Retribution Falls (Tales of the Ketty Jay, #1) in Fantasy-Faction.com

Mar 01, 2013 Joel rated it liked it

I've been pushed towards this book for seemingly years now, by so many different people. The largest reason is that I'm a massive Coheed and Cambria fan, and my favorite song by them is 'Delirium Trigger', and that's the handle I use on many websites. The 'villian' ship in this book, for lack of better description, is called the 'Delirium Trigger', so I get many messages asking if this book was my inspiration and telling me I should read it (The song came out something like 8 years prior, so I'm I've been pushed towards this book for seemingly years now, by so many different people. The largest reason is that I'm a massive Coheed and Cambria fan, and my favorite song by them is 'Delirium Trigger', and that's the handle I use on many websites. The 'villian' ship in this book, for lack of better description, is called the 'Delirium Trigger', so I get many messages asking if this book was my inspiration and telling me I should read it (The song came out something like 8 years prior, so I'm guessing it was the inspiration for the ship name).

Regardless, I'd bought it a while back and finally got around to reading it, and...well, it was ok. The book follows a crew of pseudo-pirates who fly on an airship; a ragtag bunch of societal exiles who find their place on a nomadic ship, eeking out a living doing odd jobs or through minor piracy. They are run by their larger-than-life captain, and so much of their story is defined by the individual - yet largely unspoken - pasts of their crew members, as well as the interplay and conflicts between them.

Sound familiar? It should. It's Firefly. This book is a pseudo-steampunk airship Firefly - even including some small jets. It had such a ridiculous level of Fireflyism that I often rolled my eyes at the parallel. Now, if you're one of the legion of nerds who swear Joss Whedon is a god and that Firefly is amazing, this might sound great to you. I, personally, found Firefly to be the most overrated television show in the entire history of eternity (*ducks*). Frankly, I was more annoyed at feeling that it was derivative, than i was of the actual premise.

The meat of the book is fine - the characters and crew, the ancillary pieces, the places and things - they were all inventive, and felt unique enough. The factions, the storyline, etc were a lot of fun, and actually were the biggest saving grace of the book. The story itself worked fine - it had some holes, sometimes jumped from place to place and skipped chunks of time, and characters sometimes acted a bit odd just to meet the needs of the story, but overall their dialogue, actions and reactions were all entertaining.

It was like an onion, much like Firefly - as you go, you slowly unfold pieces of the lives of the crew, their stories, the things that brought them to the ship, and then the drama that comes with those stories. Each person had a pretty unique story, especially Frey and Crake, and I enjoyed finding out the bits and pieces of each crewmember. The various heists, avoidances of death, scheming and politics, and the resulting resolution were all interesting and fairly satisfying.

The writing of the book itself varied - Wooding's prose was enjoyable and easy to read, but nothing special. The dialogue felt realistic, had an edge to it, while lacking repetitiveness and stagnancy. He lost me quite a bit with some of the influences and derivative nature of his pieces, and overall the book felt a bit like a mishmash of things we've already seen before. It was entertaining as a whole, competently assembled, but didn't always execute to it's potential. I would have liked to shore up some details on it, as I felt it was close to being a great book, but in the end was a bit of a letdown for me. ...more

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Dec 07, 2011 Dee rated it really liked it

Shelves: world-fantasy, loanage, grit, mannerpunk, steampunk

In short, I think this is flawed but magnificently fun and novel. I just love the world and the concept - steampunk flying machines in a completely fantastical (in that 'no discernible references to earth and therefore not a planetary colonisation scenario' way) - and the characters are a pretty splendid collection of accurate and unapologetic misfits and mistakes.

The style and storytelling is sometimes more than a little stilted - many important things and emotional developments are told to us ...more

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Apr 01, 2015 David Zampa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: class-of-it-s-own, action-romp, children-in-peril, favorites, ensemble-cast, good-fun, steampunk

I honestly don’t know if I could ever consider myself objective in reviewing this book because if I were to make a list of a hundred or so things I love most in fiction, this would check off at least half the boxes. You’d think the author spied on my reading habits and ramblings (See: Griping), and wrote a book specifically with me in mind. I really, really love unlikely teams of characters when they’re done right, when an author can write a dozen different characters into one book and manage to I honestly don’t know if I could ever consider myself objective in reviewing this book because if I were to make a list of a hundred or so things I love most in fiction, this would check off at least half the boxes. You’d think the author spied on my reading habits and ramblings (See: Griping), and wrote a book specifically with me in mind. I really, really love unlikely teams of characters when they’re done right, when an author can write a dozen different characters into one book and manage to make me root for and love every single one of them. The fact that Wooding manages it so beautifully with so many in this little 380-page book is nothing short of witchcraft.

This was a second read-through because the first time I read it I wasn’t reviewing much. One thing that really struck me on this second pass is how satisfyingly the main character, Frey, develops. He begins the story as your classic scoundrel-type character, dripping with Han Solo vibes. But unlike Solo, from the beginning, from his spurned loves to his lack of basic sense of honor, loyalty, and decency, he’s the real thing in that he’s downright unlikeable at times. He’s genuinely hard to root for. If Wooding wasn’t such a skilled writer it would be hard to stick with him, but this book, like Wooding’s other excellent work, never once gives the impression that these unpalatable elements are anything but deliberate choices for our eventual reading pleasure.

