jmschomers's review against another edition
5.0
I like this book more than the first even if it took longer to get going. I just love every member of the crew in their own way. Excited for the next.
jurgitasir's review against another edition
5.0
Sky pirates, daemons, secret devices. What's not to like about this. The second installment in The Ketty Jay tales was great fun to read. Fast paced adventure with a side of fun.
peter_xxx's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not sure if [a:Chris Wooding|81096|Chris Wooding|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1289250690p2/81096.jpg] is familiar with the roleplay system Savage worlds, but while reading this I found myself thinking of stats for some characters and figuring out how I would handle some of the situations in gamewise. This book has that nice pulpy high adventure mix of genres that Savage world is also known for. To be frank this whole book reads like someone's roleplay campaign where they combine Firefly, pirate lore, steam punk with a hint of horror. Nice characters, funny dialogue, larger then live action, betrayal, loyalty and stubbornness. I don't really understand why this is not yet optioned for a tv show. I would most certainly watch.
mferrante83's review against another edition
5.0
Black Lung Captain is the sequel to 2009′s Retribution Falls. For those who are unfamiliar with the title, which is probably everyone in the good old USA, it is sort of like the canceled-too-soon and much-beloved by rabid-fans television series Firefly, except instead of space it takes place in a fantastical setting with demons, magic, and airships. The second book in a series Black Lung Captain works surprisingly well as a standalone novel, though it does reference the events of the previous book, I’m of the opinion that the inferences and direct references to Retribution Falls are minor enough that reading that book first is not essential.
Black Lung Captain opens with a bang, with a heist gone wrong and a chase by crazed locals through the woods. Its a great little vignette that serves well to introduces to the somewhat hapless, lovable rapscallion that is Captain Darian Frey and his oddball crew. From their the plot quickly shifts as Darian and the crew of the Ketty Jay are hired by Captain Grist to explore the ruins of a downed airship deep in the jungles of an untamed continent and plunder its hidden treasures. Of course, all is not as it seems and chaos, adventure, excitement, and frequent chuckling ensues.
I don’t have too much to complain about with Black Lung Captain. Sure sometimes the drama slides a little close to melodrama, the action is frequently a bit over the top, and the plot unfolds at warp speed. But those aren’t really complaints in a novel like Black Lung Captain. This is a near pitch perfect fantasy adventure novel, swashbuckling and sorcery at its best. Standing at about 450 pages Black Lung Captain feels like a book about half that length and Wooding barely pauses for a quiet moment. For all its relentless pacing Woodring works in a fair amount of mostly seamless character growth with heroes and villains alike improving on their flaws. I particularly enjoyed the point of view from the Ketty Jay’s resident cat, Slag, it was a refreshing surprise, nicely handled, and worked well as light-hearted break from novel’s main plot (though later would prove integral to climactic final scenes).
Black Lung Captain isn’t a particularly deep novel but it is probably the most exciting and grin-inducing book I’ve read all year. The drama and crisis within and between characters over the early sections of the novel resolve themselves organically over the course of the novel and the resulting tempering those crises cause enhances the novel climax. In fact I enjoyed Black Lung Captain quite a bit more than I did Retribution Falls and unfortunatley, like Retribution Falls, it was acquired via import. As of now it looks like Retribution Falls is slated for a April 2011 release from Spectra, right now both Retribution Falls ($11) and Black Lung Captain ($18) are available from the UK via Book Depository with free shipping. If you’re at all interested in these book I highly highly recommend not waiting for idiotic US publishers to print the book two years after it has already been available.
Black Lung Captain opens with a bang, with a heist gone wrong and a chase by crazed locals through the woods. Its a great little vignette that serves well to introduces to the somewhat hapless, lovable rapscallion that is Captain Darian Frey and his oddball crew. From their the plot quickly shifts as Darian and the crew of the Ketty Jay are hired by Captain Grist to explore the ruins of a downed airship deep in the jungles of an untamed continent and plunder its hidden treasures. Of course, all is not as it seems and chaos, adventure, excitement, and frequent chuckling ensues.
I don’t have too much to complain about with Black Lung Captain. Sure sometimes the drama slides a little close to melodrama, the action is frequently a bit over the top, and the plot unfolds at warp speed. But those aren’t really complaints in a novel like Black Lung Captain. This is a near pitch perfect fantasy adventure novel, swashbuckling and sorcery at its best. Standing at about 450 pages Black Lung Captain feels like a book about half that length and Wooding barely pauses for a quiet moment. For all its relentless pacing Woodring works in a fair amount of mostly seamless character growth with heroes and villains alike improving on their flaws. I particularly enjoyed the point of view from the Ketty Jay’s resident cat, Slag, it was a refreshing surprise, nicely handled, and worked well as light-hearted break from novel’s main plot (though later would prove integral to climactic final scenes).
Black Lung Captain isn’t a particularly deep novel but it is probably the most exciting and grin-inducing book I’ve read all year. The drama and crisis within and between characters over the early sections of the novel resolve themselves organically over the course of the novel and the resulting tempering those crises cause enhances the novel climax. In fact I enjoyed Black Lung Captain quite a bit more than I did Retribution Falls and unfortunatley, like Retribution Falls, it was acquired via import. As of now it looks like Retribution Falls is slated for a April 2011 release from Spectra, right now both Retribution Falls ($11) and Black Lung Captain ($18) are available from the UK via Book Depository with free shipping. If you’re at all interested in these book I highly highly recommend not waiting for idiotic US publishers to print the book two years after it has already been available.
disabledbookdragon's review
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
ergative's review against another edition
3.75
Just as much fun as the first! It does suffer, just a smidge, from the token-girl-must-be-awesome trope, but the male characters are profoundly flawed in so many entertaining ways, while each having their own distinct strength to contribute which just barely makes them more an asset than a liability (but only just barely). I quite enjoy how everything the Ketty Jay does is basically lurching from one fuck-up to another, to the point that any time something is going just barely right for just a moment, I know that in the next line there's going to be an explosion, or a betrayal, or something's going to go catastrophically pear-shaped. Yes, fine, so it's predictable, but so enjoyably so!
goonerette's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
ephermeyal's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Sobrang, eww yung depiction ng mga "savages" sa isang jungle-ish area. V v disgusted while skimming past those parts. I continued reading though kasi the writing was overall fun pa rin, pacing ayos, and ang solid ng dynamic between the crew.
Godd the misogyny rankles din tho,,, pero there's enough trope subversion for me to feel that more on sa depiction sila ng characters than actual prejudice from the author but!! it's a very fine line kasi rn we only have a token woman sa crew :/, and they can only treat her as a person kasi she's not feminine ://.
Writing that down, it sounds really problematic kaya it's a testament to Chris' writing na despite all that, I was still able to immerse and enjoy the story + be attached to the characters.
Godd the misogyny rankles din tho,,, pero there's enough trope subversion for me to feel that more on sa depiction sila ng characters than actual prejudice from the author but!! it's a very fine line kasi rn we only have a token woman sa crew :/, and they can only treat her as a person kasi she's not feminine ://.
Writing that down, it sounds really problematic kaya it's a testament to Chris' writing na despite all that, I was still able to immerse and enjoy the story + be attached to the characters.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexism, and Racism
Minor: Slavery
sophiewilliams's review against another edition
3.0
Good development of the characters from the first book (especially developing the main character from smuggler to something more) and I enjoyed the fuller description of the worlds and the 'bad guys'. Wooding found the balance between making this a stand alone story and part of a series well in my opinion. There was enough explanation of the first book in the series scattered throughout that a new reader would have an idea what was going on, but not so much that a returning reader would be fed up with the repetition.