That's how Retribution Falls, the first book in Chris Wooding's Tales of the Ketty Jay, felt to me.
Captain Frey knows this opportunity is too good to be true. Fifty thousand ducats to steal a chest of gems is unheard of! That's just too much money
This book has a lot of things going for it. I liked the concept. The world building is interesting, similar enough to Earth to be familiar while also being completely different. Retribution Falls definitely is Tortuga for airships as an example. I see this book categorized as "steampunk" a lot though I'm not sure that's accurate since nothing is steam powered and nor did it seem to take inspiration from Victorian styles. Retro-futuristic with some magic might be closer.
The Ketty Jay is crewed by an odd mix of misfits. Led by the selfish and cowardly Captain Darian Frey, each crew member's history is gradually revealed throughout the story. Frey is a womanizer and terrible poker player. Jez the navigator doesn't seem to require normal human needs. The doctor is an alcoholic who is refuses to perform surgery. A passenger, who is also a daemonist, has paid his way with an enchanted sword. There are a couple of pilots and the silent but loyal engineer who can fix anything. Also a golem named Bess and the ship's cat, Slag. While their backgrounds are interesting and lay a great foundation for some fun personalities, mostly they didn't live up to their potential and none of them a really that likable other than Bess and Slag. Especially Bess. I was just starting to warm up to the rest of the crew by the end so perhaps it gets better with the rest of the series.
The story takes a while to get going. Once the main plot is set in motion and everything goes sideways, it turns into a fun little romp for the Ketty Jay crew to stay just ahead of the hangman's noose while they figure out what went wrong. It's a fairly standard story of this type, a little predictable in places, but still made for an entertaining tale.
Captain Frey knows this opportunity is too good to be true. Fifty thousand ducats to steal a chest of gems is unheard of! That's just too much money
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to pass up though. Even though he knows it's a bad idea, Frey takes the job. He and his crew plan the heist that will make them all very, very rich. Until, that is, the heist goes wrong and the freighter they are targeting blows up leaving the crew of the Ketty Jay as prime suspects. This book has a lot of things going for it. I liked the concept. The world building is interesting, similar enough to Earth to be familiar while also being completely different. Retribution Falls definitely is Tortuga for airships as an example. I see this book categorized as "steampunk" a lot though I'm not sure that's accurate since nothing is steam powered and nor did it seem to take inspiration from Victorian styles. Retro-futuristic with some magic might be closer.
The Ketty Jay is crewed by an odd mix of misfits. Led by the selfish and cowardly Captain Darian Frey, each crew member's history is gradually revealed throughout the story. Frey is a womanizer and terrible poker player. Jez the navigator doesn't seem to require normal human needs. The doctor is an alcoholic who is refuses to perform surgery. A passenger, who is also a daemonist, has paid his way with an enchanted sword. There are a couple of pilots and the silent but loyal engineer who can fix anything. Also a golem named Bess and the ship's cat, Slag. While their backgrounds are interesting and lay a great foundation for some fun personalities, mostly they didn't live up to their potential and none of them a really that likable other than Bess and Slag. Especially Bess. I was just starting to warm up to the rest of the crew by the end so perhaps it gets better with the rest of the series.
The story takes a while to get going. Once the main plot is set in motion and everything goes sideways, it turns into a fun little romp for the Ketty Jay crew to stay just ahead of the hangman's noose while they figure out what went wrong. It's a fairly standard story of this type, a little predictable in places, but still made for an entertaining tale.
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LibraryThing member jessicariddoch
This is the second book in the shory list for the 2010 Arthur C Clark award, and although it is not a book I would have selected otherwise it was a pleasent read.
This is a pirate story in essence, as it is billed as science fiction I began with the assumpton that the ships were interplantary,but as
I could not help but feel that I had met the crew before in a number of books. The was the hero/captain (read antihero)who had been through a bad experience in the war, who was set up to take the blame for something that was not his fault, though he is not completly clean so unable simply to go the the authorities, which are slightly corrupt in anycase. In a very captain kirk way he was also very attractive to the ladies, during the course of the tale we meet 2 of his ex loves, both of whom were rich and attractive but whom he had not married and he ruined thier lives. I am afraid to say that this was a suspension of disbelief as I could find no qualities in the man that would give such devotion.
