Books 2011: airships and exquisite timing
Jul. 19th, 2011 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbBooks 2011: 95-97
95. Chris Wooding, Retribution Falls.
Spoilers.
First published in the UK in 2009, and re-released earlier this year for the US market, Retribution Falls is a tale of airships and pirates, double-crosses and ne'er-do-wells, Cool Shit (tm) and banter, and Things That Go BOOM! in the most entertaining possible way.
Darian Frey, rakehell, screw-up, occasional smuggler and small-time pirate, is captain of the airship Ketty Jay. His small and highly dysfunctional crew is composed of alcoholics, terminal fuck-ups, and people with nowhere else to go. So far, they've managed to keep scraping a living together, and when the chance for a really big score comes along - a cargo airship, allegedly carrying jewels - Frey can't resist.
But the airship is rigged to blow, and when it explodes, Frey finds himself at the top of the Most Wanted list. Because what the ship was carrying wasn't jewels, but an Archduke's only son. In order to survive, he needs to find the person truly responsible, all the while avoiding the Navy, the Century Knights, and hired bounty-hunters - whose number includes the terrifying pirate captain Trinica Dancken, with whom Frey shares something of a past.
This is a tight, fast-paced book. It hooks you from the opening pages and just keeps racing along in hails of bullets, bloody fights, and banter, in an atmosphere remniscent of some 19th-century frontier. We're introduced to all of Frey's crew in short order: the wanted daemonist Grayther Crake, the new navigator Jez - who hides a dangerous secret - Malvery the alcoholic surgeon, Silo the engineer, the flyboy Pinn and the terrified pilot Harkins, and the golem Bess - and almost as soon as they appear, they're involved in a firefight.
There's a lot of interesting detail hiding in the background. Daemonism - magic, but practically outlawed - and the recent history of this world of airships and politics, pirates and Century Knights. The characters are well-drawn, rounded people. And Frey, while he starts out as a charismatic amoral rogue, undergoes significant character growth. He doesn't end up as admirable, by any stretch of the imagination, but I liked him rather more by the end than at the beginning.
Retribution Falls is really quite brilliant - it even deserves the adjective rollicking, because it's one hell of a ride.
(And if someone ever makes a miniseries of it for the television, I am so there. Because Cool Shit. And explosions!)
96. Chris Wooding, The Black Lung Captain.
I'm supposed to review this properly in this autumn's Ideomancer, so for now I'll content myself with saying that, as a sequel to Retribution Falls (which could easily stand alone), it is another step up in impressive, pacey Cool Shit with good characters.
97. Kevin Hearne, Hammered.
Third book in the Iron Druid series. This time, druid Atticus Sullivan is taking on the Norse god Thor in another fast-paced, amusing urban fantasy, complete with ominous omens and battles in Asgard. Entertaining, though light.
Today, I triumphed over the evil that is clothes shopping and successfully purchased shorts that fit. I celebrated this by going to the gym.
Running: 0.6 miles in 5 minutes, 1.75 miles in 20:50. Cycling: 4K in 16:00. Ten minutes of bouldering.
95. Chris Wooding, Retribution Falls.
Spoilers.
First published in the UK in 2009, and re-released earlier this year for the US market, Retribution Falls is a tale of airships and pirates, double-crosses and ne'er-do-wells, Cool Shit (tm) and banter, and Things That Go BOOM! in the most entertaining possible way.
Darian Frey, rakehell, screw-up, occasional smuggler and small-time pirate, is captain of the airship Ketty Jay. His small and highly dysfunctional crew is composed of alcoholics, terminal fuck-ups, and people with nowhere else to go. So far, they've managed to keep scraping a living together, and when the chance for a really big score comes along - a cargo airship, allegedly carrying jewels - Frey can't resist.
But the airship is rigged to blow, and when it explodes, Frey finds himself at the top of the Most Wanted list. Because what the ship was carrying wasn't jewels, but an Archduke's only son. In order to survive, he needs to find the person truly responsible, all the while avoiding the Navy, the Century Knights, and hired bounty-hunters - whose number includes the terrifying pirate captain Trinica Dancken, with whom Frey shares something of a past.
This is a tight, fast-paced book. It hooks you from the opening pages and just keeps racing along in hails of bullets, bloody fights, and banter, in an atmosphere remniscent of some 19th-century frontier. We're introduced to all of Frey's crew in short order: the wanted daemonist Grayther Crake, the new navigator Jez - who hides a dangerous secret - Malvery the alcoholic surgeon, Silo the engineer, the flyboy Pinn and the terrified pilot Harkins, and the golem Bess - and almost as soon as they appear, they're involved in a firefight.
There's a lot of interesting detail hiding in the background. Daemonism - magic, but practically outlawed - and the recent history of this world of airships and politics, pirates and Century Knights. The characters are well-drawn, rounded people. And Frey, while he starts out as a charismatic amoral rogue, undergoes significant character growth. He doesn't end up as admirable, by any stretch of the imagination, but I liked him rather more by the end than at the beginning.
Retribution Falls is really quite brilliant - it even deserves the adjective rollicking, because it's one hell of a ride.
(And if someone ever makes a miniseries of it for the television, I am so there. Because Cool Shit. And explosions!)
96. Chris Wooding, The Black Lung Captain.
I'm supposed to review this properly in this autumn's Ideomancer, so for now I'll content myself with saying that, as a sequel to Retribution Falls (which could easily stand alone), it is another step up in impressive, pacey Cool Shit with good characters.
97. Kevin Hearne, Hammered.
Third book in the Iron Druid series. This time, druid Atticus Sullivan is taking on the Norse god Thor in another fast-paced, amusing urban fantasy, complete with ominous omens and battles in Asgard. Entertaining, though light.
Today, I triumphed over the evil that is clothes shopping and successfully purchased shorts that fit. I celebrated this by going to the gym.
Running: 0.6 miles in 5 minutes, 1.75 miles in 20:50. Cycling: 4K in 16:00. Ten minutes of bouldering.
