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Product Description
Review
Short-listed for the 2010 Arthur C. Clarke Award
"If Robert Louis Stevenson and Patrick O'Brian had teamed up to write a rollicking fantasy, Chris Wooding's Retribution Falls would be the result. Pirates, sky-ships, and golems are just the trappings for a far-flung adventure of stunning imagination and brilliant craftsmanship. I've already booked passage for the next flight of the Ketty Jay...long may she sail!"
--James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of Altar of Eden
"Beautifully crafted prose and some remarkably imaginative scenes ...and Wooding's sprawling, multifaceted world and rough-and-tumble action will delight steampunk fans." -"Publisher's Weekly, starred review
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""Retribution Falls" picks you up, whisks you swiftly and entertainingly along, and sets you down with a big smile on your face." -Joe Abercrombie, author of "The Last Argument of Kings
""A fast exhilarating read . . . the kind of old fashioned adventure I di
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Book 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 ...
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
C+ for Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding,
By
This review is from: Retribution Falls (Paperback)
Disclaimer: Reviews will mainly concentrate on novels that I enjoyed, and in writing them I will attempt to be succinct and to avoid all manner of spoilery comments. A grading guide follows my reviews. Also, please note that while I have read widely in the genre, my tastes are quite distinct and thus readers should absorb my wisdom with, at the very least, a few pinches of salt. Cheers.- Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding Characterization: 6/10 The main character, Darian Frey, is the captain of the Ketty Jay and the leader of a small and highly dysfunctional band of layabouts. Although I enjoy characters who come in various shades of grey, I couldn't help but feel like I've seen these characters all before (watch the show Firefly before or after reading this and you'll know what I mean). I wanted to root for the crew, but that doesn't mean I thought they were especially interesting or three-dimensional. Plotting and Pacing: 2/5 and 3/5 The novel started off really well for me, but after the first few chapters it was touch and go. The problem was that the crew themselves didn't know what the heck was going on so we had to follow them back and forth as they chased leads and otherwise tried to survive extermination. If you like lots of twists and turns in your novels, the book is fine, but it feels a bit like a pretzel. The pacing gets better after the first hundred pages, but you have to make it that far first. Setting: 6/10 There's nothing really all that special about the setting. Sure the idea of aerium is cool, and everybody loves airships, but I didn't get the feeling that the world was all that well fleshed out. Definitely a world with more raw potential than most other settings out there, but it didn't really live up to my expectations. Still, I'd be curious to see Wooding's exploration of the world in future novels. Style and Themes: 3/5 and 2/5 Written in a straightforward, no-nonsense style. The dialogue is pretty good, albeit a bit too witty at times, and you generally know as much about what is going on as the characters. Theme-wise I'm not really sure what to say. Perhaps, 'People put in difficult situations have to make difficult choices.' Not something I haven't heard before, but it was still fun. Total: 22/40 Despite my nit-picky complaints, I did really enjoy this novel. I wouldn't recommend it over straight-up watching Firefly, however (perhaps sauteeing your brain in Firefly will help make this book read better though; who knows?). The characters and the setting do have potential so I'm curious about what happens in later volumes, so I'll probably tune in there. Not a mind-blowing read, but an entertaining and unpredictable read nonetheless. - Grading: Note that '5' is an average grade for each category, unexciting but still decent. Therefore, any novel that scores above twenty is above average and thus better than most of the other stuff floating around in bookshelves (at least in my opinion). Rating Scale 01-09: Nigh unreadable 10-19: Get it from the library 20-24: A modest endorsement 25-29: Well-rounded and enjoyable 30-34: Highly recommended 35-40: A must-read!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Steampunk Swashbuckling Good Time,
By
This review is from: Retribution Falls (Paperback)
This was an extremely fun and entertaining book. It was well written and far from predictable. If you love action, pirates and steampunk airships, this is the book for you. The characters are fun and sympathetic, and I found that I just couldn't put it down. I can't wait for the sequel!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews) 15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Fun,
By N. Brett - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Retribution Falls (Paperback)
This is great fun, fast moving and entertaining fantasy.I would not suggest that this is anything overly fresh or new, but it is put together very well and as the book and the characters grow, the book sucks you in deeper and deeper. Imagine a blend of the TV SF series "Firefly", a bit of Captain Jack and the Pirates from "Stardust". Here we have a crew of a kind of airship (the Ketty Jay) all of whom have their hidden secrets and background and are using the Kitty Jane as a bolt hole - a kind of marriage of convenience until something better comes along. A bit of smuggling and piracy, the crew step over the line a lot and live on the edge and hand to mouth. This changes when they are framed for the destruction of another ship carrying a VIP. Can the crew pull together to help clear their names before they are hunted down and killed? This is not deep and thoughtful fantasy, it is pure escapist fun. Having said that, it is a far better written book then you imagine it will be. You come to the end with regret and a satisfied grin on your face and the hope that Wooding will write a follow up. 11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