There was the strong feamale sidekick that seems to be compulsary, they are attractive, not going out with a memeber of the crew as they have problems outwith the story that make them cold. Although she is given a viable part of the storyline, I cannot help but think that she is inserted to balance up the bit females who
This is a pirate story in essence, as it is billed as science fiction I began with the assumpton that the ships were interplantary,but as
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I read through it became clear that the action was taking place on a single planet, abet one that was sparcly populated with a great deal of open space between settlements. This gives the same feeling of issolation that you would expect from seperate planets, It was made clear that a number of these settlements could only be reached by air. The feeling of fronteer and an almost a wild west setup gave the general background. In addition there had been a recent war which gave the lifechangeing experences to some of the characters and explaned the amount of war like people in the population.I could not help but feel that I had met the crew before in a number of books. The was the hero/captain (read antihero)who had been through a bad experience in the war, who was set up to take the blame for something that was not his fault, though he is not completly clean so unable simply to go the the authorities, which are slightly corrupt in anycase. In a very captain kirk way he was also very attractive to the ladies, during the course of the tale we meet 2 of his ex loves, both of whom were rich and attractive but whom he had not married and he ruined thier lives. I am afraid to say that this was a suspension of disbelief as I could find no qualities in the man that would give such devotion.
There was the strong feamale sidekick that seems to be compulsary, they are attractive, not going out with a memeber of the crew as they have problems outwith the story that make them cold. Although she is given a viable part of the storyline, I cannot help but think that she is inserted to balance up the bit females who
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LibraryThing member NancyNo5
Airships, pirates, treasure, double crossings and a fabled pirate city...this book has it and more!
Chris Wooding has given us a fun steampunk adventure in Retribution Falls. A classic plot of a hapless crew set up to be the fall guys in an assassination. You have the jaded captain and his crew of
The story did seem to drag in the beginning and I was about to put it down but decided to persevere. I'm glad I did. The plot and the pace of the novel does pick up about a third into the book. At this point Mr. Wooding shows the reader his expertise as a story teller.
The remainder of the book is filled with adventures wherein our hapless crew are put in various life or death situations. The author fosters this impression with fresh & lively prose.
There are a bunch of main and secondary characters in this story but of course it is focused upon the seven crew members and their back story. I liked all the characters. Wooding did not portray any of them as angels who had been given a bad break; they are all flawed with Captain Frey topping the list. However, his character is so richly written that you can't hope but root for him.
So with the exception of a slow beginning, this novel does take the reader on a fun and action packed adventure.
Chris Wooding has given us a fun steampunk adventure in Retribution Falls. A classic plot of a hapless crew set up to be the fall guys in an assassination. You have the jaded captain and his crew of
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men (and one woman) who are all running or hiding from the pasts. Their mission....prove their innocence. This is where the fun begins!The story did seem to drag in the beginning and I was about to put it down but decided to persevere. I'm glad I did. The plot and the pace of the novel does pick up about a third into the book. At this point Mr. Wooding shows the reader his expertise as a story teller.
The remainder of the book is filled with adventures wherein our hapless crew are put in various life or death situations. The author fosters this impression with fresh & lively prose.
There are a bunch of main and secondary characters in this story but of course it is focused upon the seven crew members and their back story. I liked all the characters. Wooding did not portray any of them as angels who had been given a bad break; they are all flawed with Captain Frey topping the list. However, his character is so richly written that you can't hope but root for him.
So with the exception of a slow beginning, this novel does take the reader on a fun and action packed adventure.
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LibraryThing member EJAYS17
I first started hearing about Retribution Falls in 2009 when some of the better known bloggers began to review it. Although it sounded more like science fiction than fantasy, they raved about it so much that I picked it up for a look when I saw it in a book store down here in Oz. Reading the back
It's rather hard to categorise Retribution Falls, it has elements of fantasy, science fiction and steampunk. I file it under R for rip roaring adventure.