Throughout this book, the crew of the Ketty Jay each go through a marvelous, dynamic arc. We learn their backstories, some of which are downright heart-wrenching. We learn where they begin, and are treated to a hell of a ride as we accompany them to where they’re going, but literally and figuratively. They all grow and change, facing their demons and their own personal unknowns.
The story of Grayther Crake, the crew’s resident Demonist (see: mage), and his lovable, frighteningly powerful golem, Bess, hit me particularly hard in the gut. But he’s not alone. Everyone on the crew has things they would rather not face, and this story is woven almost cruelly to the extent that it forces them inexorably into doing so. For Frey’s part, the man’s character is systematically picked apart, ground to powder, and then reconstituted into a better person. Over the course of the story he gives up everything he would never part with, both materially and intrinsically to his sense of self, and learns virtues he’s never felt before in a wonderfully believable way. By the end of the story you feel like you know every one of the crew members on the Ketty Jay, and feel an individual love for each of them besides.

This book isn’t literature. It’s an adventure chalk full of action and classic genre gimmicks presented in a way that’s almost impossible not to love by fans. What really makes it special is the characters. Characters, characters, characters. From the moment you get to know them you just don’t ever want to leave them all again. That’s my jam. I don’t know if this book is for everyone, but it’s the perfect book to me.
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Apr 04, 2013 Victoria Hooper rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, magic, paranormal, steampunk, pirates

Retribution Falls is a really fun story. Really fun. Pirates, airships, a steampunkish feel, magic, demons, adventure, conspiracy... it has all the elements that let you know you’re in for a quick, exciting read. It’s an extremely fast paced book, barely pausing at any point for filler or downtime, and yet there are a surprising amount of back stories thrown in, all of them interesting. Chris Wooding is an expert at worldbuilding, slipping in facts and fascinating details that give such a vivid
Retribution Falls is a really fun story. Really fun. Pirates, airships, a steampunkish feel, magic, demons, adventure, conspiracy... it has all the elements that let you know you’re in for a quick, exciting read. It’s an extremely fast paced book, barely pausing at any point for filler or downtime, and yet there are a surprising amount of back stories thrown in, all of them interesting. Chris Wooding is an expert at worldbuilding, slipping in facts and fascinating details that give such a vivid feeling of the world, without ever slowing down the plot or distracting from the story.

The rag-tag crew of the Ketty Jay will draw inevitable comparisons with the TV series Firefly. The book has a similar kind of roguish-twinkle feel to Firefly; they’re pirates, but they’re not the really bad kind of pirates, and there’s something unavoidably lovable about their underdog position and their attempts to stay ahead of everyone who’s out to get them. The characters in Retribution Falls can be a little one-note – they’re a character type and in general they stick to it – but the back stories here do add a little more depth to certain people. In particular I liked Crake, the daemonist who aids the crew with his daemon-based magic, and Jez, the new navigator and the ship’s only woman. I found these two the most human of the characters, and I really felt for Crake. The more minor characters were less explored but did add some tension and humour. I liked the doctor the best of the side-character bunch and would like to learn more about him in later books.

The captain, Darian Frey, was a hard character to like, but felt like a very honest portrayal of the kind of man that might end up in his position. He’s always running away, always trying to find someone else to blame for his problems. There were points where I became very frustrated with him, and other points where I honestly hoped Draken would capture him and the rest of the crew would get away. However, though Darian is often unlikeable, his slightly car-crash approach to life is fascinating to read about.

As the book goes on, most of the crew members begin to reveal a darker side, aspects that make the reader question whether they are really the good guys. This isn’t explored very deeply in this book; we’re still supposed to want them to come out on top, but I’m hoping this may be touched on a bit more later in the series. The book also succeeds in making the reader feel sympathy for Draken, the woman chasing down the Ketty Jay, though it perhaps succeeded a little too well with me. There were points where I honestly wanted her to win, but then, perhaps that was the point. This is a book about pirates, and I like that lines of morality were hard to draw. No-one should feel like they are entirely the good or bad guys here.

With an interesting storyline involving conspiracy, pirates and murder, memorable characters, action, plenty of humour, adventure, airships, daemon-magic, and a malevolent ship’s cat, Retribution Falls is a quick, fun read. There isn’t really anything surprising in the book, with some elements being quite predictable, but it’s done so well there is a great amount of satisfaction in how the events roll out. There is a lot about this world that I love, and I’m looking forward to exploring more of it with the Ketty Jay’s crew in later books.

I listened to this as an audiobook, so wanted to quickly mention the narrator, Rupert Degas, who does an absolutely fantastic job and really brings the book to life. Each character felt pitch-perfect to me, and his reading combined with Chris Wooding's excellent writing kept me engrossed throughout. I'll be looking for more of Rupert Degas' work too!

This review also appears on my blog.
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Mar 06, 2013 Fellshot rated it did not like it

Shelves: did-not-finish-donated-to-the-libra, gave-to-angry-hamsters

I hated this book. There were some small moments that I enjoyed, but those had the misfortune of lasting only a few pages out of the 300 or so that I managed to get through. Most of the time I wanted most of the crew to be eaten by an enormous fireball. If you want more details, I did numerous updates.

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