Chris Wooding

Retribution Falls

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 CoalitionNavy. 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 theheist 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 ...

Sarah Sammis

Jeff James

Full disclosure: I received a review copy of this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

At first glance, Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding sounded like a sure bet. Sky pirates? I’m there. Steampunk setting? Count me in. Endless rave reviews from a dozen fantastic authors (Joe Abercrombie in particular) sealed the deal. Unfortunately, the resulting book doesn’t quite live up to those high expectations.

Retribution Falls tells the story of a ship called the Ketty Jay, captained by one Darian Frey and crewed by a collection of misfits and rejects, all of whom are hiding secrets and running from something in their past. Frey is a paranoid, selfish drunk, who seems only to keep a crew so that he can run the jobs that pay for his drink, drugs and card games. Frey only really cares about his ship, and jealously guards the ignition codes from anyone and everyone, even when the life of one of his crew members is at stake in an early scene.

After escaping a close scrape at the start of the book, Frey’s luck seems to be looking up when he’s given a plum job with an assured payout of fifty thousand ducats. He eagerly accepts, and only when the job goes horribly wrong does it become clear that he’s been set up. The rest of the book is spent with Frey and his crew alternately running from the law and trying to unravel the mysterious conspiracy that chose Frey and his crew as its scapegoats. Along the way, Frey slowly learns to trust his crew members, and we begin to uncover some of the events that drove each of them into the outlaw life.

As I read, the book slowly grew on me, but it took a really long time getting there. I read the first one-hundred pages in fits and starts over a month, and only really started to feel invested around the two-hundred page point of the book, when we finally start getting a glimpse into the mysterious backstories of Crake, the ship’s daemonist, and Jez, the apparently immortal navigator.

However, it wasn’t so much that I was starting to like the characters; it was simply that I was curious enough about their backstories to keep reading. As a rule, the characters in Retribution Falls are archetypes that never quite rise above their origins. If you stick around long enough to make it to the end, they do become slightly more interesting and/or sympathetic. Unfortunately, far too much of the book is spent with unlikeable characters who only reveal questionable past actions, or ciphers who hold their mysteries (and personalities) too close to their chests.

One of the most glaring problems this book faces is its striking similarity to a certain late, lamented scifi/western TV series about a band of misfits running from the law in their ramshackle spaceship. You know how Amazon recommends similar products on their pages? Here it doesn’t quite apply. If you liked Firefly, you’ll probably have a hard time escaping unfavorable comparisons when reading this book. With better character development and more detailed world-building, Retribution Falls might have risen above such easy accusations of similarity, but as it is it reads more like a pale imitation of better things.

Strangely enough, despite the tone of this review, when I was done with the book I felt like I might be interested in reading another installment in this series, in the hopes that later volumes would tighten up the storytelling and better develop returning characters. Ultimately, the honest truth is that if this was a library book I probably would have returned it unfinished after reading fifty pages. I really only gave it a chance to redeem itself because it was a review copy.

Kirsten Simkiss

Steampunk usually just isn’t my genre, but I went into this book with an open mind. The technology is usually so irrational (at least in regards to the costumes) that I could never really get into it. However, technologically speaking, I actually enjoyed the concepts quite a bit.

However I felt that the world was open ended and wholly unexplained. You need an open port to avoid someone? Sure! Just toss it in! The map is never truly explained anyway. Is it earth? Is it a different planet? It’s impossible to know, unfortunately, because it’s never stated.

It took me a while to like any of the characters. As they developed trust with each other, I did grow more endeared to them, but it took a heckuva long time. Usually there’s at least one character I like more than the others, but all the characters are on the same level for me in this book. I’m just glad I didn’t end the book hating them.

I also don’t love how there are only three women in the entire book: the bad ass super chick with the super mysterious past, the lovebird, and the scorned bitch. Seriously, that’s all you get. Oh, but you get a wide variety of male characters that are recurring in various roles and professions and backstories. I was a little frustrated there. It reminded me of the Amber Heard routine about female stereotypes, seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACM1k...

I did really enjoy the action. I thought the ship fights and strategic moves of the protagonists was the most successful thing by far in the book. I also liked the concept of Retribution Falls being a sky pirate Libertalia.

All in all, I give it a solid three stars. There were things that were very successful and things I felt could use a lot more polishing, but in the end I did enjoy it. I’m glad I was able to get into a steampunk book and give it an honest chance.

This is absolutely an adult book and I do not recommend it to anyone who might be touchy about sex or firefights. I would more recommend this to less religious people who wouldn’t be offended by the characters and their natures, which are pretty close to real pirates.

Sarah Escorsa

BR with the BBB gang starting November 27, 2015.

I read this book while buddy reading The Chronicles of the Black Company. BAD idea. The series is so mind-blowingly awesome that any book pales in comparison.

♦ Retribution Falls – What should have been ♦

This book was a 5-star rating waiting to happen. Why? Because sky pirates + inveterate womanizer/rogue mc + gang of dysfunctional misfits =



The mere presence of Captain Frey, our resident rogue, should have triggered this Pavlovian response in me: BAM! Kidnapped!



► I'm afraid this didn't quite work out as expected. Sigh.

♦ Retribution Falls – What actually was ♦



→ Yes, even Batman is sad.

The book isn't badly written, it's not uninteresting, it's not boring. And it actually meets most of my OMG I'm In Love Requirements:

✔ Fantastic, original premise!
✔ Great world building!
✔ Interesting plot!
✔ Fast pace!
✔ Lots of action!
✔ Cool aerial fights!
✔ Potentially awesome cast of rascals and villains! ← there might be a hint there. A hint that starts with "p" and ends with "y" ← just pointing this out in case you hadn't noticed ← you're welcome.
✔ Great banter!
✔ A rum-drinking cat and a delightfully charming golem!

What went wrong? The potentially awesome cast of characters wasn't awesome. Far from it. The potentially awesome cast of characters was bland. The potentially awesome cast of characters was flat. The potentially awesome cast of characters was as emotional as a truckload of bricks. The characters are one-dimensional. They lack complexity and depth. They feel distant and detached, which makes it nearly impossible to connect with them.



This book is a lesson in bad characterization. Wood tries to explain the characters' past and present behaviours at length. He tries so hard that he makes a mess of it. You end up feeling confused as hell. What are the characters' motivations? No freaking idea. What drives them? If anyone figures it out, please let me know. How are you supposed to care about a cast you can't connect with, and don't understand? Beats me.



→ NO, this is not a picture of my little self, people. It's just a lady with greying hair making a face. Then again I might be lying, this might actually be me. Who knows? By the way, am I the only who thinks this woman-who-might-or-might-not-be-my-little-self should have been cast in one of the Harry Potter movies? I am? Okay, never mind.

►► And the moral of this review is:
① This book should have been epic. But it wasn't.
② The characters in this book should have been an awesome gang. But they weren't.

►► And the moral of the moral of this review is:
Characterization is crap but the world and story were pretty cool, so I'm going to give book 2 a try. Optimism is me.



→ NO, this is not a picture of my little self, people. It's just a horribly optimistic guy with a ridiculous mustache, giving the thumbs up with disgusting glee. Then again I might be lying, this might actually be me. Who knows?

· Book 2: The Black Lung Captain ★★★★ 
· Book 3: The Iron Jackal ★★★
· Book 4: The Ace of Skulls ★★

Sandrin

Michael Cowell

Jon Dubielzyk

Vince Nguyen

Pam Sartain

Chris

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 . . .

Daniel Kirwan

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 ...

Retribution Falls

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