Darian Frey is a morally bankrupt pilot who has one thing of value in his life; his cargo freighter the Ketty Jay. He operates just outside the law, he and his crew of misfits scrape by picking up barely legal jobs, so when Frey is offered the chance at some easy money he jumps at it. Things go horribly wrong and the crew of the Ketty Jay are wanted outlaws and running for their lives, it's going to take all of Frey's ingenuity and every talent that his crew has at their disposal to get out of this alive.
The characters and the story, particularly early on, are very reminiscent of Joss Whedon's short lived and much missed sci-fi/western show Firefly, but after a while it settles down and finds a voice of it's own. The characters are all well drawn and multi layered, most have secrets that they'd rather not become public knowledge and it is their terrible pasts that have thrown them together.
The world is well drawn, and instead of being hammered with information overload about it's history and cultures readers are fed this gradually, as if one would if they stepped into the world, readers are also left with just enough to know what's going on and how things work, but at the same time left wanting more, which will allow Wooding to build the world over a number of books.
Once in a while a reader is privileged to discover what I feel is a 'perfect storm' in book form, one where everything works and the end is dreaded. Retribution Falls is one such book.
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cover blurb, and the first couple of pages told me all I needed to know, and I bought the book. For the next week or so I spent time in the alien land of Vardia during my morning and afternoon commute, and totally loved every moment of it. A little over a month ago the sequel; The Black Lung Captain, was released (it took this long to reach Australia), so I reread Retribution Falls in preparation. Unlike long running series with huge gaps between books (we all know what I'm talking about) there wasn't really any need to reread it, but I did it anyway because it's so much damn fun.It's rather hard to categorise Retribution Falls, it has elements of fantasy, science fiction and steampunk. I file it under R for rip roaring adventure.
Darian Frey is a morally bankrupt pilot who has one thing of value in his life; his cargo freighter the Ketty Jay. He operates just outside the law, he and his crew of misfits scrape by picking up barely legal jobs, so when Frey is offered the chance at some easy money he jumps at it. Things go horribly wrong and the crew of the Ketty Jay are wanted outlaws and running for their lives, it's going to take all of Frey's ingenuity and every talent that his crew has at their disposal to get out of this alive.
The characters and the story, particularly early on, are very reminiscent of Joss Whedon's short lived and much missed sci-fi/western show Firefly, but after a while it settles down and finds a voice of it's own. The characters are all well drawn and multi layered, most have secrets that they'd rather not become public knowledge and it is their terrible pasts that have thrown them together.
The world is well drawn, and instead of being hammered with information overload about it's history and cultures readers are fed this gradually, as if one would if they stepped into the world, readers are also left with just enough to know what's going on and how things work, but at the same time left wanting more, which will allow Wooding to build the world over a number of books.
Once in a while a reader is privileged to discover what I feel is a 'perfect storm' in book form, one where everything works and the end is dreaded. Retribution Falls is one such book.
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LibraryThing member RBeffa
Two words - BIG FUN. Honestly. I just finished reading Retribution Falls, which I had received as an early reviewer book. It sounded great from the blurbs and it delivered. I've told both my wife and daughter "You have to read this." It is an adventure story with a lot of heart and emotion, and
One cannot deny the influence of television and films on this book, most notably Joss Whedon's Firefly. I see that many other reviewers have mentioned this. The impression is quickly formed within the first couple dozen pages. In fact, when we are first introduced to the airship Ketty Jay and some of the crew, my mind's eye saw Serenity sitting on the tarmac. This is by no means a clone of the Firefly series, however. It is a well told action adventure with a good cast of rogues and a lot of characters that really catches you. It is more "piratey" than Firefly by good measure, and the tale and backstories are good. I hate to use the word breathless to describe the pace of the novel, but much of it is something like that. We grow rather quickly to like the characters, especially Captain Darian Frey.
A minor quibble, but I could have used a good map at the front of the book to refer to now and then. I am looking forward to future books by this author. I've nudged my rating up to 4 stars, which is usually reserved by myself for well above average novels. It maybe isn't quite that good ... but maybe it is. Recommended, especially for adventure fans.
