carol.'s Reviews > Retribution Falls

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.