This book review was part of a podcast discussion.
Listen to the episode here.
Do you want a story with a crew of rogues with hearts of gold fighting against the corrupt government? Well this book is not that. The crew of the Ketty Jay are a crew of alcoholics and cowards. Captain Darian Frey is a womanizer, a bad pirate, and kinda just a bad person, and his crew are not much better. But they are all there for a reason and they do not talk about their individual pasts. Life was okay (if only okay) for the crew until the job that sounded too good to be true turned out—surprise—to be too good to be true. Now the crew of the Ketty Jay are some of the most wanted people on the continent. The first book in this series, Retribution Falls was not my favorite. It felt like a set up book, but the world and one character were interesting enough for me to continue to the second book which I enjoyed much more. I liked the character Jez, the character development at the end of the book, and that the crew are not all good people in a bad situation. For the majority of the book, though, I didn’t like Captain Frey.
Jez is the new navigator on board of the Ketty Jay, and I just loved her character and her story. Her mystery is part of the reason I continued on to the second book. The character development in the last act of the book was enjoyable and very much needed. Frey’s character annoyed me for most of the book, but at the end I was proud of him and the rest of the crew. The last thing I really enjoyed about the book was that all the characters were at or close to rock bottom. They are small time pirates just trying to live another day. There is a point where Captain Frey thinks of just stealing a treasure and not sharing it with his crew. I thought it was a fun idea of have characters start off at the very bottom.
My major complaint about this book was Captain Frey himself. While I liked having the characters be bad people, Captain Frey touched a nerve with me because he never took responsibility for anything for most of the book. I can deal with cowardice and evil but I just wanted him to stop blaming everything else for his problems.
The first book in this series was not, in my opinion, the best, but it still was a fun world. I enjoyed the second book much more and plan on continuing on to the third book. As the series goes on it feels more and more like Firefly, but with airships and corrupt religion instead of spaceships and a corrupt government.
South Carolina
I am new podcaster who has been enjoying the fantasy genre for many, many… many years. I will read most any fantasy book but high and steampunk are my favorite subgenres.
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