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individual tales within the big story that endear you to the cast of characters, almost all of whom are misfits and rogues. Now that I've finished it I am ready to read it through right again. One cannot deny the influence of television and films on this book, most notably Joss Whedon's Firefly. I see that many other reviewers have mentioned this. The impression is quickly formed within the first couple dozen pages. In fact, when we are first introduced to the airship Ketty Jay and some of the crew, my mind's eye saw Serenity sitting on the tarmac. This is by no means a clone of the Firefly series, however. It is a well told action adventure with a good cast of rogues and a lot of characters that really catches you. It is more "piratey" than Firefly by good measure, and the tale and backstories are good. I hate to use the word breathless to describe the pace of the novel, but much of it is something like that. We grow rather quickly to like the characters, especially Captain Darian Frey.
A minor quibble, but I could have used a good map at the front of the book to refer to now and then. I am looking forward to future books by this author. I've nudged my rating up to 4 stars, which is usually reserved by myself for well above average novels. It maybe isn't quite that good ... but maybe it is. Recommended, especially for adventure fans.
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LibraryThing member JessiAdams
I feel like anyone who enjoys the Scott Lynch book [The Adventures of Locke Lamora] would enjoy this book, too. Its the same type of adventure story involving a misfit group of people. Once in a great while it has laugh-out-loud moments, but it lives more in the range of snarky humor that draws a
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smile out here and there. Personally, I really enjoyed the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member Alliebadger
I wasn't expecting to like this nearly as much as I did! There are times when it's dark (like the opening scene), but the majority of the time it really flows and is hard to put down. Each character has their own backstory that they're running from, but you genuinely care about each of them as they
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try to put the past behind them and deal with the set-up of the present. The band of misfits comes together as a crew. And while there are moments that may seem cliche if I told you about them, they really fit well in the book. I look forward to reading more of the adventures of the crew of the Ketty Jay. Show Less
LibraryThing member Shirezu
I'd been hearing a lot about this book recently often mentioned in the same breath as sci-fi TV classic Firefly. And there are some similarities between them. A crew of misfits on a flying vessel, outside the law in a world recovering from war. There is a bit of humour and the crew gets in over
This tale revolved around Captain Frey and his ship, the Ketty Jay, and it's passengers. They aren't a well-meshed crew but a band of people with the common interest of hiding. After the Captain gets them all wanted due to his own greed and stupidity they then have to battle their way out through a series of adventures.
It was a fun, exciting read but one thing let it down for me. Frey. I could not stand him. He's almost the opposite of Mal Reynolds or Spike Spiegel. He is a gutless, worthless, useless coward. He ended up where he is through his own stupidity and I just couldn't warm up to him or sympathise with him. I was hoping he'd die and the rest of the crew would continue on. It was the one thing that brought the book down for me.
On the other hand I really liked Jez and Malvery and want to hear more of their story and didn't mind Crake too much. I will read the sequel at some stage but it's not going straight to the top of my list.
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their heads. But these are similarities with more than just Firefly. And all other similarities end there.This tale revolved around Captain Frey and his ship, the Ketty Jay, and it's passengers. They aren't a well-meshed crew but a band of people with the common interest of hiding. After the Captain gets them all wanted due to his own greed and stupidity they then have to battle their way out through a series of adventures.
It was a fun, exciting read but one thing let it down for me. Frey. I could not stand him. He's almost the opposite of Mal Reynolds or Spike Spiegel. He is a gutless, worthless, useless coward. He ended up where he is through his own stupidity and I just couldn't warm up to him or sympathise with him. I was hoping he'd die and the rest of the crew would continue on. It was the one thing that brought the book down for me.
On the other hand I really liked Jez and Malvery and want to hear more of their story and didn't mind Crake too much. I will read the sequel at some stage but it's not going straight to the top of my list.
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LibraryThing member ChanceMaree
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
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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. Show Less
LibraryThing member CarmeloRafala
An excting, old-fashioned adventure story. Brings back the fun of the old pulp-style action novels, but with more character development. Lots of fun and lots of twists.
LibraryThing member sdobie
As the captain of the airship Ketty Jay, Darian Frey engages in some small-scale smuggling and piracy. When he is set up to take the fall for the death of a noble's embarrassing son, he and his crew have to roam the world looking for the information that will prove their innocence.