I have a confession to make about this book.,
By J. Lesley "(Judy)" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Retribution Falls (Paperback)
My confession about this book is that I really didn't like it for about the first 100 pages. And I really wanted to like it because a friend had gone to a lot of trouble to send the book to me. He liked it, a lot. So what was wrong? I picked it up and put it down three different times. I didn't like the characters, not a single one of the motley crew of dysfunctional malcontents. My favorite characters so far were Bess the golem and Slag the cat. Not a ringing endorsement there. I didn't see much sense in where the story was headed, mainly because I didn't see WHERE the story was headed. It just seemed to ramble and wobble around, getting the crew in and out of one scrape after another. Then something happened. For me it was that the author made me interested in the captain of the aircraft, Darian Frey, and I began to wonder why he had been set up to take the blame for something he had not done. From then on, the action in this book simply flew. The mish-mash of disconnected characters began to come together into a cohesive unit to try to help each other out of the troubles they were constantly landing in. They began to seem like people who deserved to be liked, people who had to clear up this terrible wrong by whatever means was at their disposal.I ended up absolutely loving this book. The crew went from one disaster after another and yet they were always focused on their final objective, which was to prove their innocence. With their awful luck, success was never a certainty. The author, Chris Wooding, created quite an unusual mixture in his fantasy world. The aircraft in the story, including Frey's Ketty Jay, were the most otherworldly things in the book while the pirates still fought with cutlass, knife, pistol, and shotgun. There didn't seem to be very much high technology present for these fictional characters to use. That was a little surprising, but it still worked for me after I stopped looking for all the fancy fantasy equipment to show up. And the gold tooth, well, the tooth was a real hoot! There is nothing deep, intellectual, or subtle about this book. What you get is a rollicking, fast moving (for me after about 100 pages!), adventure story. If what you want is to escape into a fantasy world with swashbuckling pirates then this will be a wonderful book for you. Just try to remember, if it starts out a little slowly for you too, the action really begins to ramp up and it just never slows down from then on. 13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Melodrama, not drama.,
By frumiousb "frumiousb" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Retribution Falls (Hardcover)
Right. I understand why I was supposed to love Retribution Falls. Pirates! Airships! Firefly references! Wooding punches the buttons marked "fun" with a grim and repetitive fervor.When you see those words-- "grim and repetitive fervor"-- you must surely get the impression I did not enjoy this book. Your impression is correct. I did not. I had a few moments of roller coaster ride thrills. I'll give it that much. But that's not enough. I found the world building thin. The characters unconvincing. They tell each other everything (or tell us in flashback) they feel. It's fed to us; we aren't led to it. I don't like being manipulated into enjoying myself and feeding off pirates in popular culture is not a substitute for character development. And then there's the female characters. The book's treatment of women annoyed me right from the moment Jez (the only woman in the pirate crew) is introduced. Let me stop with this review for a moment for a plea from the heart: Can we please please please have a moratorium on female characters who are too athletic, skinny and boyish to be attractive? Please? That bit is so old, its whiskers have whiskers. Grey ones. So-- Jez is the only female character who hasn't ruined or found herself on the male parts of Cap'n Frey. And what happens? In the final and predictable last grand caper, her bit part revolves around finally being willing to prove her loyalty by selling herself. "Ick" doesn't quite cover it. What was that about Frey's male parts? Oh yeah. Trinica turns into a ruthless pirate because he-- horrors!-- seduces and rejects her. Rather than find true love elsewhere, she uses her body and is abused for her body in a kind of business/piracy intiation. Needless to say, her later career is defined by her romantic disappointment and subsequent rejection of all things female. Then there's the other ex-girlfriend. She ends up sent to a convent after being dumped by Frey. But she naturally still loves him, and is awfully cute when all fired up and angry and all. She's a classic example of the harmless little spitfire of a female. Noxious. I do understand that the world is meant to be misogynistic by nature, but to my mind that isn't a reason for such one dimensional characters. Wooding has a clean and sure grasp of prose and he clearly understands the mechanics of plot. This one absolutely wasn't my cup of tea. |
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