The Chris Wooding Thread

[YellowDogJen]

Well, you gotta get past my girlfriend first. And she works at the Imperial War Museum, so she has access to artillery :stunned:

Well...it could be like the escape from the Mentenforth Institute, couldn't it?

Is her name Samandra, by any chance? :P

(Seriously, though...I love your work. I've read The Fade and The Braided Path and of course The Ketty Jay books and I think you're great. I guess I'll start picking up your YA stuff next. Thank you, man! You've given me hours of great entertainment - and I am thrilled I tell you, thrilled that you took the time to reply to my little post.)

I am old enough to be your mom, btw!

[Chris Wooding]

Aw, thank you. And don't worry: true love knows no boundary of age! If you're young enough to dodge a Howitzer it's all good :laugh:

[Garlan the Gallant]

I've just blitzed through the first two Ketty Jay books and moved straight to the third novel. I've had Mr. Wooding's novels on my to-read list for a while now and if I had any clue that they would be this well written, engaging, original, and funny I would have realized that waiting all this time was a BIG mistake. I mean, you can't get much better writing than the Slag POVs. Just brilliant writing there. I plan to read all of Mr. Wooding's other novels after I finish up with the Ketty Jay series. I am sad that the fourth one will be the final novel of the series. However, I think its quite admirable for Mr. Wooding to end the series before it goes stale. Very smart.

On a side note: is Silo supposed to look very much different from a human of African-lineage. I'm reading a physical copy of the novels and don't have the advantage of an e-book's search function.

[Chris Wooding]

Glad you like 'em. As to Silo, I always picture him with more Arabian features, if anything. But then the races on Atalon don't conform exactly to human races, so for example Murthians aren't just African people with a different name (or Arabs, or anything else). There might be broad similarities to cultures, but the mix of features and skin colours can't be easily mapped on to human equivalents.

[Werthead]

So if this is the final book, does that mean we finally get a map, Chris? :)

[Chris Wooding]

Maaaaaybe you will. Can't see the need for one myself, though. Break the evil stranglehold of maps, people! You don't need to trace the line of the quest with your finger for it to be real! :laugh:

[red snow]

while maps are nice, I don't think this series desperately needs one. Even though the crew are darting around a lot the story tends to be on one place at a time and the descriptions and rough locations of continents in the text do for me. If the narrative were to split with things happening all over the place, I'd be more inclined for there being a map.

I wonder how book 4 is changing now that it's the final book? I'm guessing quite a bit.

[Chris Wooding]

Nah. I realised it was going to be the final book when I was in the early planning stages, so it's all mapped out. I knew how I intended to pull the series together pretty much from the start. The reason this is the last book is that I realised that this was the last book where I could pull it all together in one; after this the story would just be too sprawling to tie everything up in a single volume.

[red snow]

Nah. I realised it was going to be the final book when I was in the early planning stages, so it's all mapped out. I knew how I intended to pull the series together pretty much from the start. The reason this is the last book is that I realised that this was the last book where I could pull it all together in one; after this the story would just be too sprawling to tie everything up in a single volume.

I've heard a few authors realise their final book ends up being too big for a single volume. I'm relieved you noticed this in the planning stages. I like how the series has been "stand-alone" so far and it would have been a shame to get two books covering one story.

That said, I imagine "Ace of skulls" is going to be pretty chock-full if it is concluding the series. Don't go spoiling things, but I guess we should at least suspect the much hinted new Aerium war.

[Lyanna Stark]

Right so after I finished the "heavy reading" of this summer (ye olde classics, tomes on military history) I finally got my teeth into "The Black Lung Captain" and "The Iron Jackal" and had a great time reading both. Excellent pacing, witty dialogue, sympathetic characters who despite the rapid plot development actually manage to also get page time to develop and grow, which is no small feat.

(Here comes the angry feminist critique!! which is perhaps...not particularly angry.)

I especially like how Trinica who was introduced as a pure villain has got an almost complete turnaround, and it really makes her character more interesting that she has her own motivations for her actions and issues she has to deal with. It's quite easy to make female characters fall into the femme fatale love interest category, but I think Trinica still stands on her own two feet and manages to be capable but still with flaws.

Ashua was a nice addition as well since she's not superpowered like Jez or an automaton like Bess (which she herself lampshades a bit by commenting on being the third most lethal female on the Ketty Jay). Once again a woman who is capable but not without flaws and weaknesses. The same goes for Jez, I thought, despite landing in the woman with superpower category, at least for her it has consequences and it definitely isn't some sleek, feminine type of superpower either. In fact, it's rather liberating to read novels where the women in general are more murderous and callous than the men. The only other novel I can think of when that is just a fact and not really treated as something special is Joe Abercrombie's "Best Served Cold" where Monza is all sorts of cold, ruthless and murderous but you still end up rooting for her.