This is a very
This is a very
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fun adventure story set in a steampunk-flavored world that could be the far future, or a fantasy world with technology. The style reminded me a lot of Joe Abercrombie's First Law books with a group of anti-heroic characters forced to work together. The characters are what makes this book better than the typical adventure story. They all have their own motivations and it is fun watching them come together as a group. I will be interested in reading the next volume in the series. Show Less
LibraryThing member Larou
Pretty much everyone who wrote about this novel mentioned its similarity to the TV show Firefly, and it is quite obvious that this is where author Chris Wooding got a large part of his inspiration from (with the exception of some parts, like the sub-plot he lifted almost wholesale from Full Metal
So, one gets a pretty good idea of what Retribution Falls is like if one imagines it as the steampunk version of a Sergio Leone Western, or Firefly with dirigibles (kind of) instead of spaceships. The plot involves a lot of greedy people with shady ethics (our protagonists among them) either chasing after loot or running away from the law and/or each other, with all the hijinks that usually ensue from such a setup, such as madcap plans gone wrong, dashing escapes and exploding stuff (lots of exploding stuff). It also has a bit of the Bildungsroman about it, both regarding the crew of the Ketty Jay (who start out as a bunch of people who don’t much care about each other but in the course of events become an actual crew that is working together as a team) and its captain Darien Frey (who starts out as an unmitigated asshole but in the course of events becomes slightly less of an asshole).
It’s a fun novel, but somewhat marred by the author’s tendency to over-explain his characters – both in the sense of explaining things that do not really need explaining, and of then explaining them over and over again – all of which seems to indicate that the author has no very high opinion of the intelligence of his readers, and while I’m not reading light entertainment like this for the intellectual challenge, there is degree of too glaringly obvious that becomes downright insulting. Still, that is a comparatively minor quibble, and overall Retribution Falls delivered on what it promised, namely being a highly entertaining adventure story. I’ll be quite likely to return to for the sequel.
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Alchemist; large enough that Joss Whedon might be justified in suing for royalties… if Firefly itself was not such an obvious riff on Civil War and post Civil War Westerns (most obviously probably with regard to Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly).So, one gets a pretty good idea of what Retribution Falls is like if one imagines it as the steampunk version of a Sergio Leone Western, or Firefly with dirigibles (kind of) instead of spaceships. The plot involves a lot of greedy people with shady ethics (our protagonists among them) either chasing after loot or running away from the law and/or each other, with all the hijinks that usually ensue from such a setup, such as madcap plans gone wrong, dashing escapes and exploding stuff (lots of exploding stuff). It also has a bit of the Bildungsroman about it, both regarding the crew of the Ketty Jay (who start out as a bunch of people who don’t much care about each other but in the course of events become an actual crew that is working together as a team) and its captain Darien Frey (who starts out as an unmitigated asshole but in the course of events becomes slightly less of an asshole).
It’s a fun novel, but somewhat marred by the author’s tendency to over-explain his characters – both in the sense of explaining things that do not really need explaining, and of then explaining them over and over again – all of which seems to indicate that the author has no very high opinion of the intelligence of his readers, and while I’m not reading light entertainment like this for the intellectual challenge, there is degree of too glaringly obvious that becomes downright insulting. Still, that is a comparatively minor quibble, and overall Retribution Falls delivered on what it promised, namely being a highly entertaining adventure story. I’ll be quite likely to return to for the sequel.
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LibraryThing member ladycato
From the very start, it's clear this is a steampunk take on Firefly. It does a pretty good job of it, too. It's rollicking fun, with a airship full of damaged characters caught up in some wicked politics way beyond their scope. There's lots of action and intrigue, so it reads fast.
Captain Frey is a
Captain Frey is a
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very damaged sort. I can see how his character could turn off a reader completely. However, I'm willing to stick with him and see how he grows, and I was satisfied with that shift. He's like the Grinch, slowly growing a heart. The rest of the cast is fascinating, but the book really felt like an introduction to them. A lot of background information didn't emerge until near the end, which was kinda frustrating. It's a good incentive to read onward in the series to find out more. I really want to know more about Bess and Jez. Show Less