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Book Review of Retribution Falls (Tale of the Ketty Jay 1)

Retribution Falls (Tale of the Ketty Jay 1)
ophelia99 avatar reviewed on + 2527 more book reviews


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 âshipâ 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.