The Chris Wooding Thread

[Relic]

Updates on the whole Retribution Falls thing: Spectra in the US (a division of Random House) are publishing Ret Falls and the Black Lung Captain, straight to MMP in October and November next year.

2011?

Bah.

Who wants to trade my copy of The Fade for their copy of Ret Falls?

[Werthead]

Robots? Where? :shocked:

Slight misremembering of

The whole spirit in the golem body thing. A reread before Book 2 may be in order ;)

[red snow]

Slight misremembering of

The whole spirit in the golem body thing. A reread before Book 2 may be in order ;)

Robots in disguise ;)

I was looking for the robots because of your comments resulting in me thinking

Jez was a robot for half the book

. You should get a job with MI6 in the art of misinformation.

[Jussi]

Amazon has a blurb for the third book in the Ketty Jay series, The Iron Jackal:

Vardia is descending into chaos. It's a great time to be a freebooter. The Archduke has evidence that incriminactes the Awakeners, a powerful religious sect, and he's determined to use it to bring them down. If they don't surrender their Imperators - half-confessor, half-inquistor, and just possibly half-daemon as well - then he has threatened to ban their religion, and have their Imperators executed on sight. But that Awakeners won't give up without a fight, half the country is on their side, and there's more than a hint of civil war in the air.

Never one to miss an opportunity, Captain Darien Frey has hit on a lucrative plan: robbing Awakener temples, and selling their relics back to them through the feared pirate, and former finacee, Trinica Dracken. Things are finally looking good for the Ketty Jay and her crew! ... until the Shaklemores, bounty hunters to the artistocracy, catch up with them, anyway.

They kidnap Crake, one of Frey's most valued crewmen, and vanish with him. Crake is wanted for murder - he has been for years - but is his kidnapping in the name of justice or is something altogether more sinister going on behind the scenes? If Captain Frey wants his man back, he and the Ketty Jay are going to have to find out - even if the quest leads them into the heart of the civil war, to the treason and invasion threat beyond.

[red snow]

Amazon has a blurb for the third book in the Ketty Jay series, The Iron Jackal:

Sounds good. I like how things seem to be descending into chaos, politically. I wonder when war with the other empire will kick off again? The ones who called off the aerium war despite having the upper hand.

We might also get a bit more daemon action/plot too if Crake is central. Only thing wrong with the blurb is that we know Crake and Frey survive book 2!

[Werthead]

The Black Lung Captain:

The crew of the Ketty Jay are down on their luck. A year after the events at Retribution Falls, Darian Frey is reduced to robbing an orphanage to keep his craft in the air. And when he can't even pull that off, it's clear that the crew need a lucky break. Enter Captain Grist of the Storm Dog and an offer that is too good to refuse: a mission to a hostile island to retrieve valuable artifacts from a civilisation dating back to before the dawn of time. The money is good, the opportunity for fame and glory huge. What can go wrong?

Obviously, the answer is a lot. The Black Lung Captain is the second volume in the Tales of the Ketty Jay series, following on from last year's excellent, Arthur C. Clarke Award-nominated Retribution Falls. Readers of that book will feel immediately at home here, as Wooding continues his Firefly-meets-steampunk story of a clapped out aircraft and its crew struggling to make ends meet in a hostile world of shady deals and, at the fringes of civilisation, hostile savages.

The Tales of the Ketty Jay series promises to be somewhat episodic, with this book seeing the crew of the Ketty Jay embarking on another adventure. However, character arcs and storylines are continued from the first book. Pleasingly, these aren't separated from the plot and in some cases are vital for the resolution of the story. Those who were left wondering about Jez's unusual heritage and abilities from the first book and the dark secrets of the tormented daemonologist Crake will find these stories continuing to unfold in this novel. In fact, there's enough references to the previous novel and the backstories of the main characters that it would be difficult to recommend readers to start with this novel. There is a particularly satisfying evolution of the character of Trinica Dracken and the recurring supporting characters of the Century Knights (who are interesting and strong enough characters to possibly warrant their own spin-off novel or series at some point in the future).

On the minus side, The Black Lung Captain does not feel as immediately fresh and vibrant as the first novel. The callbacks to the first novel are part of this, but more notable is the fact that, just as with Retribution Falls and indeed Firefly and many of the pulp books and adventures which inspired this series, there's a slight sense of predictability to events. The number of times our heroes are double-crossed, held at gunpoint, swap sides and so on is quite high, to the point where, by simply assuming that the worst possible thing will happen at every story turn, you can almost predict what will happen next, at least until the major twists in the plot start happening towards the end of the novel.

These are minor issues, however. The Black Lung Captain, like its forebear, is page-turning entertainment from start to finish, packed with aerial battles, chases, intrigue and hints of much bigger stories to come.

The Black Lung Captain (****½) will be published in the UK on 29 July. A US edition is in the works for next year, but the UK edition will be available on import much sooner.

[RedEyedGhost]

I'm glad to see that you liked it, Wert. I can't wait to read it myself.

A US edition is in the works for next year

The last I heard (I think in this thread) was that Retribution Falls isn't slated to come out here until fall 2011. So, unfortunately, I doubt this one will be out until 2012.

Import all the way for this American!

[red snow]

I don't often bother so much buying new books but this is on my list. It helps that the "hardbacks" are more like chunky stock paperbacks too and therefore not wrist destroying on the tube.

[Chris Wooding]

Ack! That blurb for Book 3 was a bit of an unwitting info-leak on Gollancz's part, actually. It's kind of spoilerrific at this stage, especially since hardly anyone's read Book 2 yet. Ah well...

Black Lung Captain comes out fall 2011 in the US as well: it's released the month after Retribution Falls. Spectra have expressed an interest in buying up The Iron Jackal & Book 4, so I'm sort of hoping that if that deal goes through then they'll tag The Iron Jackal on the end and publish in Dec 2011, following Ret Falls in October and The Black Lung Captain in November. (as was their original idea, I'm told, except I only had a 2-book contract with Gollancz initially so they only bought up 2 books). Anyways, that's out of my hands. Will update when I know more.

Thanks for the review, Wert! :thumbsup:

[RedEyedGhost]

Black Lung Captain comes out fall 2011 in the US as well: it's released the month after Retribution Falls. Spectra have expressed an interest in buying up The Iron Jackal & Book 4, so I'm sort of hoping that if that deal goes through then they'll tag The Iron Jackal on the end and publish in Dec 2011, following Ret Falls in October and The Black Lung Captain in November. (as was their original idea, I'm told, except I only had a 2-book contract with Gollancz initially so they only bought up 2 books). Anyways, that's out of my hands. Will update when I know more.

That's great to hear, Chris. I sang praises of Retribution Falls to my brother, but he didn't 'want to import another series from overseas'. Hopefully they sell like hotcakes (or something else that sells very well).

[Chris Wooding]

I'm amazed how often I've heard that, but I can never understand why. I have a similar thing at the moment with my YA books, where many of my US readers are waiting impatiently for the sequel to Malice to be pubbed in the US, despite the fact that it's already out in the UK and would shave about 6 months off their wait if they just bought it from overseas.

Tell your bro it costs, like, seven US dollars. Shipping included. That should sweeten the pot. :thumbsup:

[Relic]

Tell your bro it costs, like, seven US dollars. Shipping included. That should sweeten the pot. :thumbsup:

Ordered. Gracias.

[Chris Wooding]

De nada. Thanks yourself :P

Go Book Depository!

[red snow]

Thanks for the spoiler warning on book 3. I know Chris is working on screenplays too and I wonder whether "Ketty Jay" has ever been optioned for film or TV? Maybe too soon if the book hasn't hit the US yet.

With regards to americans not buying UK additions, it's maybe some patriotic, save OUR economy thing?

That or people are scared of some non-book depository charge (customs maybe). It's probably just that people ultimately don't like doing things outside their comfort zone and would rather wait 6-12 months to do an amazon order rather than an amazon.co.uk bookdepository order right away.

[Chris Wooding]

There was a lot of interest, but the UK Ret Falls came out right in the midst of the recession when the movie industry was pretty badly wounded and studios were in danger of collapsing. Not the time to make a $100m movie, I guess. Still, as you say, by the time it rolls round the US release things might well be different, off the success of Avatar etc.

[red snow]

There was a lot of interest, but the UK Ret Falls came out right in the midst of the recession when the movie industry was pretty badly wounded and studios were in danger of collapsing. Not the time to make a $100m movie, I guess. Still, as you say, by the time it rolls round the US release things might well be different, off the success of Avatar etc.

Fingers crossed interest picks up again. Aside from the cost Ret Falls should be relatively easy to adapt and it's self contained. It would have to be in 3D for the sky battles :)

[Chris Wooding]

Ooo! I just found out Spectra have moved forward their release dates for Retribution Falls and The Black Lung Captain for the US. New dates:

Ret Falls: 26th April 2011

BLC: 26th August 2011

Yay!

:read:

[Chris Wooding]

The heroic Pat has posted up the first chapter of The Black Lung Captain for you to feast your eyes on / roundly deride. Hurray! :laugh:

July 29th, people!

:rofl:

[pat5150]

AND: We'll also do a giveaway soon! ;) How about that!?!

Sadly, I have yet to receive an ARC of this one, which can only mean that I haven't bribed the right people... :smoking: And little me who really enjoyed Retribution Falls...

Guess I'll have to read some Dan Simmons or another scifi hack...

Patrick

[red snow]

The heroic Pat has posted up the first chapter of The Black Lung Captain for you to feast your eyes on / roundly deride. Hurray! :laugh:

July 29th, people!

:rofl:

Well I was about to buy it on amazon and got as far as the delivery option until they decided I'd either have to pay extra or wait for the other items to be released (some not out until August). I think I may get it from the bookdepostitory and pay the extra 90p on principal!