The only thing that I can possibly complain about is that it doesn't pass the Bechdel test***. Women don't talk to eachother about other things than men, if they converse at all. Hopefully the addition of Ashua will add more female characters to the story which will enable women talking to other women.

For a swashbuckler series (well, a shorthand description anyway) I think the Ketty Jay novels manage surprisingly well when it comes to portraits of women. I'm sure analyses of Captain Frey can be made that aren't all too flattering, but he's also not portrayed as a stand up member of society and gender equality either (nor that his failings in this regard are positive traits), so that's not really a problem.

Oh and can I just add that I loved how Ashua refused to be treated as a possible love/sex interest? It's rare for women in novels to just go "No" and simply mean it in such a straight forward fashion.

All in all I can't wait for the next instalment and I really want to know if Samandra Bree will punch poor Crake's lights out once more.

***Yes, I know the Bechdel test is not always correct and a very blunt instrument to use, but it can still be a useful tool to bring out and at least examine the results of.

[williamjm]

In fact, it's rather liberating to read novels where the women in general are more murderous and callous than the men. The only other novel I can think of when that is just a fact and not really treated as something special is Joe Abercrombie's "Best Served Cold" where Monza is all sorts of cold, ruthless and murderous but you still end up rooting for her.

There are a couple of good examples of this in Wooding's Braided Path series as well.

[RedEyedGhost]

There are a couple of good examples of this in Wooding's Braided Path series as well.

Most definitely. And the women keep talking to each other about things other than men.

[dornish prince]

in case i missed it upthread or some have read some of it in the meantime, what say the board about the weavers of saramyr. i'll be finishing the black lung captain and a betrayal in winter (by that other poster daniel abraham) at roughly the same time. i'm planning on going through both of their bibliographies by year's end...lots of good reading ahead; but i'm wanting to save the iron jackal until the ace of skulls is published.

so...i figure that you can all share some non-spoilery stuff with me in order to make my final decision. should i read some of his other works instead?

[SkynJay]

I enjoyed it. I called it x-men in quasi- feudal Japan at the time, and it semi-sticks. I think Wooding has improved quite a bit since it, but the whole weaver concept is still pretty cool.

[RedEyedGhost]

in case i missed it upthread or some have read some of it in the meantime, what say the board about the weavers of saramyr. i'll be finishing the black lung captain and a betrayal in winter (by that other poster daniel abraham) at roughly the same time. i'm planning on going through both of their bibliographies by year's end...lots of good reading ahead; but i'm wanting to save the iron jackal until the ace of skulls is published.

so...i figure that you can all share some non-spoilery stuff with me in order to make my final decision. should i read some of his other works instead?

I read all three this year, and really enjoyed them. They're definitely different than his Tales of the Ketty Jay, and while they're not as good they're still very much worth reading. The ideas and world are extremely cool, but the characters aren't as intriguing nor are the stories as fast paced.

[williamjm]

in case i missed it upthread or some have read some of it in the meantime, what say the board about the weavers of saramyr. i'll be finishing the black lung captain and a betrayal in winter (by that other poster daniel abraham) at roughly the same time. i'm planning on going through both of their bibliographies by year's end...lots of good reading ahead; but i'm wanting to save the iron jackal until the ace of skulls is published.

I read the Braided Path trilogy earlier this year. It's very different in tone to the Ketty Jay books so it's difficult to compare the two, it's probably closer to ASOIAF in many respect (although obviously a lot shorter). While I preferred the Ketty Jay books I did like the series, it's an interesting setting and there are some memorable characters in it.

[Werthead]

in case i missed it upthread or some have read some of it in the meantime, what say the board about the weavers of saramyr. i'll be finishing the black lung captain and a betrayal in winter (by that other poster daniel abraham) at roughly the same time. i'm planning on going through both of their bibliographies by year's end...lots of good reading ahead; but i'm wanting to save the iron jackal until the ace of skulls is published.

so...i figure that you can all share some non-spoilery stuff with me in order to make my final decision. should i read some of his other works instead?

The Braided Path is very good and The Fade (a - gasp! - stand-alone) is absolutely superb, so yes :)

[RedEyedGhost]

Hark! There is news o'er yonder on Chris's blog.

Yes, you heard me. The Ace of Skulls is done. In fact, the whole Ketty Jay series is done. To see it all come together at the end, payoffs that have been five years or so in the making, it’s all rather spooky. All those characters I’ve had in my head all that time. Wow.

I might just have to find time to reread these before the final book comes out...

[peterbound]

When, the fuck, is the Iron Jackal going to get published over here? Enough already!

[beniowa]

Chris said back in November that another publisher, Titan Books, will be finishing off the series for us American readers. No idea when they'll be printing them though.

No way I'm going to wait that long for Ace of Skulls so I'll be ordering international.