The Black Lung Captain

Where to even begin? Chris Wooding's RETRIBUTION FALLS is one of our favorite novels (which we reviewed here). The mixture of piracy, SF, and retro-future adventure won us over within the first five pages. The main character of that novel, Darian Frey (part Han Solo, part Malcolm Reynolds, all awesome) is the captain of the Ketty Jay. He is a pirate. A smuggler. A womanizer. We finished RETRIBUTION FALLS a few hours after it arrived in the mail. We needed more. Luckily, the sequel was already coming out fairly shortly. Wooding's second Ketty Jay novel, THE BLACK LUNG CAPTAIN arrived in the mail (love you Book Depository!!!!), and everything else in life came to a screeching halt so we could read it.

It's every bit as good as the first novel.

THE BLACK LUNG CAPTAIN starts with Frey and the crew of the Ketty Jay in a bad spot. They are all restless. They are being over-taken by their pasts. Even the most simple of heists--robbing a defenseless orphanage--has gone completely wrong.

Then comes the job offer. It's too good to be true, but aren't all the best jobs? There is an artifact in the wilds, behind a magically sealed door aboard a thousands-year-old wreck. The artifact? Worth fortunes. The danger? Astronomical. Does anything go right? Please. The dramatic problems and failures are what make this novel unspeakably fun.

Really, that is what THE BLACK LUNG CAPTAIN is all about. Fun. Adventure. Character development...wait, what? Character development in a story like this? Oh yes. Mainly this story is about Frey's and Jez's individual developments amidst the crazy gun-fights, and air-ship battles. We get the complete and total story about what Jez is, and it is fantastic. We see a deeper look into Frey, and what makes him who he is. Closure for Crake. Cats get punched. This novel really is full of complete awesomeness.

The flow of the writing is perfect, as is the pacing of the story. From action sequence to action sequence, everything is tight. There is one bit of eye-rolling convenience that is telegraphed half way through the novel, but it is easily forgivable considering the strength of the rest of the story.

Look, there really isn't much out there that is like THE BLACK LUNG CAPTAIN. It is one of the best adventure stories we have read since, well, RETRIBUTION FALLS. The only downside here is that the physical books are UK only. Don't let that stop you. This novel will have you turning the pages with glee, and fist-pumping in the air after you've finished it.

Recommended Age: 16 and up.
Language: Here and there, but nothing extreme.
Violence: Holy crap, yes! Jez, as Wooding most likely intended, becomes completely and utterly amazing.
Sex: Alluded to, but never shown.

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Posted in Books We Love , Chris Wooding , science fiction

Retribution Falls

Being the diligent readers that we are, we often browse through the import selection of various websites (imports to the US that is). After all, it is usually only a matter of time before the book get published here. But, every now-and-again, we get a tad impatient (We want books NAO!). This was the case with Chris Wooding's RETRIBUTION FALLS.

It's hard to say what genre RETRIBUTION FALLS, uh, falls under. It is SF, with some magic, and religion, and a retro-futuristic world, airships, pirates, gun-fights, sword-fights, and dog fights. It is truly a mix of everything. Usually, this is a recipe for disaster. Wooding, on the contrary, makes it dang-near perfect.

How about we walk you through just the first few chapters. We start with an escape from a hostage situation, then a gun-battle on some airship docks, and then an airship/fighter-plane-thing dog fight sequence. This is in the first 50 pages. Yeah. Full of win.

RETRIBUTION FALLS tells the story of Frey, the caption of the Ketty Jay, an airship. As with most pirate-ish novels, Frey and his crew are small-time smugglers and pirates--a glorified black market delivery crew. You could probably guess that when they take a job that should give them an easy paycheck, things go absurdly bad. Airships explode, people die, and the crew of the Ketty Jay is framed for it. A standard plot, more or less. The execution of it is what rocked our worlds.

Do you remember the first time you saw Han Solo? His devil-may-care attitude, blowing the crap out of Greedo (Han shot FIRST!), and introducing the whiny Luke to the Millennium Falcon really sold us on how awesome Han was. This is very similar. Frey is our story's Han Solo, and the Ketty Jay is very much the Millennium Falcon. He has a full complement of crew on board, and they all are (obviously) running from something. We have a fighter pilot, a doctor, a daemonist (summons daemons and can attach them to things to enchant them), a golem (courtesy of the daemonist), and many more. Every character has a place, and they all either grow tremendously over the course of the novel, or they suffer extreme personal consequences due to the events that transpire. We loved every single character--a rarity for us.

The pacing, true to an adventure-like novel, was crazy fast the entire time. Action scenes bleed into more action scenes, with political intrigue and humor tying them together. Joe Abercrombie has a cover quote on the front cover, and really that should tell you all your need to know about the action and pacing. But don't mistake this for a balls-out, action-only popcorn read. There is some serious political and religious foundation building going on here. There are some very powerful character moments as well.

RETRIBUTION FALLS is the best adventure story we have read in years. Go read it, and when you finish, check your reflection in a mirror. You are bound to see a huge smile on your face. Chris Wooding has given us a series worth following. A series, you ask? Oh yes, a wonder series of retro-SF adventure pirate novels (you KNOW that sounds effing awesome). The sequel comes out shortly in the UK. We suggest you go import book 1, and preorder book 2, BLACK LUNG CAPTAIN.

Recommended Age: 16 and up.
Language: There is some, and every so-often it gets strong, but nothing you don't expect from smugglers/pirates.
Violence: Oh yes, and it is in equal measures amazing, and heart-breaking. The action is awesomely executed from top to bottom.
Sex: Innuendo in action and dialogue. Nothing shown.

Chris Wooding's website--he is awesome, go tell him so:

http://www.chriswooding.com/

The Book Depository--the best place to import novels here to the US (you UK readers are obviously lucky, and get this stuff day one)

https://www.bookdepository.com/

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Posted in Books We Love , Chris Wooding , science fiction