DNF Review – Retribution Falls (Tales of Ketty Jay, Book 1) by Chris Wooding (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Steampunk
Length: 480 pages
Publisher: Spectra
Release Date: April 26, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0345522511
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Tales of Ketty Jay series
Source: Swapped through Paperbackswap.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Sky piracy is a bit out of Darian Frey’s league. Fate has not been kind to the captain of the airship Ketty Jay—or his motley crew. They are all running from something. Crake is a daemonist in hiding, traveling with an armored golem and burdened by guilt. Jez is the new navigator, desperate to keep her secret from the rest of the crew. Malvery is a disgraced doctor, drinking himself to death. So when an opportunity arises to steal a chest of gems from a vulnerable airship, Frey can’t pass it up. It’s an easy take—and the payoff will finally make him a rich man.

But when the attack goes horribly wrong, Frey suddenly finds himself the most wanted man in Vardia, trailed by bounty hunters, the elite Century Knights, and the dread queen of the skies, Trinica Dracken. Frey realizes that they’ve been set up to take a fall but doesn’t know the endgame. And the ultimate answer for captain and crew may lie in the legendary hidden pirate town of Retribution Falls. That’s if they can get there without getting blown out of the sky.”

This is the first book in the Ketty Jay series by Wooding. Way back, I was a huge Chris Wooding fan and I have read almost everything else he’s written. However, this book was just not for me. I have started reading this book a few times and couldn’t get past the first chapter. I decided this time to try and power through. I ended up making it about 80 pages in and just gave up. It’s not that this is a bad book; it just had a lot of things in it I didn’t like and the writing didn’t flow very well so I struggled to read it.

I kind of knew right away I was going to struggle with this one. It starts out with smugglers and gunfights; a very western feel to it. Then they escape on an airship and what follows is a series of the smugglers trying to pick up jobs and having near misses that involve plane fights, airship battles, and escapes.

I have never been a fan of books that are very “ship” based. I know this is a bit weird, but books that take place on airships or normal water dwelling ships have never been my thing. I am also not a huge fan of the constant run and chase interrupted by gunfights scenario. There just wasn’t enough story here.

The world presented is interesting. There were a ton of characters introduced right away, which was a bit tough to keep track of. I think they have potential to become interesting characters given more page space; but at the point I stopped reading they were more characterizations than actual characters.

The writing quality was okay; it doesn’t flow all that well but is readable.

Overall this book just wasn’t my thing. If you are into western adventure stories with steampunk elements you might enjoy this. The story consists of many chases, airship battles, gunfights, and betrayals.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge