The Black Lung Captain

Executive Summary: After a bit of a slow start, I think I enjoyed this one slightly more than the first. Looking forward to get to book 3 soon.

Full Review
I originally came onto this series after a recommendation in a thread about books similar to Firefly. Two books in, I'm hard to agree with that. Sure you have a crew flying around ship, but that's about where the similarities end for me.

For one thing, the characters are far less likable in this series than on Firefly. I recall coming to like them a more by the end of the first book, but whether it was the gap of time, or their general selfishness, I found myself disliking them again at the start of this book as well. You have no real closeness between any of the characters at the start.

They aren't really friends or comrades, so much as a bunch of people with no other place to go. At least sometimes. There has definitively been developments in both the characters and their relationships as the series has gone on.

Despite all of that, it was still a fun an enjoyable book. I'm not really into Steampunk, but this is fairly light on that. I'm almost more inclined to call this flintlocke fantasy much of the time. You do have airships and various mechanical based magic though. Whatever it's subgenre may be, I find the world building fascinating.

There is plenty of politics and mystery. First, you have the religious cult-like Awakeners and their determination to wipe out all Daemonists and anyone who opposes them. However their political clout seems to waning.

That is no help for the secretive Daemonists however, who must still hide their study of magic from all but a few if they wish to live. Then there are the mysterious Mane. They are considered to be violent and dangerous, but what are their true motivations?

Finally you have the typical mysterious pasts of the various crew members. All of this adds depth and flavor to the main story of salvaging a valuable treasure on a downed airship. The pace of the story is fast and the writing is excellent.

Somehow Mr. Wooding keeps his hooks in me despite writing characters I have trouble liking and caring for. Much like the last book though, I think I'm coming around on them again. We'll see if that holds up in the next book, which I hope to read much sooner than I did this one. If you haven't checked this series out yet, I highly recommend it.

Another fast-paced adventure with the crew of the airship Ketty Jay. Honestly, my thoughts were all over the place as I was reading this book. At first, I thought it was going to be just like the first book in the series. Then I hit a certain clump of pages that was doing it's level best to draw me out of the book.

It was becoming what I was sure this series never would: boring. And not just that, but rather painful to read as well. Why? Because of the idiot Captain Darian Frey. It's easy to compare him to Mal Renyolds from Firefly - some might also compare him to Hans Solo and/or Indiana Jones. However, each of those guys have a benefit that Frey doesn't. They're on TV. Here, we are offered insight into Darian Frey's innermost thoughts. And let me tell you, he's my least favorite character in this book.

He really is an idiot, taking on the lovelorn role for what would typically be the leading lady. He is even a borderline (or maybe full-on) case of Too Stupid To Live. He makes bad decision after bad decision because of his ‘one true love'. He's also a bit of a sexist at times, noting a woman as being beneath his notice as female because he's ‘only paid attention to the pretty ones'. Indeed, it comes as something of a surprise to him when she actually acts like a woman instead of the ‘brother' he had thought of her as.

Urgh! This guy...

However, all was not lost. After I forced myself around the biggest chunk of writing that made me want to strangle Frey, the other characters started developing wonderfully.

The majority of the characters in this book have something to overcome. From the humorous and still heartwarming man that must overcome his fear of a certain cat to the woman that must deal with not being fully human to the man mourning a deceased relative, all these stories were handled wonderfully. And with a certain level of humor that kept things from being maudlin and depressing.

What I think I love most about these books though, is how everyone is dysfunctional and searching for a place to belong. People that will fight beside them because none of them truly fit in the world. And they've found friends and family aboard the Ketty Jay.

This is a book that, behind the Steampunk trappings and high adventure, is all about friends. That's almost enough to make me forget how badly I want to strangle our dear Cap't. Almost.

(Originally posted on my blog: http://pagesofstarlight.blogspot.com/)