The Black Lung Captain: Tales of the Ketty Jay [Paperback]

A very welcome follow up to the excellent Retribution Falls. Hard not to link this to the TV series Firefly in terms of concept, the crew and the bad guys (reavers in Firefly, the Mane in this) blended in with a bit of pirate/freebooter type action in a SF/world and you have the picture.

So not original, but an awful lot of fun. The crew is heavily diverse, all with their own secrets, defects and agendas - banter and humour abound and you really do connect with these guys as their characters come off the page. This fast paced story follows the crew as they chase the big money payoff from a downed vessel and, as you would expect, nothing is what it seems as the plot twists and turns through double cross and various capers, to an end that comes all too soon.

Yes you do have to wait until three quarters of the way through the book to understand it's title and yes you do kind of know where things are going, but this is pure escapism and a fun romp from start to finish. Highly recommended if you read and enjoyed Retribution Falls, if you haven't then you have missed out and you should add it, and then this, to your reading pile.

A year after Retribution Falls, Chris Wooding returns to the world of the Ketty Jay.

Captain Frey and his misfit crew are - again - broke, outlawed and unhappy. The ship is falling apart, their navigator is going insane, their daemonist is hitting the bottle and the ship's cat is regularly bullying their pilot.* On top of everything else, they've just failed to rob orphans, leaving a bad taste in their mouths and naught but lint in their pockets.

When a suicidal (but well-paid) mission comes up, Captain Frey immediately accepts. Dreaded island of terrors? Lost treasure? Not like they have anything else to do... One thing leads to another and, like Retribution Falls, the reader is hurtled across the land, watching Frey cross, double-cross, fight, shag, run and occasionally even do the right thing.

Retribution Falls, as enjoyable (and acclaimed) as it was, had a few flaws. Mr Wooding was almost too eager to unload his characters' mysterious pasts, apparently leaving little room for development. Similarly, the book's path from start to finish was very jumpy - the Ketty Jay leaping from set-piece to set-piece with very little transition. (There was also the matter of reading like Serenity fan-fiction, but I'm afraid the comparisons are still unavoidable.)

In The Black Lung Captain, the author hits his stride. Unlike Retribution Falls, this book feels like one, seamlessly-told adventure. And, with nothing left to prove (or unveil), there's more time spent on developing the characters and their individual stories. Instead of a confessional rush to unload dark secrets, we're treated to the real meaning of those secrets. Ok, Jez is some sort of vampiric half-demon, but what's that actually mean? Crake accidentally killed his young niece in an experiment - but how does that actually affect him? All the characters get that extra depth in this book. There's less frenetic grandstanding and, instead, some proper storytelling.

Not that, for a moment, Mr Wooding ever takes his foot off the gas. The Black Lung Captain is a madcap rush from start to finish, all too easy to devour in a single read. The dialogue is sharp and witty, the writing is clever and the adventure absorbing. It may have been published first, but Retribution Falls is the mere prequel to The Black Lung Captain.

The Black Lung Captain is the second book in the Tales of the Ketty Jay. The first book, Retribution Falls, was one of my favourite reads last year and I was keen, if not a little hesitant, to get back with Frey and his crew for another adventure. When you read a book you enjoy so much it's always a little worrying that you'll pick up another only to find it doesn't meet the expectations you have for it. Fortunately The Black Lung Captain met, and even exceeded, my expectations and proved that Chris Wooding can write a damned fine adventure novel with characters you'll come to love. Again.

As we rejoin the crew of the Ketty Jay it is clear that not all is well. Resorting to stealing from an orphanage, a simple job that even Frey and his crew manage to botch, highlights this fact to a tee. All becomes clear that each member of the crew are dealing with their own problems, from Jez and her hidden secret as part-Mane, to Crake and his unbearable guilt over the death (and subsequent reincarnation as a Golem) of his niece, Bess. Add to the mix an offer by Captain Grist of the Storm Dog to join him in the search of untold treasure on a remote and dangerous island and you've got a stonking story that goes from strength to strength.

Story-wise, The Black Lung Captain is high on double-crossings, action, adventure and a nice amount of intrigue. From the opening chapter where the Ketty Jay try to loot the aforementioned orphanage, and the mess they get in as a result, it's clear that Chris Wooding has brought everything that made Retribution Falls so good back to the table. When the story evolves into the treasure finding mission, then to the inevitable 'searching for the missing item to save lives', it's evident that we're getting a huge story here. With Manes, Awakeners, Tranica Dracken, the Century Knights, and Daemonism all present, there's very little not to like.

While the story initially sounds like a simple progression of events that lead Frey and the Ketty Jay from one place to another, it's far more than that. With further details emerging about the Manes and the Awakeners, Wooding is building the world and history very well indeed. There were aspects in Retribution Falls when I wished more time could be spent exploring them, but they've been raised and looked at in The Black Lung Captain, incorporated into the story to give strength to an already impressive plot.

The characters are all back and, with the inclusion of Captain Grist, make a fine contribution to the novel. We get to see more of the little details developed here, from Harkins and his ongoing troubles with Slag the cat, to Pinn's idolised love who he left at home long ago. Each character has the attention they deserve. Personally I found Jez's plight one of the best, the truth about her half-Mane heritage finally becoming common knowledge and just how the others react to that. However, Crake's breakdown because of his guilt over Bess' death is another well-handled development, showing strong characterisation on Wooding's part. Speaking of Bess, she steals the show every time we see her.

Perhaps the biggest, and most changed, relationship in The Black Lung Captain is between Frey and Tranica Dracken. Dracken, being Frey's jilted (at the altar) fiance from years past and central to the Ketty Jay's lack of fortune after the ending of Retribution Falls, is a much more central character in The Black Lung Captain. When Dracken's ship, the Delirium Trigger, steals the stolen goods from them, it all kicks off. But as the story progresses we start to see more interaction between Dracken and Frey, and much of this fills in the gaps of their history, but also shows different sides to both of them. Really good stuff!

Suffice to say that I enjoyed The Black Lung Captain enormously. It has everything I want from a good book - great characters, superb story, plenty of action, and all the little extras that add to the story. While I'd recommend this in a heartbeat, you really need to read Retribution Falls first to fully enjoy it. Don't worry, that's no chore either, and I'm sure you'll discover what I already have: Chris Wooding writes one hell of a novel!

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